In answer to your note I send enclosed a copy of my poem for Tuft's College on the 17th—which you are at liberty to publish on the 18th.1 I am not well enough to journey to College Hill, but have sent the piece & requested that it be read in its place on the programme, 17th, exactly the same as though I were present—which doubtless will be done.
Walt WhitmanCorrespondent:
Edward P. Clark was the
managing editor of the Springfield Republican. He appears
to have written, in a letter now lost, to Whitman to request permission to
publish the poem, "Song of the Universal," which Whitman was originally
scheduled to deliver before the Mathematician Society of Tufts College on June
17. See the letter from Whitman to J. C. Mann of March
25, 1874.