loc.02233.001_large.jpg
With1 loyal affection and best wishes2
to my dear poet. God bless him!
loc.02233.002_large.jpg
Splendor of ended day3
Be but the door
Opening the endless way—
Life evermore!
February 1892.
loc.02233.003_large.jpg
loc.02233.004_large.jpg
see notes Feb 10 1892
Correspondent:
Elizabeth Porter Gould
(1848–1906) was a Massachusetts writer and reformer who edited the
collection Gems from Walt Whitman (1889), a selection of
poems from Leaves of Grass that she condensed to create
short poetic "gems."
Notes
- 1. This letter is addressed:
Walt Whitman | Camden | New Jersey | 328 Mickle St. It is postmarked: BOSTON,
MASS | FEB 8 | 3-30P | 1892; CAMDEN, NJ | FEB 9 | 9AM | 92 | REC'D. [back]
- 2. Gould wrote this letter to
Whitman on a card that was printed with her name and address as follows: Miss
Gould | 131 Chestnut St. Beneath her printed street number, Gould has completed
her address by writing "Chelsea Mass."; she has also written "(over.)" to direct
Whitman to the remainder of her message on the verso of the card. [back]
- 3. Drawing inspiration from the
opening line of Whitman's poem "Song at
Sunset," which also begins with "Splendor of ended day," Gould has
included the four lines of verse that she had sent three years earlier as a
response to Horace Traubel's invitation to Whitman's seventieth birthday dinner,
which was held on May 31, 1889, in Camden. Gould had written to Whitman on December 30, 1889, to inquire whether the response
to Traubel had been received and to express disappointment that her verses were
not included among the notes and addresses from the birthday celebration that
were gathered and published in Camden's Compliment, a
volume edited by Traubel. [back]