Content:
Most of the lines in this manuscript amount to a poetic rendering of sentences and phrases drawn from the prose preface to the 1855
Leaves of Grass
and constitute a partial draft of the 1856 poem "Poem of Many In One," which eventually became "By Blue Ontario's Shore." The line at the bottom of this manuscript, partially cut away, was also drawn from the 1855 preface but was used in the 1856 poem "Liberty Poem for Asia, Africa, Europe, America, Australia, Cuba, and the Archipelagoes of The Sea," which Whitman titled, in its final version, "To a Foil'd European Revolutionaire." Draft lines on the back of this manuscript (upa.00005) also relate to the preface to the 1855
Leaves of Grass
.
Whitman Archive Title: [Was it thought that all was]
Content:
This manuscript appears to contain notes for a lecture, though it is uncertain whether Whitman ever used them for a lecture or a published prose work. Some of the phrasing in the last clause, regarding exiles, is echoed in the 1856 poem "Liberty Poem for Asia, Africa, Europe, America, Australia, Cuba, and The Archipelagoes of the Sea," which eventually became "To a Foil'd European Revolutionaire." "Notes for Lecture" is written at the bottom of the page in an unknown hand.
