Skip to main content

Catalog of the Walt Whitman Literary Manuscripts at the Clifton Waller Barrett Library of American Literature, Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library, University of Virginia

Original records created by the Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library; revised and expanded by The Walt Whitman Archive and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries. Encoded Archival Description completed with the assistance of the Gladys Kreible Delmas Foundation, the University of Nebraska Research Council, the Institute for Museum and Library Services, and the National Endowment for the Humanities.




Individual items at this repository

  • Whitman Archive Title: Man, before the rage of
  • Whitman Archive ID: uva.00287
  • Box: 1
  • Folder: 88
  • Date: Before 1855
  • Genre: poetry
  • Physical Description: 1 leaf, 8 x 19.5 cm, handwritten
  • View Images: 1 | 2
  • Content: Although they are written in free verse, both the conventional nature of these lines and the handwriting suggest an early date of inscription. This draft may be a continuation of duk.00018 ("There is no word in"), suggesting it may relate to the poem eventually titled "Song of Myself." The lines, especially the first and third, also bear some resemblance to a passage of the preface to the 1855 Leaves of Grass and to lines in what eventually became section 6 of "I Sing the Body Electric."

  • Whitman Archive Title: Living Pictures
  • Whitman Archive ID: uva.00516
  • Repository Title: "A Cluster of poems" and "Living Pictures"
  • Date: Before 1855
  • Genre: prose, poetry
  • Physical Description: 1 leaf, handwritten
  • View Images: 1 | 2
  • Content: The handwriting and Whitman's use of the long "s" in several of the words suggest that this is an early manuscript. It is possible that these lines are early notes for the second poem in the 1855 edition of Leaves of Grass , eventually titled "A Song for Occupations." This manuscript may also relate to yal.00081 ("Pictures"), a lengthy manuscript poem held at the Beinecke Library at Yale University that was probably written in the mid- to late-1850s. On the back of this leaf (uva.00086) is a list, almost certainly written later than the prose on the front, of subjects on which to write "a cluster of poems."

  • Whitman Archive Title: As now are given
  • Whitman Archive ID: uva.00508
  • Box: 1
  • Folder: 38
  • Repository Title: Glimpses of Walt Whitman from 1877 to '87
  • Date: Between 1845 and 1860
  • Genre: prose
  • Physical Description: 1 leaf, handwritten
  • View Images: 1
  • Content: A manuscript containing prose notes about science and the names of various scientific fields. Although Whitman was interested in sciene throughout his life, his most intense period of interest in the subject was during the late 1840s and 1850s. The small handwriting and small scrap of paper on which the note is written are also characteristic of Whitman's early writing (see Edward Grier, Notebooks and Unpublished Prose Manuscripts [New York: New York University Press, 1984], 5:1998). The manuscript was therefore likely written in the late 1840s or the 1850s. The manuscript is pasted down to a backing sheet, making the verso inaccessible.

  • Whitman Archive Title: Boccacio
  • Whitman Archive ID: uva.00511
  • Box: 1
  • Folder: 38
  • Repository Title: Glimpses of Walt Whitman from 1877 to '87
  • Date: Between 1849 and 1860
  • Genre: prose
  • Physical Description: 1 leaf, handwritten
  • View Images: 1
  • Content: A prose note about Italian writer Giovanni Boccaccio (1313–1375). According to Edward Grier, this scrap may have been part of a larger manuscript of notes about other Italian writers (see Notebooks and Unpublished Prose Manuscripts [New York: New York University Press, 1984], 5:1858). The text Whitman quotes comes from the Westminster Review , American Edition, LI, (July 1849): 187 (see Stovall, "Notes on Whitman's Reading," American Literature 26, no. 3, [November 1954]: 361). This manuscript could therefore date from as early as 1849, although it was most likely written in the 1850s. The manuscript is pasted down to a backing sheet, making the verso inaccessible.

  • Whitman Archive Title: Dante
  • Whitman Archive ID: uva.00512
  • Box: 1
  • Folder: 38
  • Repository Title: Glimpses of Walt Whitman from 1877 to '87
  • Date: Between 1849 and 1860
  • Genre: prose
  • Physical Description: 1 leaf, handwritten
  • View Images: 1
  • Content: A prose note about Italian writer Dante Alighieri (1265–1321). According to Edward Grier, this scrap may have been part of a larger manuscript of notes about other Italian writers (see Notebooks and Unpublished Prose Manuscripts [New York: New York University Press, 1984], 5:1860). The text Whitman quotes comes from the Westminster Review , American Edition, LI, (July 1849): 186 (see Stovall, "Notes on Whitman's Reading," American Literature 26, no. 3, [November 1954]: 361). This manuscript could therefore date from as early as 1849, although it was most likely written in the 1850s. The manuscript is pasted down to a backing sheet, making the verso inaccessible.

