Content:
The phrase "content to the ground," which is visually distinct from the other words on this leaf, appears in the poem eventually titled "Spontaneous Me." Some of the terms in the list at the bottom of the scrap were added to the poem eventually titled "A Song for Occupations" in 1856. In 1867, "blacksmithing" was also added, but two of the terms that are struck through on this manuscrpit ("saltmaking" and "arsenal") were dropped.
Content:
Several words from this manuscript ("loveroot," "silkthread," "crotch," and "vine") were used in the 1855 edition of
Leaves of Grass
, in the poem that was later titled "Song of Myself." Other lines and words became part of the opening lines of "Broad-Axe Poem" and "Bunch Poem" in the 1856 edition (later titled "Song of the Broad-Axe" and "Spontaneous Me"). The date of the manuscript is therefore probably before or early in 1855. This manuscript is pasted down, so an image of the back of the leaf is currently unavailable.
