Content:
A notebook Whitman used for various purposes in the mid-1850s. Edward F.
Grier, in his edition of Whitman's
Notebooks and Unpublished Prose
Manuscripts,
6 vols. (New York: New York University Press, 1984), 1: 246–280, noted that the
notebook contains lines and phrases that relate to several poems: "Song of the
Broad-Axe,"
"To a Common
Prostitute,"
"You Felons on Trial in
Courts,"
"Starting from
Paumanok,"
"Trickle Drops,"
"I Was Looking for a Long
While,"
"Poem of Joys,"
"Facing West from
California's Shores,"
"To the States,"
"A Song of the Rolling
Earth,"
"On the Beach a Night
Alone,"
"Full of Life Now,"
and "With
Antecedents."
Whitman Archive Title: Leaf [I was looking a long while]
Content:
Originally numbered 75; the pencil title "Leaflet" appears, deleted, in the upper-right corner.
This poem became section 19 of "Chants Democratic" in 1860; in 1867 it was permanently retitled "I Was Looking a Long While," and
in 1881 was assigned to the cluster "Autumn Rivulets."