Physical Description: number of leaves unknown, handwritten
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Content:
A brief list, which Grier suggests could be trial titles for "Calamus.". However, this manuscript is specifically suggestive of "Roots and Leaves Themselves Alone," in which Whitman writes about "Breast-sorrel and pinks of love"—both phrases which can be linked to this manuscript. First published as "Calamus. 13" in
Leaves of Grass
(1860), this poem appeared in later editions of
Leaves of Grass
as "Roots and Leaves Themselves Alone", and with slight changes in the text. This manuscript is known only from a transcription published by Richard Maurice Bucke in
Notes and Fragments
(London, Ontario: A. Talbot & Co., printers, 1899), 164.
Content:
On pink leaf (21.5 x 13 cm), in black ink, with minor revisions in the same ink. A
few pinholes at top and near center. A pencil question mark appears in parentheses
in the upper-right corner. The number 52 appears to have been revised from 51.
After adding several verses, Whitman designated this poem section 13 of "Calamus" in the 1860
Leaves
, and, after dropping the first
two and last three lines of the 1860 version, permanently retitled it "Roots and Leaves Themselves
Alone" in 1867.
