Content:
A manuscript that discusses, in gendered terms, the relationship between the soul and "physical matter," describing the former as male and the latter as female. Although Whitman frequently addresses issues relating to the soul in his poems, there is no direct conncetion between the manuscript and Whitman's published work. Based on the handwriting, Edward Grier dates this manuscript to 1855 or earlier (
Notebooks and Unpublished Prose Manuscripts
[New York: New York University Press, 1984], 1:176).
