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women

About This Item

  • Title: women
  • Date: Between about 1854 and 1860
  • Creator(s): Walt Whitman
  • Whitman Archive ID: loc.05589
  • Source: Notebook LC #84 |  The Thomas Biggs Harned Collection of the Papers of Walt Whitman, 1842–1937, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. Transcribed from digital images of photocopies of the original. For a description of the editorial rationale behind our treatment of the notebooks, see our statement of editorial policy.
  • Editorial note: As Floyd Stovall has noted, the few datable references in this notebook (e.g., the fighting at Sebastopol during the Crimean War) are to events from about 1853 to late 1854, shortly before the first publication of Leaves of Grass. See Floyd Stovall, "Dating Whitman's Early Notebooks," Studies in Bibliography 24 (1971), 197–204. See also Edward Grier, Notebooks and Unpublished Prose Manuscripts (New York: New York University Press, 1984), 1:138–155. Whitman's notes about Egypt and mention of "Dr. Abbott" in the notebook probably also date to around 1854: Stovall writes that at this time "Whitman made frequent visits to the Egyptian Museum, which was established by Dr. Henry Abbott in New York" (202). Whitman discussed Abbott's museum at some length in the article "One of the Lessons Bordering Broadway: The Egyptian Museum," published in Life Illustrated on December 8, 1855.  
      
     This notebook contains much draft material for Whitman's early poems, although this fact has not often been recognized by scholars. Both Stovall and Grier point out that most of the connections to printed works are to poems and prose published in the 1855 edition of Leaves of Grass but that the notebook also contains material clearly related to things that were first printed in the second (1856) and third (1860–1861) editions.  
      
     Whitman revised the text on leaf 23 verso to include a rather long passage that exceeded the space available between existing lines of text and therefore overflowed onto the facing page (leaf 24 recto).
  • Contributors to digital file: Brett Barney Natalie O'Neal Jonathan Y. Cheng Nicole Gray Kenneth M. Price Ashlyn Stewart
  • Cite this page: Whitman, Walt. "women." The Walt Whitman Archive. Gen. ed. Matt Cohen, Ed Folsom, & Kenneth M. Price. Accessed 23 April 2024. <http://www.whitmanarchive.org>.
  • Source File: loc.05589.xml (TEI)

Key

Textual Feature Appearance
Overwritten brown with strikethrough
Added inline purple with double underline
Uncertain gray with wavy underline
Supplied from another source turquoise with brackets
Metamark green with triple underline
Long deletion gray background with top and bottom border
  [ begin leaf 1 recto ]loc_ej.00632_large.jpg Note Book  
 Walt  
 Whitman   [ begin leaf 1 verso ]loc_ej.00663_large.jpg
[illegible]women creat[illegible] [illegible] c[illegible] Yet Homer sup[illegible] earth was [illegible] surrounded [illegible] its dist[illegible] borders [illegible] interspersed [illegible]ts. Osirtasen 1740 B C 
  Joseph 
  Abraham 1970 B.C.

Oldest monuments in Egypt [illegible]d Wilkinson [illegible] world are the pyramids of Memphis 2010 B. C. [illegible]

  [ begin leaf 2 recto ]loc_ej.01021_large.jpg [illegible] ho [illegible] 
  of Egypt [illegible][illegible] is [illegible]   [ begin leaf 2 verso ]loc_ej.01022_large.jpg Memorials—if they were timid and receptive he had made his chisels cut the granite with the tokens of feminine. He is the first after Osiris.   [ begin leaf 3 recto ]loc_ej.01023_large.jpg Troy taken 1184 B.C. 
 p. 76

Dr. Abbott tells me that Lepsius told him of finding monuments through Ethiopia with inscriptions and astronomical signs upon them. [illegible]

  [ begin leaf 3 verso ]loc_ej.01024_large.jpg
be sure ^of the district where the trouble is—they wait thus perfectly still and in splendid postures— The ^children's dancing school at Dodworth's
  [ begin leaf 4 recto ]loc_ej.01025_large.jpg

The difference is only the [illegible] difference of an inch.— But it is the difference between cutting off the rope that holds us we cling hto 100 feet above the land.—whether we cut it an inch above or an inch below where our hands hold on for life

[illegible] people

  [ begin leaf 4 verso ]loc_ej.01026_large.jpg
Mr. Winel

A prince in Polish Austria ^near Hungary on his estate on the highway, puts up a perpetual inn where all wayfarers are entertained free of charge; this he keeps always open, and gives meat and bread and lodgings—and sometimes comes to amuse himself with the guests.

