Content:
Edward Grier dates this notebook before 1855, based on the pronoun revisions from third person to first person and the notebook's similarity to Whitman's early
"Talbot Wilson"
notebook (
Notebooks and Unpublished Prose Manuscripts
[New York: New York University Press, 1984], 1:102). Grier notes that a portion of this notebook (beginning "How spied the captain and sailors") describes the wreck of the ship
San Francisco
in January 1854 (1:108 n33). A note on one of the last pages of the notebook (surface 26) matches the plot of the first of four tales Whitman published as "Some Fact-Romances" in
The Aristidean
in 1845, so segments of the notebook may have been written as early as the 1840s. Lines from the notebook were used in "Song of Myself" and "A Song of the Rolling Earth," which appeared in the 1856
Leaves of Grass
. Language and ideas from the notebook also appear to have contributed to other poems and prose, including "Miracles;" the preface to the 1855
Leaves of Grass
; "The Sleepers," which first appeared as the fourth poem in the 1855
Leaves
; and "A Song of Joys," which appeared as "Poem of Joys" in the 1860 edition.
Content:
One leaf made by pasting together two scraps of pink paper, probably
wrappers from the 1855 edition of
Leaves of Grass.
This portion of the manuscript contains several fragmentary lines written in pencil and describing a whale hunt. The lines are probably related to lines on the same topic in "A Song of Joys," first published as "Poem of Joys" in the 1860 edition of
Leaves of Grass.
In the 1867 edition the poem was divided into numbered sections and retitled "Poems of Joy," before resuming its original title in the
Passage to India
section of the 1871–72 edition. It took its final title in the 1881–82 edition. This scrap is attached to another scrap (loc.06005) that contains a title ("Poem of the Trainer") written in ink. On the reverse side of the leaf (loc.06006) are approximately four lines, written and revised in ink, that may be related to the poem "Year of Meteors. (1859–1860)."
Whitman Archive Title: The genuine miracles of Christ
Content:
This cancelled prose manuscript was probably written between 1850 and 1855. Language in the manuscript was used in the 1855 edition of
Leaves of Grass
, in the poem that was eventually titled "Song of Myself." Segments of the manuscript also resemble language that appeared in the preface to the 1855
Leaves of Grass
and in the 1856 "Poem of Perfect Miracles," later titled "Miracles." The wording of "the vast elemental sympathy, which, only the human soul is capable of generating and emitting in steady and limitless floods," was used, slightly revised, in "A Song of Joys," which first appeared in the 1860 edition of
Leaves of Grass
as "Poem of Joys."
Physical Description: number of leaves unknown, handwritten
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Content:
Notes, apparently written as two paragraphs, which record ideas for a poem or poems. A transcription of this manuscript, the current location of which is unknown, was published by Richard Maurice Bucke in
Notes and Fragments
(London, Ontario: A. Talbot & Co., printers, 1899), 142. The last two phrases of this manuscript were used in the "Poem of Joys," first published in the 1860 edition of
Leaves of Grass
: "The memory of only one look—the boy lingering and waiting" (p. 261). The poem was retitled "Poems of Joy" in the 1867 edition. In 1871, when the poem appeared in the volume
Passage to India,
this line had been deleted and the original title restored. Some copies of the 1871–1872 edition of
Leaves of Grass
include the sheets from that volume. In subsequent editions, the poem was retitled "A Song of Joys."
Content:
A fragment of several lines, apparently written before publication of the
first edition of
Leaves of
Grass
in 1855. One of the lines was included in the 1860
"Poem of Joys," which
was later entitled "A Song of
Joys."
Content:
Two scraps pasted together to make one leaf. Lines from this manuscript
were revised and used in "A Song of
Joys," which first appeared in the 1860 edition
of
Leaves of Grass
, as "Poem of Joys."
Content:
These twenty leaves, numbered by a collector, relate to "Poem of Joys," first published in
the 1860
Leaves of Grass
. The title became
"Poems of Joy" in 1867, but
reverted to the original title in its next two iterations (in the "Passage to India" supplement of
1872 and 1876). In 1881 it was finally titled "A Song of Joys" and left independent of any
cluster.
Content:
A draft of "After the Supper and
Talk". This poem was rejected by
Harper's
in 1885 but published in
Lippincott's Magazine
in November
1887, after which it eventually became the final poem in the "First
Annex" titled "Sands at
Seventy." To the verso are pasted sections 16 and 18-19 of "Poem of Joys" (final title:
"A Song of Joys") clipped
either from the independent book
Passage
to India
(1871) or from the "Passage to India" supplement to
Leaves of Grass.
Content:
Draft of poem later revised and published as "After the Supper and Talk" in 1887. On verso detached from
Leaves of Grass
, part of "Poem of Joys," first
published in the 1860 edition of
Leaves of Grass
, and later published as
"A Song of
Joys." The title "Poem of Joys" is in Whitman's hand.
