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Wander-Teachers

  • Whitman Archive Title: Wander-Teachers
  • Whitman Archive ID: uva.00198
  • 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
  • Folder: 50-51
  • Date: 1857-1859
  • Genre: poetry
  • Physical Description: 2 leaves, 21.5 x 13 cm, handwritten
  • View Images: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4
  • Content: The poem was originally numbered 50. Whitman penciled in a question mark, in parentheses, in the upper-right corner. This became section 17 of "Chants Democratic" in the 1860 Leaves of Grass , with leaf 1 corresponding to verses 1-6 and leaf 2 ("We confer on equal terms with / each of The States,") to verses 7-13. Although he dropped it from Leaves of Grass in 1867, Whitman nonetheless used the poem, permanently retitled "On Journeys through the States," in Passage to India in 1871. In 1872 and 1876 it appeared in the "Passage to India" annexes to Leaves of Grass and Two Rivulets , respectively, and in the 1881 edition it took its final position in the cluster "Inscriptions."

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