Content:
Draft of a poem which Whitman titled "Nearing Departure." Whitman retitled the poem "To My
Soul" when it was first published, in the 1860 edition of
Leaves of Grass
. In 1867 Whitman cut eight lines and
revised others, retitling the poem "As Nearing Departure" and moving it to an untitled group of poems in
the supplement "Songs Before
Parting." In 1872 it was finally retitled "As the Time Draws Nigh" and transferred to the cluster
"Songs of Parting" within
the main body of
Leaves of
Grass
.
Content:
Draft of a poem titled "To the Future." Although the poem was unpublished in its entirety, the seventh line was used in the poem "To My Soul," which was first published in the 1860 edition of
Leaves of Grass
and later retitled "As the Time Draws Nigh." On the reverse is a draft of "To a Common Prostitute."
Content:
Mostly mounted clippings of poems taken from
Leaves of Grass
, stitched and tied with
ribbon by Walt Whitman. An autograph title page is followed by pages
numbered in red pencil 469-484. One poem, "Joy, Shipmate, Joy!," on p. 481 is written
entirely in Walt Whitman's hand (see image 23), and other corrections
and additions are in Whitman's hand throughout. The poems included are:
"Whispers of Heavenly
Death,"
"Yet, Yet Ye Downcast
Hours,"
"As Nearing
Departure" (later published, in a different form, as "As the Time Draws
Nigh"), "Darest
Thou Now O Soul,"
"Of Him I Love Day and
Night,"
"Quicksand Years That Whirl
Me I Know Not Whither" (later published as "Quicksand Years"),
"That Music Always
Round Me,"
"As If a Phantom Caress'd
Me,"
"O Living Always, Always
Dying,"
"Here, Sailor!"
(later published as "What
Ship Puzzled at Sea"), "A Noiseless Patient Spider,"
"To One Shortly to
Die,"
"Joy, Shipmate,
Joy!,"
"This Day, O Soul,"
"What Place is
Besieged?,"
"The Last
Invocation," and "Pensive and Faltering."
Content:
Corrected pages, many originally appearing in the 1876
Leaves of Grass,
of cluster "Songs of Parting," containing 17 poems.
Opposite a portrait of Whitman, the title page reads, "Songs of Parting,
by Walt Whitman, The Poet's Corrected Proof." These corrections were
probably intended for the 1881–82 edition of
Leaves of Grass
. The 17 poems included
are: "As the Time Draws
Nigh,"
"Ashes of Soldiers,"
"Years of the
Modern,"
"Thoughts,"
"Song at Sunset,"
"My Legacy,"
"Pensive on Her Dead
Gazing, I Heard the Mother of All,"
"Camps of Green,"
"Bathed in War's
Perfume,"
"Now Finalé to the
Shore,"
"As they Draw to a
Close,"
"The Untold Want,"
"Portals,"
"These Carols,"
"To the Reader at
Parting,"
"Joy, Shipmate,
Joy!," and "So
Long."
