Content:
Edward Grier dates this notebook before 1855, based on the pronoun revisions from third person to first person and the notebook's similarity to Whitman's early
"Talbot Wilson"
notebook (
Notebooks and Unpublished Prose Manuscripts
[New York: New York University Press, 1984], 1:102). Grier notes that a portion of this notebook (beginning "How spied the captain and sailors") describes the wreck of the ship
San Francisco
in January 1854 (1:108 n33). A note on one of the last pages of the notebook (surface 26) matches the plot of the first of four tales Whitman published as "Some Fact-Romances" in
The Aristidean
in 1845, so segments of the notebook may have been written as early as the 1840s. Lines from the notebook were used in "Song of Myself" and "A Song of the Rolling Earth," which appeared in the 1856
Leaves of Grass
. Language and ideas from the notebook also appear to have contributed to other poems and prose, including "Miracles;" the preface to the 1855
Leaves of Grass
; "The Sleepers," which first appeared as the fourth poem in the 1855
Leaves
; and "A Song of Joys," which appeared as "Poem of Joys" in the 1860 edition.
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."
Content:
This manuscript bears some similarity in subject to the poem that became "Who Learns My Lesson Complete," though there does not appear to be any specific contribution of lines or phrases. In his transcription of this manuscript, Richard Maurice Bucke combined it with three other manuscripts: see nyp.00097, uva.00283, and uva.00134 (
Notes and Fragments
[London, Ontario: A. Talbot & Co., printers, 1899], 28–29). Though the subject matter is similar, the manuscripts do not appear to be continuous. The manuscript has been pasted down, so an image of the back of the leaf is unavailable.
Whitman Archive Title: Remember how many pass their
Content:
This manuscript bears some similarity in subject to the poem that became "Who Learns My Lesson Complete," though there does not appear to be any specific contribution of lines or phrases. In his transcription of this manuscript, Richard Maurice Bucke combined it with three other manuscripts: see nyp.00095, uva.00283, and uva.00134 (
Notes and Fragments
[London, Ontario: A. Talbot & Co., printers, 1899], 28–29). Though the subject matter is similar, the manuscripts do not appear to be continuous. The manuscript has been pasted down, so an image of the back of the leaf is unavailable.
Content:
Whitman revised this poetic fragment and used it in "Who Learns My Lesson Complete?" a poem that was untitled when it first appeared as the eleventh poem in the 1855 edition of
Leaves of Grass
. On the reverse (nyp.00734) is a list of words that Whitman might have used in composing two of the other poems for that edition.
Whitman Archive Title: The Great Laws do not treasure chips
Content:
This manuscript includes language similar to lines that appeared in two of the poems in the 1855 edition of
Leaves of Grass
, later titled "A Song for Occupations" and "Who Learns My Lesson Complete?" On the reverse (duk.00905) are cancelled lines, beginning "hands are cut," which later appeared, in a revised form, in "Faces," which was originally published as the sixth untitled poem of the 1855 edition of
Leaves of Grass.
Content:
This manuscript bears some similarity in subject to the poem that became "Who Learns My Lesson Complete," though there does not appear to be any specific contribution of lines or phrases. This leaf was evidently pasted to and then pulled away from another page; some fragments of that other page remain affixed to the top. In his transcription of this manuscript, Richard Maurice Bucke combined it with three other manuscripts: see nyp.00095, nyp.00097, and uva.00283 (
Notes and Fragments
[London, Ontario: A. Talbot & Co., printers, 1899], 28–29). Though the subject matter is similar, the manuscripts do not appear to be continuous.
Content:
These pages were written by Whitman in the early to mid-1850s. William White described the pages as "torn from a tall notebook" (
Daybooks and Notebooks
[New York: New York University Press, 1978], 773–777). White noted a relationship between these pages and the poems "Who Learns My Lesson Complete?," "By Blue Ontario's Shore," "Song of the Answerer," and "There Was a Child Went Forth." Some of the ideas and language being worked out here also appear in the poem eventually titled "Song of Myself." For a discussion of the dating and importance of this notebook, see Matt Miller,
Collage of Myself: Walt Whitman and the Making of Leaves of Grass
(Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2010), 11–16.
Content:
Whitman probably drafted this manuscript in the early 1850s as he was composing the first (1855) edition of
Leaves of Grass
. The lines do not have any known direct relation to Whitman's published poetry. At one point, however, the manuscript was almost certainly part of "The Great Laws do not" (duk.00264), which includes draft lines that appeared in that edition. On the back of this leaf (tex.00321) is a partial draft of the poem eventually titled "Faces." Both manuscript drafts were probably originally continuous with manuscript drafts on the leaf from which this leaf was cut.
