Content:
The handwriting and Whitman's use of the long "s" in several of the words suggest that this is an early manuscript. It is possible that these lines are early notes for the second poem in the 1855 edition of
Leaves of Grass
, eventually titled "A Song for Occupations." This manuscript may also relate to yal.00081 ("Pictures"), a lengthy manuscript poem held at the Beinecke Library at Yale University that was probably written in the mid- to late-1850s. On the back of this leaf (uva.00086) is a list, almost certainly written later than the prose on the front, of subjects on which to write "a cluster of poems."
Content:
Whitman probably drafted this manuscript in the early 1850s as he was preparing materials for the first (1855) edition of
Leaves of Grass
. The manuscript includes lines that relate to the prose preface and to several of the poems in that edition, including the poems eventually titled "Song of Myself," "To Think of Time," and "A Song for Occupations." The manuscript also includes lines that relate to the manuscript poem "Pictures,"" which probably dates to the mid- to late 1850s. Notes about the arrangement and production of the 1855 edition of
Leaves of Grass
are written on the back of this manuscript.
Content:
This manuscript includes three lines of poetry on a trimmed sheet of paper.
This appears to be one of a group of manuscripts related to the poem,
unpublished in Whitman's lifetime, with the manuscript title, "Pictures." Whitman used
lines from "Pictures"
for the
poem "My Picture-Gallery," first published in
Leaves of Grass
(1881).
Content:
Originally titled "Pictures,"
this manuscript is a revision of the first four verses of a draft poem by that
name, inscribed by Whitman in a twenty-nine page notebook before the first edition
of
Leaves of Grass
appeared in
1855. The notes "? for children" and "extend this?" appear in the upper left
corner. The final verse appears in the upper right corner. After further revision
Whitman published these verses in the October 30, 1880 issue of
The American
under the title "My Picture-Gallery," after which
he placed it in the new cluster "Autumn Rivulets" in the 1881 edition.
Content:
A phrase beginning "Picture of one of/ the Greek games" appears in the upper right
corner, delimited from the rest of the notes with two curved lines. The words
"Spanish bull fight" appear in their own semicircle (damaged by Whitman's cutting)
in the lower right corner. The lines seem to occupy a middle space between the
very early notebook poem "Pictures" and the 1856 "Poem of Salutation" (ultimately "Salut au Monde!"). Therefore, the date of this manuscript is likely before 1856.
Whitman Archive Title: [The circus boy is riding in the]
Content:
The verso lines (beginning with the individually deleted line "O Walt Whitman,
show us some pictures!" and continuing "America, always Pictorial!") represent a
later draft of the beginning of the poem "Pictures" than the most complete extant version, which
is contained in the pre-1855 "Pictures" notebook currently housed at Yale University. Critics have
dated the lines to around 1880, when Whitman was working on a short version of
"Pictures" both for
magazine publication and for the 1881 edition of
Leaves of Grass
, where it was published as "My Picture-Gallery." But
Whitman's early style of inscription in this draft, along with the line "It is
round—it has room for America, north and south" and his use of his own name in the
deleted first line, all suggest that Whitman may have inscribed this draft around
the same time that he was working on the new 1856
"Poem of Salutations"
(eventually "Salut au
Monde!"). This draft also suggests that at one point he may have considered
linking what would become "Poem of
Salutations" and the formally and thematically similar "Pictures" more directly. The
lines on the recto, divided by a horizontal line, refer to images of a circus boy
on a fleet horse and of watching those on a shore disappear. The relationship
between either of these lines and Whitman's published works is unclear.
Content:
Whitman probably drafted this manuscript in the 1850s. The lines are versions of a line in a long manuscript poem titled "Pictures" (yal.00081), which probably dates to the mid- to late 1850s. Based on the first-person perspective in these draft lines, Emory Holloway has speculated that they likely were written after the line in "Pictures" (
Pictures: An Unpublished Poem of Walt Whitman
[New York: The June House, 1927], 31). The first several lines of "Pictures" (not including this line) were eventually revised and published as "My Picture-Gallery" in
The American
in October 1880. The poem was later published in
Leaves of Grass
as part of the "Autumn Rivulets" cluster. Lines on the back of this leaf (uva.00260) appeared, in revised form, in the poem eventually titled "The Sleepers."
Content:
Bound draft of a poem unpublished in Whitman's lifetime, titled "Pictures." The first several lines of draft were revised and published as "My Picture-Gallery" in
The American
in October 1880.