  • Whitman Archive Title: Back to ten thousand years
  • Whitman Archive ID: uva.00495
  • Box: 1
  • Folder: 38
  • Repository Title: Glimpses of Walt Whitman from 1877 to '87
  • Date: Between 1847 and 1857
  • Genre: prose
  • Physical Description: 1 leaf, handwritten
  • View Images: 1
  • Content: A manuscript containing prose notes about the historical ubiquity of great men, "capable of deeds of might, blessings, poems, enlightenment," with the suggestion that these were introductory thoughts for a discussion of various religions. The writing contains no known connection to any of Whitman's published works. Edward Grier notes that writing on the verso would suggest that this manuscript "must have been written in 1857 or earlier" ( Notebooks and Unpublished Prose Manuscripts [New York: New York University Press, 1984], 6:2067). The manuscript is pasted down to a backing sheet, making the verso inaccessible.

  • Whitman Archive Title: My picture gallery
  • Whitman Archive ID: uva.00061
  • Repository ID: #3829
  • Box: 1
  • Folder: 58
  • Date: between 1850 and 1880
  • Genre: poetry
  • Physical Description: 1 leaf, 10 x 15.5 cm, handwritten
  • View Images: 1 | 2
  • Content: Originally titled "Pictures," this manuscript is a revision of the first four verses of a draft poem by that name, inscribed by Whitman in a twenty-nine page notebook before the first edition of Leaves of Grass appeared in 1855. The notes "? for children" and "extend this?" appear in the upper left corner. The final verse appears in the upper right corner. After further revision Whitman published these verses in the October 30, 1880 issue of The American under the title "My Picture-Gallery," after which he placed it in the new cluster "Autumn Rivulets" in the 1881 edition.

  • Whitman Archive Title: The Whale-boat
  • Whitman Archive ID: uva.00117
  • Repository ID: #3829-i
  • Box: 2
  • Folder: 23
  • Date: late 1850s
  • Genre: poetry
  • Physical Description: 1 leaf, 21 cm x 12 cm, handwritten
  • View Images: 1 | 2
  • Content: This manuscript contains notes about whales that mirror a passage about whales published in "Song of Myself". A direct relationship between this manuscript and Whitman's published work is unknown, although a possible relationship also exists with drafts of the poem "The Sleepers" in which Whitman was working with the idea of a whale being harpooned. These notes may be a continuation of notes written on two separate scraps and held at Duke University (The Trent Collection of Walt Whitman Manuscripts, Duke University Rare Book, Manuscript, and Special Collections Library), "The Whale," MS q 88.

  • Whitman Archive Title: Poem of Fables
  • Whitman Archive ID: uva.00103
  • Repository ID: #3829-i
  • Box: 1
  • Folder: 76
  • Date: 1850s
  • Genre: poetry
  • Physical Description: 1 leaf, 20 x 12 cm, handwritten
  • View Images: 1 | 2
  • Content: Two sets of deleted verses constitute adaptations of lines from Whitman's pre-1855 unpublished notebook "Pictures" "Now this is the fable of the mirror" and "And Now this is the fable of a beautiful statue." Two other deleted potential fables ideas also appear: "The trained runner" and "The five old men." At the foot of the leaf appears the note "last piece (still another Death Song— Death Song with prophecies." All of the sections are demarcated with horizontal lines. Based on Whitman's use of the tax blank, the manuscript appears to be a set of notes he made between 1857 and 1859 while preparing the 1860 edition of Leaves of Grass . The "Poem of Fables" as such never materialized, but a poem simply titled "Fables" was incorporated into the second section of the poem "Passage to India", first published in 1871. Whitman's "Pictures" were not published in their entirety until 1925. Whitman uses the phrase "well-train'd runner" in "The Runner", a poem which first appeared in Leaves of Grass in 1867.

  • Whitman Archive Title: After death
  • Whitman Archive ID: uva.00133
  • Box: 1
  • Folder: 49
  • Date: Mid-1850s
  • Genre: poetry
  • Physical Description: 1 leaf, 7 x 15 cm, handwritten
  • View Images: 1 | 2
  • Content: This manuscript was probably written in the mid-1850s. The lines beginning "After death" are not known to have been published in Whitman's lifetime. The lines on the verso, beginning "I have all lives," are likely related to the poem first published in the 1856 edition of Leaves of Grass as "Poem of The Sayers of The Words of The Earth" and ultimately entitled "A Song of the Rolling Earth." Because the handwriting is similar on the two sides, we treat them here as a single text.

  • Whitman Archive Title: [As to you]
  • Whitman Archive ID: uva.00134
  • Box: 1
  • Folder: 49
  • Date: Between 1850 and 1860
  • Genre: poetry
  • Physical Description: 1 leaf, 7 x 15.5 cm, handwritten
  • View Images: 1 | 2
  • 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.

