Content:
Two lines of verse, with revisions. The relation of these
lines to Whitman's published poetry is uncertain, though in concept and
imagery they echo a passage from "The Real War will never get in the Books," a prose piece that appeared in
Specimen Days
(1882–83). There, the poet writes
that the war
was not a quadrille in a
ball-room.
The lines on the other side of the leaf, tex.00012, are for the
Drum-Taps
(1865) poem "A March in the Ranks
Hard-Pressed, and the Road Unknown."
Content:
A prose manuscript fragment tipped in a first edition copy of
Drum Taps
(1865). Though no lines from this manuscript can be traced directly to Whitman's published prose, this fragment shares a strong thematic connection with "The Real War will never get in the Books,"
Specimen Days & Collect
(1882–1883).
