Content:
Manuscript with ideas for a poem, possibly "Salut Au Monde!" which was first published in
1856 as
"Poem of
Salutation." This scrap has been attached by a collector or
archivist to a backing sheet, together with "Companions."
Content:
Two pages of reading notes on various world religions and religious figures, based partly on Constantin-François Chasseboeuf comte de Volney's
Ruins; or Meditations on the Revolution of Empires
(Paris: Levrault, 1802). Edward Grier suggests that "the other material probably came from WW's reading in Bunsen or in magazines" (
Notebooks and Unpublished Prose Manuscripts
[New York: New York University Press, 1984] 6: 2024). Included are lists of names, definitions, quotations, descriptions, and dates. Many of the notes are written on small sheets of paper which have been glued to the larger sheets. Whitman drew upon this material explicitly in writing "Salut au Monde!," which was first published as "Poem of Salutation" in the 1856 edition of
Leaves of Grass
.
Whitman Archive Title: something that presents the sentiment
Content:
A line in this manuscript appears in a long manuscript poem unpublished in Whitman's lifetime, titled "Pictures." The first several lines of that poem were revised and published as "My Picture-Gallery" in
The American
in October 1880. The notes written in ink on this manuscript probably relate to the poem that was eventually titled "Salut au Monde!" first published as "Poem of Salutation" in the 1856 edition of
Leaves of Grass
. The earlier lines written in pencil may relate to the sixth poem in the first (1855) edition of
Leaves of Grass
, eventually titled "Faces." These connections suggest the manuscript was probably written in the early to mid-1850s. The manuscript is pasted down, so an image of the reverse is not currently available.
Content:
Fragment describing a "negro at daylight" giving "the Carolina yell," possibly related to the poem first published in 1856 as "Poem of Salutation" and later titled "Salut Au Monde!" Based on the handwriting, Edward Grier dates this manuscript fragment to the 1850s (
Notebooks and Unpublished Prose Manuscripts
[New York: New York University Press, 1984], 1:313). This scrap has been attached by a collector or archivist to a backing sheet, together with "'The Scout'," "Drops of my Blood," and "In a poem make the."
Content:
Ideas for a poem about various nationalities and ethnicities, suggestive of "Salut au Monde!"
which was first published as "Poem of Salutation" in 1856. This scrap has been attached by a collector or archivist to a backing sheet, together with "—Poem of Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana
and Illinois," and no verso image is available.
Content:
A list of European rivers, lakes, and cities, many of which were included in "Poem of Salutation" in the 1856 edition of
Leaves of Grass
. In the 1860 edition of
Leaves
, and in all subsequent editions, the poem was titled "Salut Au Monde!" On the reverse (duk.00029) are poetic lines that may relate to the first edition of
Leaves
.
Content:
This manuscript contains notes and draft lines that are related to a poem published first as "Poem of Salutation" in the 1856 edition of
Leaves of Grass
and later as "Salut Au Monde!" Whitman's use of the word "tabounshic" in this manuscript is unusual. He used it (spelled "tabounschik") only in the 1855 and 1856 editions of
Leaves of Grass
in the poem eventually titled "A Song for Occupations." In other respects, however, that poem does not appear to be related to these notes. The reverse side of the leaf (duk.00030) contains draft lines of the poem that was eventually titled "By Blue Ontario's Shore."
Content:
The recto notes represent an early stage of lines partially incorporated in "Poem of Salutation," the new
third poem in the 1856 edition of
Leaves of Grass
, which was permanently retitled
"Salut au Monde!" in the
1860 edition. If the note or title "Europe" suggests that Whitman might have first
intended to divide his salutations into discrete sections based on the different
continents, this is a plan he did not follow in the published version(s). The more
polished (but deleted) lines on the verso represent a recasting in poetic form of
several lines from the 1855 Preface. These were further revised for the
1856 "Poem of Many in One,"
after which the first verse drafted on this page (cut off here, and beginning
"over the Texan, Mexican, Florid[ian,]/ Cuban seas...") was dropped. The two
verses below this, however, were preserved relatively unchanged through the poem's
many transformations until the text was essentially fixed under the title "By Blue Ontario's Shore" in
1881.
