Content:
Edward Grier suggests that this manuscript was probably written prior to 1860, noting some similarities in language and sentiment between it and the initial line of No. 4 of the "Thoughts" cluster published first in the 1860–1861 edition of
Leaves of Grass
(
Notebooks and Unpublished Prose Manuscripts
[New York: New York University Press, 1984], 1:118). The erased final line of the manuscript is also similar to language that appears in the preface to the 1855
Leaves of Grass
. The manuscript is held at Rutgers University Library along with several similar manuscripts that are numbered sequentially and probably date from around or before 1855: see "American literature must become distinct (rut.00010)," "dithyrambic trochee" (rut.00022), "The money value of real" (rut.00024), and "ground where you may rest" (rut.00025).
Content:
This manuscript was probably composed in the late 1850s or in 1860 as Whitman was preparing the 1860 edition of
Leaves of Grass
. It is a draft of No. 4 of the "Thoughts" cluster published first in the 1860 edition. In later editions, Whitman dispersed the individual lines, presenting them as separate poems or incorporating them into newly created poems. In the 1871–1872
Leaves of Grass
, the first line appeared as the initial line of "Thoughts [Of ownership]." In the 1881–1882 edition, the second line returned as "Thought [Of Equality];" and the third and fourth lines were titled "Thought [Of Justice]."
