Content:
Written in pencil on a small page from a notebook, on which is pasted a
clipping from a newspaper about the funeral of Signor Brignoli and the
reaction of Patti, pinned to an unmarked proof of "The Dead Tenor,"
thirty words: "I heard the earliest singing of Patti, (in 1860 if I
remember right)—heard her many times, Brignoli sang with her at her
first appearance in NY in 1859." The poem was first published in
1884.
Content:
Signed draft of "The Dead
Tenor," approximately 14 lines, written on several scraps
pasted together. A newspaper clipping with the death notice of
Pasquale Brignoli is pasted in the bottom lefthand corner. The poem was first
published on 8 November 1884 in the
Critic
and reprinted in the "Sands at Seventy" annex of
Leaves of Grass
(1891–92). Whitman was
inspired to write the poem by the death of Pasquale (or Pasqualino)
Brignoli (1824–1884), a tenor who made his New York debut in 1854 and
remained a popular favorite for twenty years. According to Horace
Traubel, Whitman appears to have known Brignoli. On the verso can be found various writings, including an earlier draft of The Dead Tenor, part of a letter to Whitman from Charles F. Blanch, and an unidentified prose jotting by Whitman.