  [ begin leaf 5 recto ]loc_ej.01027_large.jpg

I have been asked, Which is the greater, the man or the woman?—Yes, I tell you, with the same answer that I tell whether Time is greater than space—and wh[torn away]

  [ begin leaf 5 verso ]loc_ej.01028_large.jpg

The life of man on earth is the chef d'ouvre of all things.— What then! is it a suck?—Has God tried conceived a joke, and tried it on, and is it a small one?

  [ begin leaf 6 recto ]loc_ej.01029_large.jpg

Of the poet

He walks with perfect 
  ease among a congress 
  of kings, And one king saith says 
  to another, Here is 
  our equal, ^a prince whom 
  we knew not before Then the great authors 
  take him for an author And the great soldiers 
  for a captain The sailors know 
  that he has followed 
  the sea, The English believe that 
  comes of Saxon stock   [ begin leaf 6 verso ]loc_ej.01030_large.jpg And the Italians f[illegible] The
O laugh when my eyes settle 
  the land T The bluey spoon-drift, like  
  a white race-horse of  
  brine, speeds before me
  [ begin leaf 7 recto ]loc_ej.01031_large.jpg
such such a thing as ownership here any how.—The Chief B[illegible] [illegible]^was is the primal democrat [illegible] [illegible] of his one of the laws ^[illegible] that [illegible] from the moment any a man takes the smallest page exclusively to himself and tryies to keep it from the rest from that [illegible] moment it 
  begins to wither ^under his hand and ^lose its immortal hieroglyphics ^presently fade away and become blank [illegible] and dead.—
stonecutter's tools 
  tooth-chisel—jib for the thumb
  [ begin leaf 7 verso ]loc_ej.01032_large.jpg

Of writers there are plenty who pay all demands upon them, if folks are willing to take notes, or paper acceptances of any sort; but only one out [illegible]centuries who gives ready ^solid cash.–

  [ begin leaf 8 recto ]loc_ej.01033_large.jpg

It is a terrible sign of the human soul that it will not own any limit, even the widest.—The moment we knew the diameter of the earth to be eight thousand miles, it became no great thing to us.—With all the appalling grandeur of astronomy, if we could fix the line beyond which there was no more material universe, our soul, I think, would pine away and begin its death sickness

  [ begin leaf 8 verso ]loc_ej.01034_large.jpg
  • Rameses the Great, over 30 centuries ago
  • Solomon born 1032 B.C.
  • " ascended throne, 1015
  • Pharaoh, from phre or phra the sun 
      Wilkinson
  • Moses born 1571 B.C.
  • Exodus of the Israelites from Egypt 1491 B.C. 430 years after the arrival of Abraham in Egypt.—
  • Homer about 907 B.C.
  • Rome founded 753 B.C.
  [ begin leaf 9 recto ]loc_ej.01035_large.jpg

☞ over leaf The [illegible] Nature is an ethereal mirror deep deep and floating The mirror that Nature holds ^and hides behind is deep and floating and ethereal and faithful. —in [illegible]it ^a man ^always sends and sees himself in it— from it himself he reflects his ^the fashion of his gods and all his religions and politics and books and art and social and public institutions—ignorance or knowledge—kindness or cruelty—grossness or refinement—definitions or chaos—each [illegible] is unerringly sent back to him or her who curiously gazes.

