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The Ode

About This Item

  • Title: The Ode
  • Date: 28 April 1859
  • Creator(s): Walt Whitman
  • Whitman Archive ID: per.01412
  • Source: Brooklyn Daily Times, 28 April 1859: 2. Our transcription is based on a digital image of a microfilm scan of the original issue. Microfilm of original issue held at Pennsylvania State University Libraries. For a description of the editorial rationale behind our treatment of the journalism, see our statement of editorial policy.
  • Editorial note: This piece is unsigned, as was the case for most of Whitman's journalism. However, this editorial is part of a series of texts that deal with a coherent theme that has been identified by the Whitman Archive journalism team as likely authored by Whitman. This decision is based on a combination of historical and (auto)biographical accounts, similarity to contemporary Whitman writings, a history of scholarly attribution, extant clippings retained by Whitman, computational stylometric analysis, and, in some cases, manuscript evidence in Whitman’s hand.
  • Contributors to digital file: Kaylen Michaelis Francesca Boston Jason Stacy Stephanie Blalock Karie Cobb Kevin McMullen
  • Cite this page: Whitman, Walt. "The Ode." The Walt Whitman Archive. Gen. ed. Matt Cohen, Ed Folsom, & Kenneth M. Price. Accessed 17 July 2024. <http://www.whitmanarchive.org>.
  • Source File: per.01412.xml (TEI)
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THE ODE.—

The Editor1 of the Eagle2 desires us to state that the "ode" which he published in his paper was intended as a burlesque on the Ode of the Star Editor, to which the latter awarded the selection from among those submitted for competition. We have no objection to do the Editor of the Eagle the justice of making this statement, now that we have induced him to do us the justice of naming which "cotemporary" it was whom he referred to as the author of the prize ode. At first he so alluded to the Star Spangled Banner Ode as to leave us open to the imputation of being its author.

Notes:

1. Issac Van Anden (1812–1875) founded the Brooklyn Daily Eagle in 1841 with Henry Cruse Murphy. He quickly became the paper's editor, manager, and publisher after Murphy was elected mayor of Brooklyn in 1841. He remained at the Eagle until 1870 when he sold it to the EagleAssociation. [back]

2. The Brooklyn Daily Eagle was the leading daily newspaper of the independent city of Brooklyn for much of Whitman's adult life. Founded in 1841, it became the main organ of the Democratic party in town. Whitman had been the Eagle's editor between 1846 and 1848 and still occasionally contributed to the paper into the late 1850s (see Amy Kapp, "A Long-Lost Eagle Article Puts Walt and Jeff on the Map," Walt Whitman Quarterly Review, vol. 40 [Winter/Spring 2023]: 140–49). For more information on Whitman and the Eagle, see Dennis K. Renner, "Brooklyn Daily Eagle," Walt Whitman: An Encyclopedia, ed. J.R. LeMaster and Donald D. Kummings (New York: Garland Publishing, 1998). [back]

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