Content:
First published not in the 1860
Leaves of Grass
, but in the
separate publication
Passage to
India
in 1871. Whitman penciled in the note "Long Primer / middling
wide measure" in the upper left corner of the first leaf, and on the verso of the
second wrote and deleted (also in pencil) the note "The worship of God is,
honoring his gifts in other men, each according to his genius, & loving the
greatest men best. Those who envy or calumniate great men, hate God William
Blake[.]" After being bound with the rest of the
Passage to India
poems as a supplement to
Leaves of Grass
, in 1881 the poem was
permanently transferred to the cluster
Autumn Rivulets
within the main body of
Leaves of Grass
.
