America to Old-World Bards
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| A reminiscence from reading Walter Scott |
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leaf 1 verso |
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leaf 2 recto |
| The The [Am?] [qu?] imported ancient ballad reciting, ending |
| Once, America, gazing I gazing toward thee, ^Mother of all, |
| Musing, seeking as ever the themes of thee, |
| Thank ^well for me, thou saidst, before thou goest |
| the old bards |
| Speak Name out the word for me acknowledging each |
ancient past gone singers.r. |
| I too receive them with perfect hospitality. |
| Well-pleased, accepting all, ^curiously prepared for, |
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leaf 2 verso |
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leaf 3 recto |
(Of many depbts incalculable |
| Haply the ^New World's chiefest debts debt |
| is to past poets ? poems.) |
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leaf 3 verso |
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leaf 4 recto |
| Unwittingly for thee ^Far back Preluding thee, America ^America, |
| First Egyp chants, Egyptian priests and those of |
| Ethiopia |
| The Hindu epics, the Grecian, the Chinese, and the |
| Persian, |
| The Biblic books and prophets, the beauteous |
| deep idylls of the Nazarene, |
| The Iliad, Odyssey, ^plots, doings, wanderings of Eneas, |
| Hesiod Eschylus, Sophocles, Merlin, Arthur, |
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leaf 4 verso |
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leaf 5 recto |
| These as a mighty great As some great shadowy group, ^gathering around |
| [paper glued] |
| Launching, long-darting, Darting m a their mighty |
| many crowding masterful eyes ^forward at thee |
| Thee Thou with ^as now thy ben thy thy bending head [an?] |
| neck and head |
with courteous hand &workd word |
| [paper glued] |
| [paus?] |
| pausing |
| Thee Thou, as pausing for a moment, ^bending thine drop'st thine eyes |
| observing on them ^the past, enterest ing at |
| thy entrance-porch. |
| Preluding thee America |
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Date
- This manuscript was probably composed in autumn, 1890 as is suggested by the postmarks on the envelopes on which it is written. The order of the manuscript leaves has been derived from the published poem.
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Editorial note
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This poem was revised and published under the title "Old Chants," first in the New York Truth, March 19, 1891.
The leaves that comprise this manuscript are five opened-up envelopes and one cancelled letter written to Whitman from J. Harry Schneller, Jr. The verso envelopes and letter are all dated September through October, 1890.
The verso of
leaf #1 is
blank.
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Location
- America to Old-World Bards | The Charles E. Feinberg Collection of the Papers of Walt Whitman, 1839-1919, Library of Congress, Washington, DC..
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