  [ begin leaf 9 verso ]loc_ej.01036_large.jpg

There is a fullsized woman of calm and voluptuous beauty. . . . [illegible] the unspeak[illegible] unspeakable charm of the face of the mother of many children is the charm of her face . . . . she is clean and sweet and simple with immortal health . . . she holds always before her [illegible] what has the quality of a mirror, and dwells serenely behind it.—

  [ begin leaf 10 recto ]loc_ej.01037_large.jpg

When ^out of a feast I eat bread only corn and roast potatoes fo for my dinner, through my own voluntary choice it is very well ^and I much content, but if some arrogant head of the table prevent me by force from touching any thing but corn and potatoes then is my anger roused.—

Every one that [illegible] [illegible] speaks his word for slavery is himself the worst slave—the spirit of a freeman is not light enough in him to show that all the fatness of the earth were bitter to a bondaged [illegible] neck.—

  [ begin leaf 10 verso ]loc_ej.01038_large.jpg

In the respect of happiness or extasy​ , the beautiful gas is pervades the air continually, and we only need to be rightly tuned and conditioned, in order that it may catch to us ? ? (like gunpowder catches to fire) and pass ^flow into us like one river into another.

The schooner is reefing hoisting her sailsl she will soon be down the coast.

river pirate old junk shop
  [ begin leaf 11 recto ]loc_ej.01039_large.jpg

I do not seek those that love me, I would rather seek out after some that hate me

The village on the highland, seen from afar at sunset—the sun sh[illegible]ining on the ^red white ^[illegible] or brown gables ^red, white or brown
the ferry boat ^ever plying forever and ever over the river
the schooner sleepily dropping down the tide the little small astern towed by the 
  rope,
  [ begin leaf 11 verso ]loc_ej.01040_large.jpg
In the open market place the barrels of apples, the flour and meat, and f[illegible] product ? in bunks and bins.
The deckhand of the steamboat in his red shirt.
The hayboat and barge—flee the two boat with bring her bevy of barges down the river the
  [ begin leaf 12 recto ]loc_ej.01041_large.jpg
picture of the New York customs

passage in poem

middle aged? ? ^single woman ? seeing from day to day for many years a man whom she deeply loves—never flagging—and eventually dies.—

The test of the goodness or truth of any thing is the soul itself—whatever does good to the soul, soothes, refreshes, cheers, inspirits, consoles, &c.—that is so, easy enough—But doctrines, sermons, logic ? ?

  [ begin leaf 12 verso ]loc_ej.01042_large.jpg
Do you know what I well know Do you [no handwritten text supplied here] it is to 
  be loved as you pass in 
  the street? Do you know what it is to Do you know what it is 
  to have men and women 
  crave the touch of 
  your hand and the 
  contact of you?
Th not— —must be the poets I would have The poets I would have must be a power in the state, and an engrossing power in the state.
  [ begin leaf 13 recto ]loc_ej.01043_large.jpg   [ begin leaf 13 verso ]loc_ej.01044_large.jpg
If you have sons habit custom them 
  to be drivers of horses I knew six brothers drivers 
  of horses
Why should I do much The capitol, the president, 
  the laws, I dem
There was never any more inception 
  than there is now Nor any more youth or age And will never be any more 
  perfection Nor any more heaven or hell
  [ begin leaf 14 recto ]loc_ej.01045_large.jpg

The few who write the books and preach the sermons and ? keep? the schools—I do not think ther are they so much more than those who do not teach or preach, or write All tThis we call literature and science is not so very much—there is enough of unaccountable importance and beauty in every step we tread and every thought of [illegible]

Literature to these gentlemen is a parlor in which no person is to be welcomed unless he come attired in dress coat and observing the approved decorums with the fashionable
  [ begin leaf 14 verso ]loc_ej.01046_large.jpg
Poem—illustrating (good moments) soul in high glee all out (exquisite state of feeling of happiness— some moments at the opera—in the woods—

Criticism

He leaps over or dives under for the time, all the reforms and propositions that worry these days and goes to the making of powerful men and women.—These With these he says, all reforms, all good, will come.—Without these all reforms all good, all outside effects, are useless and helpless.—

  [ begin leaf 15 recto ]loc_ej.01047_large.jpg

Poem

"The Bridegroom" ? for recitation (tremulous with joy Mario's voice quivering) (bring in a Death

We want no reforms no institutions, no parties—We want a living principle as nature has, under which nothing can go wrong.