Whitman Archive Title: [And as the shores of the sea I live near and love are to me]
Content:
These two verses represent a draft of lines that would be further revised and
incorporated in the new 1856 poem "Poem of Salutation," permanently retitled "Salut au Monde!" in the 1860
edition of
Leaves of Grass.
. A
plate mark can be clearly seen on the verso.
Content:
A phrase beginning "Picture of one of/ the Greek games" appears in the upper right
corner, delimited from the rest of the notes with two curved lines. The words
"Spanish bull fight" appear in their own semicircle (damaged by Whitman's cutting)
in the lower right corner. The lines seem to occupy a middle space between the
very early notebook poem "Pictures" and the 1856 "Poem of Salutation" (ultimately "Salut au Monde!"). Therefore, the date of this manuscript is likely before 1856.
Whitman Archive Title: [The circus boy is riding in the]
Content:
The verso lines (beginning with the individually deleted line "O Walt Whitman,
show us some pictures!" and continuing "America, always Pictorial!") represent a
later draft of the beginning of the poem "Pictures" than the most complete extant version, which
is contained in the pre-1855 "Pictures" notebook currently housed at Yale University. Critics have
dated the lines to around 1880, when Whitman was working on a short version of
"Pictures" both for
magazine publication and for the 1881 edition of
Leaves of Grass
, where it was published as "My Picture-Gallery." But
Whitman's early style of inscription in this draft, along with the line "It is
round—it has room for America, north and south" and his use of his own name in the
deleted first line, all suggest that Whitman may have inscribed this draft around
the same time that he was working on the new 1856
"Poem of Salutations"
(eventually "Salut au
Monde!"). This draft also suggests that at one point he may have considered
linking what would become "Poem of
Salutations" and the formally and thematically similar "Pictures" more directly. The
lines on the recto, divided by a horizontal line, refer to images of a circus boy
on a fleet horse and of watching those on a shore disappear. The relationship
between either of these lines and Whitman's published works is unclear.
Content:
This notebook, now lost, contains much draft material used in the 1855 edition of
Leaves of Grass
, in addition to a few images and phrasings that Whitman used in the second (1856) and third (1860) editions. As the folder title indicates, the notebook is currently represented by photocopied images of each page derived, apparently, from a microfilm of the original that was made in the 1930s prior to the notebook's disappearance from the collection during World War II. As Floyd Stovall has noted, the few datable references in this notebook (e.g., the fighting at Sebastopol during the Crimean War) are to events from about 1853 to late 1854, shortly before the first publication of
Leaves of Grass
. See Stovall, "Dating Whitman's Early Notebooks,"
Studies in Bibliography
24 (1971), 197–204. See also Edward Grier,
Notebooks and Unpublished Prose Manuscripts
(New York: New York University Press, 1984), 1:138–155. Surfaces 9, 10, 54, and 55 bear passages that probably contributed to the first poem of the 1855 edition, eventually titled "Song of Myself," and other material, on surfaces 26, 46, 51, 54, and 58, is clearly linked to the evolution of that poem. A passage on surface 23 is also perhaps related to its development. Surfaces 11 and 12 both have material probably used as fodder for the poem "Song of the Answerer," first published as the seventh poem in the 1855
Leaves.
A brief passage on surface 12 possibly contributed to the poem first published in 1860 as the fourth of the "Chants Democratic" and later retitled "Our Old Feuillage." Surfaces 13 and 46 contain drafts of passages used in the second poem of 1855, later titled "A Song for Occupations." Material on surfaces 24 and 47 probably also contributed to this poem. Passages on surfaces 17, 18, 40, 42, and 45 are likely early drafts toward lines used in "Poem of the Sayers of the Words of the Earth" (1856), which later became "A Song of the Rolling Earth." Surface 18 also bears writing probably related to the twelfth and final poem of the 1855
Leaves,
later titled "Faces." On surfaces 18, 24, and 51 are lines that might represent draft material toward "I Sing the Body Electric" (first published as the fifth poem of the 1855
Leaves
). Other passages, on surfaces 47 and 55, are likely related to that poem; those on surfaces 36, 37, 44, 45, and 47 are certainly related. Ideas and images written on surfaces 20 and 46 are likely related to the poem "Song of the Open Road," which first appeared as "Poem of the Road," and a passage on surface 24 may also be related. Two passages on surface 21 were used in the tenth poem of the 1855
Leaves of Grass,
later titled "There Was a Child Went Forth." Surface 22 contains writing probably used in "Sun-Down Poem" (1856), titled "Crossing Brooklyn Ferry" in later editions. Some of the writing on surface 24 might also have contributed to the development of that poem. Another passage on surface 22, as well as passages on surfaces 26, 47, and 60, are possibly related to the 1855 Preface. A different passage on surface 60 is clearly related to the Preface, and a passage on surface 45 is likely related to it. Two of the draft lines of poetry on surface 31 were used in the untitled third poem of the "Debris" cluster in the 1860 edition of
Leaves of Grass.
