Content:
An early notebook Whitman used for various purposes. William White, in his edition of Whitman's
Daybooks and Notebooks
(New York: New York University Press, 1978. 3 vols.), noted a relationship between rough drafts of poems in this notebook (called "An Early Notebook" in White's edition) and the 1860 poem eventually titled "Starting from Paumanok." On surface 54 is a passage that seems to have contributed to the 1860 poem that became "Song at Sunset." On surface 85 is a passage that perhaps contributed to the 1855 poem later titled "Song of Myself," and a passage on surface 62 might have been used in the 1856 poem eventually titled "Miracles." Because Whitman wrote entries from both ends of the notebook, the writing on about half of the leaves is upside-down in relation to other leaves. Some leaves have become disbound, and their original positions are uncertain. Our ordering is based on the earliest known transcription, done by Fredson Bowers in 1955.
Content:
Whitman numbered each of the six leaves, in pencil, in the upper right corner. In
the 1860 edition of
Leaves of
Grass
Whitman published this poem as section 8 of "Chants Democratic." In 1867, he
gave it the permanent title "Song at
Sunset" and moved it to the supplement "Songs Before Parting"; in 1871 it was finally
transferred to the cluster "Songs of
Parting" within the main body of
Leaves of Grass
.
Content:
Corrected pages, many originally appearing in the 1876
Leaves of Grass,
of cluster "Songs of Parting," containing 17 poems.
Opposite a portrait of Whitman, the title page reads, "Songs of Parting,
by Walt Whitman, The Poet's Corrected Proof." These corrections were
probably intended for the 1881–82 edition of
Leaves of Grass
. The 17 poems included
are: "As the Time Draws
Nigh,"
"Ashes of Soldiers,"
"Years of the
Modern,"
"Thoughts,"
"Song at Sunset,"
"My Legacy,"
"Pensive on Her Dead
Gazing, I Heard the Mother of All,"
"Camps of Green,"
"Bathed in War's
Perfume,"
"Now Finalé to the
Shore,"
"As they Draw to a
Close,"
"The Untold Want,"
"Portals,"
"These Carols,"
"To the Reader at
Parting,"
"Joy, Shipmate,
Joy!," and "So
Long."
