Content:
This manuscript contains a draft of a poem first published in the New York
Herald
, March 10, 1888
entitled "The Dead Emperor". A
note at top of the page states "sent Herald March 8" indicating that the draft was
likely composed around the time of publication. On the verso appears part of a
letter with Houghton Mifflin Publishers letterhead.
Content:
Printer's copy of the poem "The Dead Emperor," which was first published in the New York
Herald
on 10 March
1888 and later reprinted in the "Sands at Seventy" annex to
Leaves of Grass
(1888).
The poem mourns the death of Emperor William I of Germany on 9 March
1888, and the
Herald
of
10 March contained details of his final hours as well as Whitman's
poem.