  • Whitman Archive Title: [Poem of]
  • Whitman Archive ID: uva.00006
  • Box: 1
  • Folder: 49
  • Date: about 1855
  • Genre: poetry
  • Physical Description: 1 leaf, 4 x 8 cm, handwritten
  • View Images: 1 | 2
  • Content: These notes, on a very small scrap of paper, could have represented an early stage of a number of poems.

  • Whitman Archive Title: A City Walk
  • Whitman Archive ID: uva.00292
  • Box: 1
  • Folder: 49
  • Date: About 1855
  • Genre: poetry
  • Physical Description: 1 leaf, 4.5 x 12 cm, handwritten
  • View Images: 1 | 2
  • Content: A faint horizontal line beneath part of "A City Walk," along with the words' capitalization and central position on the page, indicate that Whitman may have contemplated using the words as the title of an independent poem. The closest he came to this title was "City of Walks and Joys," the name he originally assigned to "Calamus" 18 in his "Blue Book" revisions of the 1860 edition of Leaves of Grass . This title was changed in the "Blue Book" to "City of orgies, walks and joys" and finally became "City of Orgies" in the 1867 edition. The manuscript also suggests making a list of things seen while "crossing the ferry," an idea later developed and published in "Sun-Down Poem" in the 1856 edition of Leaves . The poem was retitled "Crossing Brooklyn Ferry" in 1860.

  • Whitman Archive Title: Original. Walks Down This Street;
  • Whitman Archive ID: uva.00293
  • Box: 1
  • Folder: 49
  • Date: about 1856
  • Genre: poetry
  • Physical Description: 1 leaf, 7 x 16 cm paster to 4 x 15.5 cm, handwritten
  • View Images: 1 | 2
  • Content: Both parts of the title are underlined. A wavy line appears at the foot of that section. The word "Original" at the head of the upper section suggests that Whitman was sketching out a new poem for a revised edition of Leaves of Grass . If it was the 1860 edition, as his style of inscription here appears to indicate, it is possible that this leaf could represent an early stage of the poem that would eventually become "City of Orgies", 1867.

  • Whitman Archive Title: Europe
  • Whitman Archive ID: uva.00304
  • Box: 1
  • Folder: 49
  • Date: about 1855
  • Genre: poetry
  • Physical Description: 1 leaf, 16 x 14 cm, handwritten
  • View Images: 1 | 2
  • Content: The recto notes represent an early stage of lines partially incorporated in "Poem of Salutation," the new third poem in the 1856 edition of Leaves of Grass , which was permanently retitled "Salut au Monde!" in the 1860 edition. If the note or title "Europe" suggests that Whitman might have first intended to divide his salutations into discrete sections based on the different continents, this is a plan he did not follow in the published version(s). The more polished (but deleted) lines on the verso represent a recasting in poetic form of several lines from the 1855 Preface. These were further revised for the 1856 "Poem of Many in One," after which the first verse drafted on this page (cut off here, and beginning "over the Texan, Mexican, Florid[ian,]/ Cuban seas...") was dropped. The two verses below this, however, were preserved relatively unchanged through the poem's many transformations until the text was essentially fixed under the title "By Blue Ontario's Shore" in 1881.

  • Whitman Archive Title: [And as the shores of the sea I live near and love are to me]
  • Whitman Archive ID: uva.00305
  • Box: 1
  • Folder: 49
  • Date: about 1855
  • Genre: poetry
  • Physical Description: 1 leaf, 13 x 14.5 cm, handwritten
  • View Images: 1 | 2
  • Content: These two verses represent a draft of lines that would be further revised and incorporated in the new 1856 poem "Poem of Salutation," permanently retitled "Salut au Monde!" in the 1860 edition of Leaves of Grass. . A plate mark can be clearly seen on the verso.

  • Whitman Archive Title: Poem of Pictures
  • Whitman Archive ID: uva.00289
  • Box: 1
  • Folder: 49
  • Repository Title: Leaves of Grass, [ca. 1855–1856], AMs, 12 fragments on 7 leaves
  • Date: Before 1856
  • Genre: poetry, prose
  • Physical Description: 1 leaf, 6.5 x 15.5 cm, handwritten
  • View Images: 1 | 2
  • Content: A phrase beginning "Picture of one of/ the Greek games" appears in the upper right corner, delimited from the rest of the notes with two curved lines. The words "Spanish bull fight" appear in their own semicircle (damaged by Whitman's cutting) in the lower right corner. The lines seem to occupy a middle space between the very early notebook poem "Pictures" and the 1856 "Poem of Salutation" (ultimately "Salut au Monde!"). Therefore, the date of this manuscript is likely before 1856.

  • Whitman Archive Title: [My two theses]
  • Whitman Archive ID: uva.00009
  • Box: 1
  • Folder: 49
  • Date: about 1856
  • Genre: poetry
  • Physical Description: 1 leaf, 4 x 16 cm pasted to 10.5 x 16 cm, handwritten
  • View Images: 1 | 2
  • Content: On a small composite leaf of white wove paper, ruled in blue on one side, containing notes about developing two theses to "run through all the poems . . .."

