Content:
Lines and phrases on both the recto and verso of this manuscript contributed to portions of the poem eventually titled "Song of Myself," and possibly to other sections of the 1855
Leaves of Grass
, suggesting a composition date before 1855. However, this manuscript also includes lines that probably contributed to "Sun-Down Poem" (later retitled "Crossing Brooklyn Ferry") in the 1856 edition of
Leaves of Grass
. It is possible that some of these poetic lines contributed to the prose preface to the 1855 edition of
Leaves of Grass
. A line in this manuscript is similar to the following line, in the poem later titled "Song of Myself": "I am the mate and companion of people, all just as immortal and fathomless as myself" (1855, p. 17). Another line is similar to the lines "And nothing, not God, is greater to one than one's-self is" (1855, p. 53) and "And I say it is as great to be a woman as to be a man" (1855, p. 26). Another manuscript line is similar to the line "Maternal as well as paternal, a child as well as a man" (1855, p. 23). And several manuscript lines are similar to the lines beginning "Not merely of the New World but of Africa Europe or Asia . . . . a wandering savage, / A farmer, mechanic, or artist . . . . a gentleman, sailor, lover or quaker, / A prisoner, fancy-man, rowdy, lawyer, physician or priest" (1855, p. 24). Three other lines are similar to: "Storming enjoying planning loving cautioning, / Backing and filling, appearing and disappearing, / I tread day and night such roads" (1855, p. 38). Edward Grier speculates that Whitman's note "Don't forget the bombardment" relates to the "bombardment" of the "old artillerist" in "Song of Myself": "I am an old artillerist, and tell of some fort's bombardment . . . . and am there again" (1855, p. 40). (See
Notebooks and Unpublished Prose Manuscripts
[New York: New York University Press, 1984], 1:165). Several phrases of the prose on the verso were probably later used, in somewhat revised form, in the following lines from "Sun-down Poem" in the 1856 edition of
Leaves of Grass
: "The best I had done seemed to me blank and suspicious, / My great thoughts, as I supposed them, were they not in reality meagre? Would not people laugh at me?" (1856, p. 216). The poem was later titled "Crossing Brooklyn Ferry." It is possible that some of the poetic lines on the verso contributed to the prose preface to the 1855 edition of
Leaves of Grass
. The lines "I am too great to be a mere President or Major General / I remain with my fellows—with mechanics, and farmers and common people" may relate to the sentence from the preface that reads: "Other states indicate themselves in their deputies....but the genius of the United States is not best or most in its executives or legislatures, nor in its ambassadors or authors or colleges or churches or parlors, nor even in its newspapers or inventors...but always most in the common people" (1855, p. iii). The line "I remain with them all on equal terms" may also be related to the following line in the preface: "The messages of great poets to each man and woman are, Come to us on equal terms" (1855, p. vii). The line "In me are the old and young the fool and the wise thinker" may be related to a similar phrase in the poem eventually titled "Who Learns My Lesson Complete?": "The stupid and the wise thinker" (1855, p. 92). The phrase "mother of many children" appears in both the preface and in the poem later titled "Faces."