—This must be vital through the United States, fit for the largest cases and actions and the widest

  [ begin leaf 15 verso ]loc_ej.01048_large.jpg
If the Do you think I have written 
  all this for my own 
  good? Well perhaps I have . . . . 
 but it is not in the 
  your you think, imagine,
No one can realize anything 
  unless he has it in him . . . . 
  or has been it It must ^certainly tally with what is 
  in him . . . . otherwise it is 
  all blank to him. The annals the past, light, space 
 —if I have them not in 
  me, I have them not at all The future is in me as a seed 
  or nascent thought.   [ begin leaf 16 recto ]loc_ej.01049_large.jpg If the general has not the 
  best a good 
  army in himself 
  he has no a good army . . . . otherwise he has a poor no army worth mentioning. If you poor— are rich in 
  yourself you are rich . . . . 
 otherwise you are ^wretchedly poor If you are located in 
  yourself you are well 
  located . . . . if not whate 
  you can never be are [illegible] dislodged or 
  moved thence If you can be are happy out 
  of yourself you can 
  be are happy . . . . for but I tell 
  you cannot be happy 
  through by others any more 
  than you can beget 
  a child through by others 
  . . . . or conceive a child 
  through by others.
  [ begin leaf 16 verso ]loc_ej.01050_large.jpg
I write not the hymns I see th[illegible] the building of churches to 
  God . . . . If I build a church it 
  shall be the a church 
  of to men and women If I write hymns they 
  shall be all to men 
  and women, If I become a devotee 
  it shall be to men 
  and women.
  [ begin leaf 17 recto ]loc_ej.01051_large.jpg
  • [illegible] shorty
  • Brownie
  • Dead bodies
  • Hamlet's Ghost
  • Letloose
  • Graball Punch
  • 4th of July
  • Christmas Johnny
  • Doughnuts
  • Poggy—Shortey
  • Pochuck
  • Bonehardener
  • Codmouth
  • Black Jack
  • Broadway Jack
  • Dressmaker
  • Harlem Charley
  • Blower Bell
  • [illegible]
  •   [ begin leaf 17 verso ]loc_ej.01052_large.jpg
  • Dry Dock John
  • Raggedy
  • Jack Smith's Monkey
  • Emigrant
  • Wild man of Borneo
  • Steamboat
  • Elephant
  • Buffalo
  • Santa Anna
  • Blind Sam
  • Rosy
  • Baltimore Charley
  • Long Boston
  • Short Boston
  • Mannieyunk
  • Pretty Ike
  • Jersey
  • Mountaineer
  [ begin leaf 18 recto ]loc_ej.01053_large.jpg

It is not a labor of clothing or putting on or describing—it is a labor of clearing away and not reducing—for every thing is beautiful in itself and perfect—and the office of the poet is to remove what stands in the way of our perceiving the beauty and perfection

My final aim

To concentrate around me the leaders of all reforms—transcendentalist spiritualists, free soilers

  [ begin leaf 18 verso ]loc_ej.01054_large.jpg
flawless truth and put it in the windows of your brains

A Man at auction

How much for the man He is of ? value For him the earth lay 
  preparing billions of 
  years without one 
  animal or plant For him the things of the 
  air, the earth and 
  the sea He is not only himself He is the father of 
  other men who 
  shall be fathers 
  in their turn
  [ begin leaf 19 recto ]loc_ej.01055_large.jpg

A woman at Auction

How much for the 
  woman? For her all She can is not only herself 
  she is the bearer of 
  of other women, who 
  shall be mothers, She is the bearer of 
  men who shall be 
 [cut away]
  [ begin leaf 19 verso ]loc_ej.01056_large.jpg
For him all sentiments For him In his appointed day 
  he becomes a 
  God In his appointed time 
  he reaches his 
  ecstacy He is the one loved He is the master
  [ begin leaf 20 recto ]loc_ej.01057_large.jpg
verse in each pictures illustrating 
 