  • Whitman Archive Title: [The circus boy is riding in the]
  • Whitman Archive ID: uva.00010
  • Box: 1
  • Folder: 49
  • Date: about 1855
  • Genre: poetry
  • Physical Description: 1 leaf, 10.5 x 14 cm, handwritten
  • View Images: 1 | 2
  • Content: The verso lines (beginning with the individually deleted line "O Walt Whitman, show us some pictures!" and continuing "America, always Pictorial!") represent a later draft of the beginning of the poem "Pictures" than the most complete extant version, which is contained in the pre-1855 "Pictures" notebook currently housed at Yale University. Critics have dated the lines to around 1880, when Whitman was working on a short version of "Pictures" both for magazine publication and for the 1881 edition of Leaves of Grass , where it was published as "My Picture-Gallery." But Whitman's early style of inscription in this draft, along with the line "It is round—it has room for America, north and south" and his use of his own name in the deleted first line, all suggest that Whitman may have inscribed this draft around the same time that he was working on the new 1856 "Poem of Salutations" (eventually "Salut au Monde!"). This draft also suggests that at one point he may have considered linking what would become "Poem of Salutations" and the formally and thematically similar "Pictures" more directly. The lines on the recto, divided by a horizontal line, refer to images of a circus boy on a fleet horse and of watching those on a shore disappear. The relationship between either of these lines and Whitman's published works is unclear.

  • Whitman Archive Title: [How can there be immortality]
  • Whitman Archive ID: uva.00014
  • Box: 1
  • Folder: 49
  • Date: about 1855
  • Genre: poetry
  • Physical Description: 1 leaf, 4.5 x 14.5 cm, handwritten
  • View Images: 1 | 2
  • Content: These lines, appearing on a very small section of white laid paper cut and cropped irregularly, bear a strong resemblance to the (eventual) second verse paragraph in section 6 of "Starting from Paumanok," first published in 1860 as "Proto-Leaf." The fragmentary lines on the verso (beginning "Downward, buoyant, swif[t]"), represent a different version of a line incorporated in the pre-1855 notebook poem "Pictures" and of one inscribed in the 1854 notebook [I know a rich capitalist...], currently housed at the New York Public Library.

  • Whitman Archive Title: [Pure water]
  • Whitman Archive ID: uva.00015
  • Box: 1
  • Folder: 49
  • Date: about 1855
  • Genre: poetry
  • Physical Description: 1 leaf, 16 x 13 cm, handwritten
  • View Images: 1 | 2
  • Content: Below the trial verses, separated from them by a diagonal pencil stroke, appears a cartoon hand pointing to the annotation "I must have/ Poem[.]"

  • Whitman Archive Title: I am a Student
  • Whitman Archive ID: uva.00238
  • Box: 1
  • Folder: 88
  • Date: Between 1850 and 1855
  • Genre: poetry
  • Physical Description: 1 leaf, 9.5 x 15 cm, handwritten
  • View Images: 1 | 2
  • Content: Whitman probably drafted this manuscript in the early 1850s as he was composing the first (1855) edition of Leaves of Grass . Lines in the manuscript are similar to sentences used in the preface to that edition. Ideas expressed in the manuscript also relate loosely to lines in the first poem in the 1855 edition, eventually titled "Song of Myself." Lines written on the back of this manuscript leaf (uva.00570 appeared in the poem eventually titled "Song of Myself."

  • Whitman Archive Title: The spotted hawk salutes the
  • Whitman Archive ID: uva.00570
  • Box: 1
  • Folder: 88
  • Date: Between 1850 and 1855
  • Genre: poetry
  • Physical Description: 1 leaf, 9.5 x 15 cm, handwritten
  • View Images: 1 | 2
  • Content: Whitman probably drafted this manuscript in the early 1850s as he was composing the first (1855) edition of Leaves of Grass . Lines from the manuscript were included in the first poem in that edition, eventually titled "Song of Myself." Several lines of poetry are drafted on the back of this leaf (uva.00238.

  • Whitman Archive Title: [A little sum laid aside for burial money—a few clapboards around]
  • Whitman Archive ID: uva.00248
  • Box: 1
  • Folder: 88
  • Date: about 1855
  • Genre: poetry
  • Physical Description: 1 leaf, 17 x 19 cm, handwritten
  • View Images: 1 | 2
  • Content: This is a poetic rendition of a long sentence in the preface to the 1855 edition of Leaves of Grass. The prose sentence begins, "Beyond the independence of a little sum laid aside for burial-money, and of a few clapboards around..."

