[How can there be immortality]

Whitman Archive Title: [How can there be immortality]
Whitman Archive ID: uva.00014
Repository: Catalog of the Walt Whitman Literary Manuscripts at the Clifton Waller Barrett Library of American Literature, Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library, University of Virginia
Box: 1
Folder: 49
Date: about 1855
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 1 leaf, 4.5 x 14.5 cm, handwritten
View Images: 1 | 2
Content: These lines, appearing on a very small section of white laid paper cut and cropped irregularly, bear a strong resemblance to the (eventual) second verse paragraph in section 6 of "Starting from Paumanok," first published in 1860 as "Proto-Leaf." The fragmentary lines on the verso (beginning "Downward, buoyant, swif[t]"), represent a different version of a line incorporated in the pre-1855 notebook poem "Pictures" and of one inscribed in the 1854 notebook [I know a rich capitalist...], currently housed at the New York Public Library.