[Full of wickedness] | Whitman Archive

Whitman Archive Title: [Full of wickedness]
Whitman Archive ID: uva.00267
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: 88
Date: 1857-1859
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 1 leaf, 15.5 x 8 cm, handwritten
View Images: 1 | 2
Content: The verses on the recto, while not published word-for-word until 1897, seem to represent an early draft of the poem first published as number 13 of the cluster "Leaves of Grass" in the 1860 Leaves of Grass , and eventually titled "You Felons on Trial in Courts." Whitman's careful script and verse forms here also resemble the methods of inscription used for the "Live Oak, with Moss" poems dated to the post-1856, pre-1860 period. The undeleted notes on the back are titled "Poems". A cartoon hand in the left margin points to the phrase "religious emotions." Whitman's use of the title "Calamus Leaves" dates these notes to the same pre-1860 period as the deleted verses on the recto, since "Calamus-Leaves" was what he renamed the cluster "Live Oak, with Moss" before settling on "Calamus" for the 1860 edition. A section of the notes below the rest (beginning "spirituality—the unknown,...") is inscribed in verse form.