  • Whitman Archive Title: I call back blunderers
  • Whitman Archive ID: uva.00250
  • Box: 1
  • Folder: 88
  • Date: Between 1850 and 1855
  • Genre: poetry
  • Physical Description: 1 leaf, 4.5 x 19.5 cm pasted to 7 x 19.5 cm, handwritten
  • View Images: 1 | 2
  • Content: Whitman probably drafted this manuscript in the early 1850s as he was composing the first (1855) edition of Leaves of Grass . The last couple of lines are similar to lines in the first poem in that edition, eventually titled "Song of Myself."

  • Whitman Archive Title: Do I not prove myself
  • Whitman Archive ID: uva.00251
  • Box: 1
  • Folder: 88
  • Date: Between 1850 and 1855
  • Genre: poetry
  • Physical Description: 1 leaf, 8 x 18.5 cm, handwritten
  • View Images: 1 | 2
  • Content: Whitman probably drafted this manuscript in the early 1850s as he was composing the first (1855) edition of Leaves of Grass . In language, ideas, and structure, the manuscript most closely resembles lines 39–43 in "Debris," a poem published in the 1860 edition of Leaves of Grass . However, the ideas and some of the language are also similar to other early manuscripts that relate to the first and second poems in the 1855 edition of Leaves , ultimately titled "Song of Myself" and "A Song for Occupations" (see "Priests" [loc.00013], "I know as well as" [duk.00051], and "[Fa]bles, traditions" [duk.00261]). In his transcription of this manuscript, Richard Maurice Bucke combines it with "I ask nobody's faith" (nyp.00102), but the manuscripts do not appear to be continuous ( Notes and Fragments [London, Ontario: A. Talbot & Co., printers, 1899], 25). Poetic lines written on the back of this manuscript leaf (uva.00568) appeared in the poem eventually titled ""Song of Myself."

  • Whitman Archive Title: Whatever I say of myself
  • Whitman Archive ID: uva.00568
  • Box: 1
  • Folder: 88
  • Date: Between 1850 and 1855
  • Genre: poetry
  • Physical Description: 1 leaf, 8 x 18.5 cm, handwritten
  • View Images: 1 | 2
  • Content: Whitman probably drafted this manuscript in the early 1850s as he was composing the first (1855) edition of Leaves of Grass . Lines from the manuscript appear in the first poem in that edition, eventually titled ""Song of Myself." Poetic lines on the back of this manuscript leaf (uva.00251) also relate to poems in the 1855 Leaves of Grass .

  • Whitman Archive Title: [Never fails]
  • Whitman Archive ID: uva.00253
  • Box: 1
  • Folder: 88
  • Date: about 1855
  • Genre: poetry
  • Physical Description: 1 leaf, 14 x 15 cm, handwritten
  • View Images: 1 | 2
  • Content: The lines, deleted with a single pencil stroke, appear after revision and expansion to have eventually formed part of section 21 of the cluster "Calamus" in the 1860 edition of Leaves of Grass ; in the 1867 edition this section received the title "That Music Always Round Me."

  • Whitman Archive Title: My hand will not hurt what
  • Whitman Archive ID: uva.00254
  • Box: 1
  • Folder: 88
  • Date: Between 1850 and 1855
  • Genre: poetry
  • Physical Description: 1 leaf, 19 x 15.5 cm, handwritten
  • View Images: 1 | 2
  • Content: Whitman probably drafted this manuscript in the early 1850s as he was composing the first (1855) edition of Leaves of Grass . Lines in the manuscript are similar to lines that appear in the first poem in that edition, eventually titled "Song of Myself." The numbers written on the manuscript, along with remnants of paste and binding tape along the margin, suggest that the page likely came from a notebook. Lines similar to the last several in this manuscript were also reworked in the notebook "Talbot Wilson" (loc.00141). Notes written on the back of this manuscript leaf (uva.00601) also relate to lines in the poem eventually titled "Song of Myself."

  • Whitman Archive Title: cottonwood
  • Whitman Archive ID: uva.00601
  • Box: 1
  • Folder: 88
  • Date: Between 1850 and 1855
  • Genre: poetry
  • Physical Description: 1 leaf, 19 x 15.5 cm, handwritten
  • View Images: 1 | 2
  • Content: Whitman probably drafted this manuscript in the early 1850s as he was composing the first (1855) edition of Leaves of Grass . Lines in the manuscript are similar to lines in the first poem in that edition, eventually titled "Song of Myself." The list of flora and fauna could anticipate any number of similar lists in Whitman's writing, but has perhaps the most words in common with a line in the prose preface to the 1855 Leaves of Grass . Poetic lines on the back of this manuscript leaf (uva.00254) also relate to lines in the poem eventually titled "Song of Myself."