  • a European
  • Asiatic
  • African

American opera

when a song is sung the accompaniment to be by only one instrument or two instruments the rest silent. —the ^vocal performer to make far more of his song, or solo part, by by-play, attitudes, expressions, movements, &c. than is usual at all in the made by the Italian opera singers— —The American opera to be far more simple, and give far more scope to the persons enacting the characters
  [ begin leaf 20 verso ]loc_ej.01058_large.jpg
fiercely and with screaming energy This great earth that rolls in the air, and the sun and moon, and men and women—do you think nothing more is to be made of than storekeeping and books and produce and drygoods and something to pay taxes on?
  [ begin leaf 21 recto ]loc_ej.01059_large.jpg
^Who are the Three old men going slowly with their arms about each others' necks Who are
  [ begin leaf 21 verso ]loc_ej.01060_large.jpg
This great round globe with its rolling circles—and time—and perpetual motions—and all the moving animals—men and women—the sea and soil—the plants—the curious emananations
Have you in you the enthusiasm for the battles of [illegible] Re Bunker Hill and Long Island and Washington's retreat?—Have you the heroic feeling for—— —Look forth then fo— there is still occasion for courage and devotion—Nature is not so poor but there is always occasion for courage and determined power and defiance
  [ begin leaf 22 recto ]loc_ej.01061_large.jpg
Always A truly the any great and original persons, teacher, inventor, poet or artist or poet, must himself make the taste and by which ^only he will be appreciated or even received.

for oration

shall ^must we be unchecked, un[no handwritten text supplied here] unmastered.—What real Americans can be made out of slaves? What real Americans can be made out of the masters of slaves?
Then you can say ^as to Nature these words—send us O Nature as much as you like—Send us the children of the poor, the ignorant and the depraped—We are ready for them—we can receive them—for them also we have preparation and welcome—We have not only welcome for the healthy [illegible] strong
  [ begin leaf 22 verso ]loc_ej.01062_large.jpg
Poem

Bridalnight.

one a quivering jelly of love 
  limpid transparent [illegible] Limitless jets of love, hot 
  and enormous Arms of love [illegible] strong as 
  attraction reach as wide and large 
  as the air Drunken and crazy 
  with love, swing in 
  it is in the plummetless sea
  [ begin leaf 23 recto ]loc_ej.01063_large.jpg
Body Loveflesh 
  swelling and 
  deliciously throbbing aching whiteblood of love

in dream

The architect that comes 
  among the stonecutters 
  and the heaps of 
  cut stone poem describes how the 
  workmen, possessed with 
  an indescribable faith, 
  go on age after age in 
  their work—and at last 
  came architects and 
  used each in its place 
  the stones they 
  had cut
  [ begin leaf 23 verso ]loc_ej.01064_large.jpg
poem of a road
The snowstorm or rainstorm bunkroom stringteam the counterfeit detector the directory the census returns, the Presidents men and the Governors message and themayor message of the mayor and the message of the Chief of Police the blows of the fightingmen—the uppercut and onetwothree
The bugle calls in the ballroom—the dancers gentlemen lead out go for their partners—the playing begins—the dancers bow to each other.
  [ begin leaf 24 recto ]loc_ej.01065_large.jpg
The swimming-bath 
  the stinggall
The dishes on the daily table—the coffee the roast meat—the oysters—the coffee and cornbread and rye and wheatbread,
The questions are such as these Has his life shown the true 
  American character? And does it show the true American 
  character? Has he been easy and friendly with 
  his workmen?—Has he been 
  the stern master of slaves? Has he been for making ignominious 
  distinctions?—Has he 
  respected the literary classes and 
  looked on the ignorant classes with contempt
  [ begin leaf 24 verso ]loc_ej.01066_large.jpg
If there be animal some brute that is very 
  sagacious and intelligent And a being of our human race 
  no more sagacious and intelligent 
  than that animal—is one 
  preferred to the other?