Content:
Whitman probably drafted this manuscript in the early to mid-1850s. Versions of these lines appeared in a long manuscript poem titled "Pictures," which probably dates to the mid- to late 1850s. The first several lines of "Pictures" (not including these lines) were eventually revised and published as "My Picture-Gallery" in
The American
in October 1880. The poem was later published in
Leaves of Grass
as part of the "Autumn Rivulets" cluster. Poetic lines drafted on the back of this manuscript leaf (yal.00483) likely contributed to the poem eventually titled "Song of Myself."
Whitman Archive Title: something that presents the sentiment
Content:
A line in this manuscript appears in a long manuscript poem unpublished in Whitman's lifetime, titled "Pictures." The first several lines of that poem were revised and published as "My Picture-Gallery" in
The American
in October 1880. The notes written in ink on this manuscript probably relate to the poem that was eventually titled "Salut au Monde!" first published as "Poem of Salutation" in the 1856 edition of
Leaves of Grass
. The earlier lines written in pencil may relate to the sixth poem in the first (1855) edition of
Leaves of Grass
, eventually titled "Faces." These connections suggest the manuscript was probably written in the early to mid-1850s. The manuscript is pasted down, so an image of the reverse is not currently available.
Content:
Whitman likely wrote the building specifications on what is presented here as the last leaf of this notebook first, and then flipped the notebook over and wrote notes from the other direction. References to the
San Francisco
can be dated to sometime after January 1854. The cover of the notebook is labeled "Note Book Walt Whitman" in a hand that is not Whitman's. Selections and subjects from this notebook were used in the 1855 edition of
Leaves of Grass
, including phrases from the poems that would later be titled "Song of Myself" and "Song of the Answerer." See Edward Grier,
Notebooks and Unpublished Prose Manuscripts
(New York: New York University Press, 1984), 1:113–117. Lines in this manuscript correspond to a line from the manuscript poem, unpublished in Whitman's lifetime, titled "Pictures": "And now a merry recruiter passes, with fife and drum, seeking who will join his troop." The first several lines of the poem (not including this line) were revised and published in
The American
in October 1880 as "My Picture-Gallery," a poem later included in
Leaves of Grass
as part of the "Autumn Rivulets" cluster (1881, p. 310).
Content:
Emory Holloway has pointed out that Whitman's reference to the sinking of the
San Francisco
indicates that this notebook, "or at least part of it, is later than 1853." He writes that "it was probably begun in 1854" because the "marble church" in the first passage presumably refers to the Marble Collegiate Church in Manhattan, "which was not completed until then." See Holloway, "A Whitman Manuscript,"
American Mercury
3 (December 1924), 475–480. See also Andrew C. Higgins, "Art and Argument: The Rise of Walt Whitman's Rhetorical Poetics, 1838-1855," PhD diss., University of Massachusetts, Amherst, 1999; and Edward F. Grier,
Notebooks and Unpublished Prose Manuscripts
(New York: New York University Press, 1984), 1:128–135. Of the notebook passages that can be identified with published works, most represent early versions of images and phrases from the 1855 poem eventually titled "Song of Myself." One passage clearly contributed to the 1856 poem later titled "Song of the Open Road." Others are possibly connected to the poems eventually titled "A Song for Occupations" and "Great Are the Myths," both first published in the 1855 edition of
Leaves of Grass,
and to the preface for that volume. One passage seems to have contributed to the 1860–1861 poem that Whitman later titled "Our Old Feuillage." One passage is similar to a line in a long manuscript poem unpublished in Whitman's lifetime, titled "Pictures". The first several lines of that poem (not including the line in question) were revised and published as "My Picture-Gallery" in
The American
in October 1880 and then in
Leaves of Grass
as part of the "Autumn Rivulets" cluster (1881–1882, p. 310). No image of the outside back cover of the notebook is available because it has been stitched into a larger volume.
Whitman Archive Title: The Dalliance of the Eagles
Content:
Written in ink on a proof of "The Dalliance of the Eagles,"
"Ah, little knows the
Laborer,"
"Hast never come to thee an
hour?," and "My
Picture-Gallery," are 14 words of notations in Whitman's
hand. The proof has been pasted to a heavy piece of paper, on the verso
of which is "A Riddle
Song," part of "Italian Music in Dakota," and a clipped headline reading
"The Society Articles Save Labor. Lighten the Labor for Mother."