This poem was retitled "Leaflets" in 1867 and dropped from subsequent editions. The writing on surface 41 contributed to the 1856 "Poem of Salutation," which was eventually titled "Salut au Monde!" The jotting at the top of surface 43 is also likely connected to this poem.
Content:
A notebook Whitman used for various purposes in the mid-1850s. Edward F.
Grier, in his edition of Whitman's
Notebooks and Unpublished Prose
Manuscripts,
6 vols. (New York: New York University Press, 1984), 1:226–243, noted that the notebook contains lines and phrases that relate to
several poems: "Song of the
Broad-Axe,"
"Crossing Brooklyn
Ferry,"
"I Sing the Body
Electric,"
"Starting from
Paumanok,"
"A Song for
Occupations,"
"By Blue Ontario's
Shore,"
"Salut au Monde!,"
"To One Shortly to
Die," and "A
Woman Waits for Me."
Content:
Grouped with a collection of notes about Africa and Asia, this fragment notes that Russia "has 40 million of serfs, (or slaves)." With the paper suggesting a date of 1855 or 1856, this scrap may have been the impetus for Whitman's inclusion of "You Russian serf!" in his catalog of downtrodden peoples in "Poem of Salutation" in 1856; the poem would later be entitled "Salut Au Monde!" The reference to the "Russian serf" was dropped from the poem after the 1860 edition.
Content:
Grouped with a collection of notes about Africa and Asia, these two leaves contain notes about geographic locations and features, mostly in Africa. Many of the place names are included in the 1856 poem "Poem of Salutation," later retitled "Salut Au Monde!" At least two longer lines from the manuscript also find their way into that poem: "fresh-sunned Mediterranean, and from one to another of its islands" (becoming "clear-sunned" in the poem) and "black venerable vast mother, the Nile."
Content:
Notes on Africa. Whitman used some of the place names and a version of one of
the phrases here ("The fresh-sunned Mediterranean, and from one to another
of its islands") in the 1856
"Poem of Salutation,"
which was eventually titled "Salut au Monde!"
Content:
This manuscript contains notes by Whitman about what he calls "a very low kind of
human beings," "wild men," the "koboo," apparently described to Whitman by Elias
Pierson in June 1857. Pierson had been to China in the rebel army of Canton, and
had seen the aboriginal "koboo" people, as reported in the manuscript, in the
Ladrone islands, in the South China Sea off Canton. To reinforce the truthfulness
of Pierson's stories about the "koboo," Whitman mentions the fact that Captain
Walter Murray Gibson, who had also talked about the "koboo" people (possibly in
the book
Report, American Geographical
and Statistical Society. Monthly Meeting. March, 1854. Captain Walter M. Gibson
on the East Indian Archipelago: a Description of Its Wild Races of Men
,
published in 1854, and/or in
The Prison
of Weltevredin, and a Glance at the East Indian Archipelago
, published
in 1855), had affirmed that all his statements in the book were true and made in
good faith. Since the term "koboo" is used by Whitman in "Song of Myself" (the term
already appeared in the first published version of the poem, in the 1855
edition, and was retained in all the subsequent editions) and in "Salut au Monde!" (the term
appeared in the first published version of the poem in the 1856 edition and was
retained in all the subsequent editions), it is probable that Whitman first
learned about the "koboo" by reading Gibson, and then heard again about them from
Pierson. The manuscript also contains a clipping of a short newspaper column
entitled "The Wild Men of Borneo," and a short comment on it.
Content:
Pages of"Salut Au Monde!" as printed in the 1871–72 edition of
Leaves of Grass,
heavily corrected for publication in the 1881–82 edition This poem had originally been published in 1856 under the title "Poem of Salutation."
