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W.J. Hensley to Walt Whitman, 6 March 1888

About This Item

  • Title: W.J. Hensley to Walt Whitman, 6 March 1888
  • Date: March 6, 1888
  • Creator(s): Walt Whitman | W.J. Hensley
  • Whitman Archive ID: loc.07879
  • Source: The Charles E. Feinberg Collection of the Papers of Walt Whitman, 1839–1919, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. Transcribed from digital images or a microfilm reproduction of the original item. For a description of the editorial rationale behind our treatment of the correspondence, see our statement of editorial policy.
  • Contributors to digital file: Ashlyn Stewart Breanna Himschoot Brandon James O'Neil Stephanie Blalock
  • Cite this page: Whitman, Walt and W.J. Hensley. "W.J. Hensley to Walt Whitman, 6 March 1888." The Walt Whitman Archive. Gen. ed. Matt Cohen, Ed Folsom, & Kenneth M. Price. Accessed 11 May 2025. <http://www.whitmanarchive.org>.
  • Source File: loc.07879.xml (TEI)
 loc_as.00183_large.jpg The Mount Lodge, St Leonard. 6. 3. 88. Dear Sir,

Inspired by a perusal of some of your leaves of grass, especially "Starting from Paumanok," "Song of the Open Road" & "Crossing Brooklyn Ferry, I dashed off the enclosed Sonnet, which I take the liberty of send to you, the rather to gratify my own pride, than to expect that you will esteem such a faulty production to be an honour.

 loc_as.00185_large.jpg

I hope you will not consider me to be taking a liberty, but merely to be paying a somewhat antiquated tribute (spontaneously) to the honour of a great genius.

Yours respectfully, W.J. Hensley "I dream'd a dream I saw a city invincible 
  to the attacks of the whole of the rest of the earth, I dreamed that was the new city of friends."1
 loc_as.00184_large.jpg

However I think it better to leave it as it is—

To a Prophet.

Whitman, thy earnest cries have reached our shore, Thou prophet of the old, & new En-Masse: From world to world the glorious tidings pass, Of which down-trodden mortals scarce before Did dream, or if they did, with fire and gore Raised Hell on Earth by setting class 'gainst class; Thus crushing Freedom at her birth, alas! And ripping up the mother that her bore. But thou dost teach a common Brotherhood, The Present joins the Past, the East the West, And from their union spring a perfect brood, Bound by the sacred ties of Comradeship, To purify our Earth from Error's pest, Till her last Sun in waves eternal dip.

Correspondent:
As yet we have no information about this correspondent.

Notes

  • 1. Hensley is referring to Section 34 of the "Calamus" cluster of poems, which would later be entitled I Dreamed in a Dream. [back]
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