Content:
Proof sheet of "Old Age
Echoes" with many corrections written in ink and
pencil. "Old Age
Echoes" is a general heading for four poems: "Sounds of the Winter,"
"The Unexpress'd,"
"Sail Out for Good, Eidólon
Yacht!," and "After the Argument."
Content:
This is a draft of "The
Unexpress'd," which was published in
Lippincott's Magazine
in March 1891. A
note on the manuscript in Whitman's hand indicates that the poem was sent
for publication in 1890 to
W. H. Alden, the editor of
Harper's Monthly Magazine,
but was rejected.
Content:
A heavily corrected draft of the poem "The Unexpress'd," which was published first
in 1891, written on the verso of a cancelled letter from
Marjorie Cook, dated September 25, 1889.
Content:
The general title, "Old Age
Echoes," appears at the top of the page. Beneath that title are two
poems with individual titles: "Sounds
of the Winter" and "The
Unexpress'd." Pasted to the leaf below the second poem is a woodcut
engraving of Whitman along with his autograph. The untitled lines directly
following the picture and autograph eventually become the poem titled "After the Argument." The three
poems were first published together in
Lippincott's Magazine,
March
1891, under the general title "Old Age Echoes."
