^Italian Music in Dakota
|
| By Walt Whitman |
| |
| small type ¶ ["The Seventeenth—the finest Regimental Band I ever heard."] |
| |
| [paper glued] |
| Through the soft evening air enwinding all, |
| Rocks, woods, fort, cannon, pacing sentries, ^endless wil[illegible] es, |
| Ray'd in the limpid, yellow slanting |
|
sundown, |
| From In dulcet strains, in flutes' & cornets' notes, |
| Ray'd in the limpid, yellow, slanting sundown; |
| Electric, pensive, turbulent, artificial, |
| |
 [Leaf 1 verso]    |
| |
| [Leaf 2 recto] |
(Yet ^strangely fitting thee, O nNature, even here—mean- |
| ings unknown before, |
| Subtler than ever—more harmony—as if born |
| here—related here, |
| [cut away] |
| [paper glued] |
| Not to the citys frescoed rooms—not to the |
| audience of the opera house, |
| Sounds, songs, trills, wandering strains, as |
| really home return'd here at home; |
| Sonnambula's innocent love—trios, with |
| Norma's anguish, |
And thy extatic c[o?]horus Poliuto;) |
| [paper glued] |
| Ray'd in the limpid, yellow slanting sundown, |
| Music—Italian music in Dakota. |
|
| |
| [paper glued] |
blank line
|
| While Nature, sovereign of this |
| gnarled realm, |
| Lurking in some his hidden, barbaric, grim |
| recesses, |
(Acknowledging rapport, however far‑removed, |
| (As some old root, or soil of earth, its |
| own true-born flower or fruit, |
| Listens, well-pleased, |
|
| [Leaf 2 verso] |
|
-
Date
- This manuscript was likely composed between 1879 and 1881, after Whitman took a trip to the West (though not the Dakota Territory) and before the poem was published.
-
Editorial note
-
"Italian Music in Dakota" was published first in the 1881-82 edition of Leaves of Grass.
Verso of manuscript leaf has a note, presumably in an archivist's hand, which reads "H.G. 194."
Verso of manuscript leaf has a note, presumably in an archivist's hand, which reads "H.G. 194."
The verso of leaf #1 is blank.
-
Notes written on manuscript
- In right margin, in unknown hand: 534.
-
Location
- Italian Music in Dakota | Yale Collection of American Literature, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library.
-
Whitman Archive ID
- yal.00003
|
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)