What babble is this about | Whitman Archive

Whitman Archive Title: What babble is this about
Whitman Archive ID: med.00904
Repository: Catalog of Unlocated Walt Whitman Manuscripts
Date: Between 1850 and 1867
Genre: poetry, prose
Physical Description: number of leaves unknown, handwritten
View Images: currently unavailable
Content: Language in this manuscript is similar to the following line from the first poem in the first (1855) edition of Leaves of Grass , eventually titled "Song of Myself": "Walking the path worn in the grass and beat through the leaves of the brush;" (1855, p. 36). Language in this manuscript is also similar to a line in the long manuscript draft poem, unpublished in Whitman's lifetime, titled "Pictures." The line in "Pictures" reads: "And there, rude grave‑mounds in California—and there a path worn in the grass." The first several lines of "Pictures" (not including this line) were revised and published as "My Picture-Gallery" in The American in October 1880. The poem was later published in Leaves of Grass as part of the "Autumn Rivulets" cluster (1881, p. 310). This manuscript may relate to the poem "A Farm Picture," published in Leaves of Grass in 1867, particularly the line: "A sun-lit pasture field, with cattle and horses feeding" (1867, p. 46). This manuscript may relate to the poem titled "A Song of Joys," which first appeared in the 1860 Leaves of Grass as "Poem of Joys." A similar line in that poem reads: "O the joy of my spirit! It is uncaged! It darts like lightning!" (1860, p. 259). Because the manuscript has not been located it is difficult to speculate on the circumstances of its composition. Although Bucke has grouped the lines together in his transcription, there is also a possibility that they represent three separate manuscripts.