Equality of all rights and persons is imperiously demanded by selfpreservation.—The cause of the ruin of all states that have been ruined has been that the whole body of the inhabitants without exception were not equally interested in the preservation of those states or cities—or that a portion was degraded

  [ begin leaf 25 recto ]loc_ej.01067_large.jpg
form of a poem or the composition in which the opinions are expressed by different wise men or youths, as 1st wise man, 1st youth 1st woman.—or as expressed by Socrates, Christ
The expression of a wellperfectmade man appears not only in his face—but in his limbs—The motion of his hands and arms and all his joints—his walk—the carriage of his neck—and the flex of his waist and hips Dress does not hide him. The   [ begin leaf 25 verso ]loc_ej.01068_large.jpg quality he has and the clean strong sweet supple [illegible] nature he has [illegible] strike through his the cotton and woolen.—To see him walk is a spectacle or aconveys the impression of to hearing a beautiful poem.—To see his back and the back of his neck and shoulderside is a spectacle. Great in the body!—There is something in the close presence touch of any candid and clean human being person . . . .—what it is I do not know . . . . but it fills me with wonderful and exquisite sensations.—It is enough to be with him or— with her.—
  [ begin leaf 26 recto ]loc_ej.01069_large.jpg
describe the perfect male body—pancratist—perfect in all gynasia
Poem of the Wrestlers
My respiration and inspiration 
 . . . . the beating of my heart . . . . 
 the passing of blood and air 
  through my lungs.

Addresses on Literature

Though it have all the learning and art of the schools if it has not life it is nothing If When you read or hear if it does not call the blood leaping and flowing—of —We do not fall in love with statues—we have healthy love for them
  [ begin leaf 26 verso ]loc_ej.01070_large.jpg
American Opera.—put three banjos, (or more?) in the orchestra—and let them accompany (at times exclusively,) the songs of the baritone or tenor— Let a considerable part of the performance be instrumental—by the orchestra only.— Let a few words go a great ways—the woplot not complicated but simple—Always one leading idea—as Friendship, Courage, Gratitude, Love,—always a distinct meaning— The story and libretto as now are generally of no account.— In the American Opera the story and libretto must be the body of the performance.
  [ begin leaf 27 recto ]loc_ej.01071_large.jpg
The fingers of the pianist playing lightly and rapidly over the keys.

illustration

a man placing his ear To place the ear flat on the breast of the motionless body to see if it has any life in it's heart.

Poem

The land where—— [illegible] The land where
  [ begin leaf 27 verso ]loc_ej.01072_large.jpg
The poor despised—Irish girls ^and boys immigrants just over
A fierce protective sweep around shielding them I am the poet of the shallow and flat and despised Any one can [illegible] may know that the great heroes and poets are divine But
The woodman that takes his axe and jug with him shall take me with him all day,
  [ begin leaf 28 recto ]loc_ej.01073_large.jpg
Poem What endures
modify I have no mockings ? and laughter? I have only to be silent ? and
man and woman at auction
Here is I see—Adam and Eve again I see the old myths —the

poem picture of war

—(the hospital at Sebastopol,)

then the opposite—the inferences and results—what war does to develope​ and strengthen and make more energetic and agile humanity—and what it contributes to poetry, oratory, &c.—
  [ begin leaf 28 verso ]loc_ej.01074_large.jpg
all that he does not lose by comparison with the orange tree or magnolia or with the fields that nourish the sugarplant or the cottonplant . . . . all that what strengthens or clothes adorns or is luscious can be had ^through subtle counterparts from him—from him the[illegible] magnolias and oranges and sugarplant and cottonplant and all fruits and flowers and all the sorts and productions of the earth.—
  [ begin leaf 29 recto ]loc_ej.01075_large.jpg
Poem—addressed to a young man who has come ^of age and is in possession of immense wealth.—

address on literature

—you must become a force in the state—and a real and great force—just as real and great as the president and congress—greater than they
  [ begin leaf 29 verso ]loc_ej.01076_large.jpg
I am an old artillerist I tell of some
On South Fifth st (Monroe place) 2 doors above the river from Sixth street—going toward Greenpoint— On Wilson st Green, corner Fifth & Grand
  [ begin leaf 30 recto ]loc_ej.01077_large.jpg   [ begin leaf 30 verso ]loc_ej.01078_large.jpg
blatherers The wealthiesty affluent man is he who answers all the ^confronts wealth whatever the grandest show sees [illegible] by its an equivalent or more than equivalent in from the depths bottomless grander riches wealth of himself.—
Insouciance 
  een soo se áwnz or the mettlesome action of the blood horse and the unimpeachableness of the sentiment of trees haughty & jealous and haughty instinct
  [ begin leaf 31 recto ]loc_ej.01079_large.jpg
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