  • Whitman Archive Title: I am a curse
  • Whitman Archive ID: uva.00256
  • Box: 1
  • Folder: 88
  • Date: Between 1850 and 1855
  • Genre: poetry
  • Physical Description: 1 leaf, 18.5 x 17.5 cm, handwritten
  • View Images: 1 | 2
  • Content: Whitman probably drafted this manuscript in the early 1850s as he was composing the first (1855) edition of Leaves of Grass . It is a draft of lines that appeared in the fourth poem in that edition, eventually titled "The Sleepers." Fragmentary poetic lines on the back of this manuscript leaf (uva.00602) may relate to the poem eventually titled "Song of Myself."

  • Whitman Archive Title: His very aches are exstasy
  • Whitman Archive ID: uva.00602
  • Box: 1
  • Folder: 88
  • Date: Between 1850 and 1855
  • Genre: poetry
  • Physical Description: 1 leaf, 18.5 x 17.5 cm, handwritten
  • View Images: 1 | 2
  • Content: Whitman probably drafted this manuscript in the early 1850s as he was composing the first (1855) edition of Leaves of Grass . The fragmentary lines may relate to a section on touch included in the first poem in that edition, eventually titled "Song of Myself." Poetic lines on the back of this manuscript leaf (uva.00256) relate to lines in the poem eventually titled "The Sleepers."

  • Whitman Archive Title: Black Lucifer was not dead
  • Whitman Archive ID: uva.00257
  • Box: 1
  • Folder: 88
  • Date: Between 1850 and 1855
  • Genre: poetry
  • Physical Description: 1 leaf, 10.5 x 19.5 cm, handwritten
  • View Images: 1 | 2
  • Content: Whitman probably drafted this manuscript in the early 1850s as he was preparing materials for the first (1855) edition of Leaves of Grass . It is a draft of lines that appeared in the fourth poem in that edition, eventually titled "The Sleepers." The word "Sleepchaser's" appears in the upper right corner, perhaps indicating that Whitman was considering a title similar to the 1860–1861 and 1867 title "Sleep-Chasings" even before the poem was first published in 1855, unless this is in fact a reworking of the section for the 1860–1861 edition. The possibility of a post-1855 dating, however, appears to be slight given the similarities of paper choice and inscription techniques among other leaves and similarities to drafts in "Talbot Wilson" (loc.00141), an early Library of Congress notebook. The poem "Sleep-Chasings" eventually became "The Sleepers" in 1871–1872.

  • Whitman Archive Title: Topple down upon him
  • Whitman Archive ID: uva.00258
  • Box: 1
  • Folder: 88
  • Date: Between 1850 and 1855
  • Genre: poetry
  • Physical Description: 1 leaf, 15.5 x 19 cm, handwritten
  • View Images: 1 | 2
  • Content: Whitman probably drafted this manuscript in the early 1850s as he was preparing materials for the first (1855) edition of Leaves of Grass . It is a draft of lines that appear in the fourth poem of that edition, eventually titled "The Sleepers." A revised version of the phrase "pennies on their eyes" appears in the poem eventually titled "Song of Myself." Lines on the back of this manuscript leaf (uva.00566) relate to the poem eventually titled "Faces."

  • Whitman Archive Title: clearing the way
  • Whitman Archive ID: uva.00566
  • Box: 1
  • Folder: 88
  • Date: Between 1850 and 1855
  • Genre: poetry
  • Physical Description: 1 leaf, 15.5 x 19 cm, handwritten
  • View Images: 1 | 2
  • Content: Whitman probably drafted this manuscript in the early 1850s as he was composing the first (1855) edition of Leaves of Grass . It is a draft of lines that appear in the sixth poem in that edition, eventually titled "Faces." Lines on the back of this manuscript leaf relate to the poem eventually titled "The Sleepers."

  • Whitman Archive Title: The sores on my shoulders
  • Whitman Archive ID: uva.00260
  • Box: 1
  • Folder: 88
  • Date: Between 1850 and 1855
  • Genre: poetry
  • Physical Description: 1 leaf, 8 x 15 cm, handwritten
  • View Images: 1 | 2
  • Content: Whitman probably drafted this manuscript in the early 1850s as he was preparing materials for the first (1855) edition of Leaves of Grass . The manuscript is a draft of a section of the fourth poem in that edition, eventually titled "The Sleepers." Lines on the back of this leaf (uva.00565) relate to the manuscript poem "Pictures."

  • Whitman Archive Title: Hear my fife
  • Whitman Archive ID: uva.00565
  • Box: 1
  • Folder: 88
  • Date: Between 1850 and 1860
  • Genre: poetry
  • Physical Description: 1 leaf, 8 x 15 cm, handwritten
  • View Images: 1 | 2
  • Content: Whitman probably drafted this manuscript in the 1850s. The lines are versions of a line in a long manuscript poem titled "Pictures" (yal.00081), which probably dates to the mid- to late 1850s. Based on the first-person perspective in these draft lines, Emory Holloway has speculated that they likely were written after the line in "Pictures" ( Pictures: An Unpublished Poem of Walt Whitman [New York: The June House, 1927], 31). The first several lines of "Pictures" (not including this line) were eventually revised and published as "My Picture-Gallery" in The American in October 1880. The poem was later published in Leaves of Grass as part of the "Autumn Rivulets" cluster. Lines on the back of this leaf (uva.00260) appeared, in revised form, in the poem eventually titled "The Sleepers."

