Content:
The general sentiment expressed in this manuscript fragment and the reference to "proofs and diagrams" are reminiscent of the poem "When I Heard the Learn'd Astronomer." That poem was not published until its inclusion in
Drum-Taps
in 1865. Edward Grier dates this manuscript to "before or early in 1855," however, probably because of the draft lines on the reverse of the leaf, which contributed to lines in the 1855 and 1856 editions of
Leaves of Grass
. Grier, drawing from Richard Maurice Bucke's
Notes and Fragments
(1899), also adds a bracketed conclusion to this prose note: "[We are so proud of our learning! As if it were anything to analyze fluids and call certain parts oxygen or hydrogen, or to map out stars and call . . .]" (
Notebooks and Unpublished Prose Manuscripts
[New York: New York University Press, 1984], 1:164). These lines do not currently appear on the manuscript.
