To th[deletion, illegible] 2 Last of the ebb, and daylight
waning | | Last of ^of the poured-out ebb, and daylight waning, | sScented sea‑breaths landward shoreward making— | | smells of sedge and salt incoming, | | With many a half‑caught voice sent | | up from by from the whirls and eddies, | | Many a muffled confession—many a | | sob and whisper'd word, | As fFrom As of speakars far or hid. |
| | | | How they sweep down and out! how they mutter! | | Heroes Poets unnamed ^and lost designs——poets and artists greatest of any with all their lost designs, | | —pride of | | Pride of manhood—tones of the dying | | Tones of the dying— Love unreturned—a chorus of age's complaints— | | —love unreturn'd—tones of the dying——hope's last words, | | Some suicide's despair's ing beguiling cry, Away | | to the boundless waste, and never | | again return. |
| | | | On to oblivion! then! on—quicker, quicker yet! | | on—on, and do your part, ye [deletion, illegible] shrouding ^burying waters! | | On, for your time, ye furious debouché! |
|
|
- Date
- Whitman probably composed this manuscript shortly before its publication in 1885.
- Editorial note
- This manuscript is a draft of the poem "Last of Ebb, and Daylight Waning," first published in the "Fancies at Navesink" sequence of poems in the August 1885 issue of Nineteenth Century.
- The verso of the manuscript leaf is blank.
- Notes written on manuscript
- In top margin, in unknown hand: 9.
- Location
- Last of ebb, and daylight waning (bound with "Fancies at Navesink") | Yale Collection of American Literature, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library.
- Whitman Archive ID
- yal.00044
|