  • Whitman Archive Title: Where the little musk ox
  • Whitman Archive ID: uva.00261
  • Box: 1
  • Folder: 88
  • Date: Between 1850 and 1855
  • Genre: poetry
  • Physical Description: 1 leaf, 6 x 19 cm, handwritten
  • View Images: 1 | 2
  • Content: Whitman probably drafted this manuscript in the early 1850s as he was composing the first (1855) edition of Leaves of Grass . A line from the manuscript appears in the first poem of that edition, eventually titled "Song of Myself." Lines on the back of this manuscript leaf (uva.00262) also relate to the poem eventually titled "Song of Myself."

  • Whitman Archive Title: Who knows that I shall
  • Whitman Archive ID: uva.00262
  • Box: 1
  • Folder: 88
  • Date: Between 1850 and 1855
  • Genre: poetry
  • Physical Description: 1 leaf, 6 x 19 cm, handwritten
  • View Images: 1 | 2
  • Content: Whitman probably drafted this manuscript in the early 1850s as he was composing the first (1855) edition of Leaves of Grass . Versions of the manuscript lines appear in the first poem of that edition, eventually titled "Song of Myself." Lines on the back of this manuscript leaf (uva.00261) also relate to the poem eventually titled "Song of Myself."

  • Whitman Archive Title: You there
  • Whitman Archive ID: uva.00263
  • Box: 1
  • Folder: 88
  • Date: Between 1850 and 1855
  • Genre: poetry
  • Physical Description: 1 leaf, 12.5 x 20 cm, handwritten
  • View Images: 1 | 2
  • Content: Whitman probably drafted this manuscript in the early 1850s as he was composing the first (1855) edition of Leaves of Grass . It is a draft of lines that appear in the first poem in that edition, eventually titled "Song of Myself." A series of notes about poetic meter are written on the back of this manuscript leaf (uva.00603).

  • Whitman Archive Title: hexameters
  • Whitman Archive ID: uva.00603
  • Box: 1
  • Folder: 88
  • Date: Between 1850 and 1860
  • Genre: poetry
  • Physical Description: 1 leaf, 12.5 x 20 cm, handwritten
  • View Images: 1 | 2
  • Content: These notes about verse forms are similar to notes in rut.00022 ("dithyrambic trochee"), a manuscript currently housed at Rutgers University. Edward Grier posits that the Rutgers manuscript probably dates to around 1856, when Whitman was pursuing a self-education in poetry ( Notebooks and Unpublished Prose Manuscripts [New York: New York University Press, 1984], 1:355–356). These manuscript notes may also date to that period, although the draft lines on the reverse of the leaf, which were probably written before 1855, may suggest a slightly earlier date. Draft lines on the back of this manuscript leaf (uva.00263) relate to the poem ultimately titled "Song of Myself."

  • Whitman Archive Title: And their voices
  • Whitman Archive ID: uva.00264
  • Box: 1
  • Folder: 88
  • Date: Between 1850 and 1855
  • Genre: poetry
  • Physical Description: 1 leaf, 4.5 x 19.5 cm, handwritten
  • View Images: 1 | 2
  • Content: Whitman probably drafted this manuscript in the early 1850s as he was composing the first (1855) edition of Leaves of Grass . The notes were revised and incorporated into the first poem in that edition, eventually titled "Song of Myself."

  • Whitman Archive Title: The horizon's edge
  • Whitman Archive ID: uva.00265
  • Box: 1
  • Folder: 88
  • Date: Between 1850 and 1855
  • Genre: poetry
  • Physical Description: 1 leaf, 8.5 x 20 cm, handwritten
  • View Images: 1 | 2
  • Content: Whitman probably drafted this manuscript in the early 1850s as he was composing the first (1855) edition of Leaves of Grass . The manuscript includes drafts of lines used in the first and tenth poems in that edition, eventually titled "Song of Myself" and "There Was a Child Went Forth," respectively.

  • Whitman Archive Title: Children and maidens
  • Whitman Archive ID: uva.00266
  • Box: 1
  • Folder: 88
  • Date: about 1855
  • Genre: poetry
  • Physical Description: 1 leaf, 7 x 21 cm, handwritten
  • View Images: 1 | 2
  • Content: The laid paper was originally the last page of a letter; a few illegible words and part of a signature can be seen dimly through the back of the composite leaf. Whitman wrote his lines on the verso of the page after turning it sideways. These lines have no known relation to any published Whitman poem.

  • Whitman Archive Title: I am become the poet
  • Whitman Archive ID: uva.00269
  • Box: 1
  • Folder: 88
  • Date: Between 1850 and 1855
  • Genre: poetry
  • Physical Description: 1 leaf, 4 x 14.5 cm pasted to 4.5 x 15 cm, handwritten
  • View Images: 1 | 2
  • Content: Whitman probably drafted this manuscript in the early 1850s as he was composing the first (1855) edition of Leaves of Grass . The first line in this manuscript matches a line in the "Talbot Wilson" notebook (loc.00141, recto leaf 38) and is similar in structure to lines that appeared in the first poem in the 1855 edition of Leaves , eventually titled "Song of Myself." The image of the poet navigating stairs also appears in what would become section 44 of "Song of Myself." Draft lines written on the back of this manuscript leaf (uva.00600) may also relate to the poem eventually titled "Song of Myself."

  • Whitman Archive Title: I think I could dash
  • Whitman Archive ID: uva.00600
  • Box: 1
  • Folder: 88
  • Date: Between 1850 and 1855
  • Genre: poetry
  • Physical Description: 1 leaf, 4 x 14.5 cm pasted to 4.5 x 15 cm, handwritten
  • View Images: 1 | 2
  • Content: Whitman probably drafted this manuscript in the early 1850s as he was composing the first (1855) edition of Leaves of Grass . The first line in this manuscript matches a line in the "Talbot Wilson" notebook (loc.00141, recto leaf 38) and is similar in structure to lines that appeared in the first poem in the 1855 edition of Leaves , eventually titled "Song of Myself." The image of the poet navigating stairs also appears in what would become section 44 of "Song of Myself." Draft lines written on the back of this manuscript leaf (uva.00600) may also relate to the poem eventually titled "Song of Myself." Whitman probably drafted this manuscript in the early 1850s as he was composing the first (1855) edition of Leaves of Grass . The manuscript may relate to a passage about touch that appeared in the first poem in that edition, eventually titled "Song of Myself." In his transcription of this manuscript, Richard Maurice Bucke included lines at the beginning and end that read: "Yet I strike and dart through . . . . . . " and "I am a creased and cut sea; the furious wind . . . . . ." ( Notes and Fragments [London, Ontario: A. Talbot & Co., printers, 1899], 34–5). These lines do not currently appear on the manuscript. Draft lines written on the back of this manuscript leaf (uva.00269) relate to lines in the poem eventually titled "Song of Myself."

  • Whitman Archive Title: American air I have breathed
  • Whitman Archive ID: uva.00270
  • Box: 1
  • Folder: 88
  • Date: Between 1850 and 1859
  • Genre: poetry
  • Physical Description: 1 leaf, 4.5 x 18 cm, handwritten
  • View Images: 1 | 2
  • Content: Although Whitman did not publish these verses himself, their structure and the type of paper upon which they are inscribed suggest a close relationship with the lines on another manuscript in the University of Virginia collection, which were revised to form part of section 14 of "Chants Democratic" in the 1860 edition of Leaves of Grass , a set of verses eventually transformed into an independent poem under the title "Poets to Come."

  • Whitman Archive Title: Merely What I tell is
  • Whitman Archive ID: uva.00271
  • Box: 1
  • Folder: 88
  • Date: Between 1850 and 1860
  • Genre: poetry
  • Physical Description: 1 leaf, 4 x 15 cm, handwritten
  • View Images: 1 | 2
  • Content: These manuscript lines were probably written in the 1850s. They bear a strong resemblance to ideas expressed in the opening lines of poem #14 of "Chants Democratic and Native American," which first appeared in the 1860 Leaves of Grass . The lines eventually became part of the independent poem "Poets to Come." A series of draft lines are written on the back of this manuscript leaf (uva.00272).

  • Whitman Archive Title: Merely What I tell is
  • Whitman Archive ID: uva.00272
  • Box: 1
  • Folder: 88
  • Date: Between 1850 and 1860
  • Genre: poetry
  • Physical Description: 1 leaf, 4 x 15 cm, handwritten
  • View Images: 1 | 2
  • Content: Based on the material written on the back of this leaf, this manuscript was probably written in the 1850s. The lines do not appear to have contributed directly to any of Whitman's published poetry. Draft lines on the back of this manuscript leaf (uva.00271) probably relate to the poem eventually titled "Poets to Come."

  • Whitman Archive Title: Can ? make me
  • Whitman Archive ID: uva.00273
  • Box: 1
  • Folder: 88
  • Date: Between 1850 and 1855
  • Genre: poetry
  • Physical Description: 1 leaf, 6 x 19.5 cm, handwritten
  • View Images: 1 | 2
  • Content: Whitman probably drafted this manuscript in the early 1850s as he was preparing materials for the first (1855) edition of Leaves of Grass . The lines bear some similarity to lines in the first poem in that edition, eventually titled "Song of Myself." Poetic lines on the back of this leaf (uva.00562) relate to the poem eventually titled "Faces."

View All Works
Back to top