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Poem for the good old cause

About This Item

  • Title: Poem for the good old cause
  • Date: Between 1850 and 1871
  • Creator(s): Walt Whitman
  • Whitman Archive ID: upa.00002
  • Source: Walt Whitman Collection, 1842–1957, Rare Book & Manuscript Library, University of Pennsylvania. Transcribed from digital images of the original. For a description of the editorial rationale behind our treatment of the manuscripts, see our statement of editorial policy.
  • Editorial note: This manuscript includes ideas for two poems, one of which is titled "Poem for the good old cause." Possibly this is a very early draft of the poem "To Thee Old Cause," which first appeared in the 1871 edition of Leaves of Grass. However, Whitman used the term "good old cause" as early as the 1855 edition, where it appears in the Preface. The phrase probably originated in England during the seventeenth century, shortly after the English Civil War, and was frequently used by Whitman (see Clarence Gohdes, "Whitman and the 'Good Old Cause,'" American Literature 34.3 [November 1962]: 400–403). Aided by the earlier work of Richard Maurice Bucke in Notes and Fragments (1899), Edward Grier suggests that this manuscript likely was written prior to 1860 (Notebooks and Unpublished Prose Manuscripts [New York: New York University Press, 1984], 4:1329). The titles of both of the proposed poems ("Poem of...") suggest the title format of the 1856 edition. The second proposed poem, titled "Poem of the People," is not known to have led to a published work.
  • Cite this page: Whitman, Walt. "Poem for the good old cause." The Walt Whitman Archive. Gen. ed. Matt Cohen, Ed Folsom, & Kenneth M. Price. Accessed 08 May 2025. <http://www.whitmanarchive.org>.
  • Source File: upa.00002.xml (TEI)

Key

Textual Feature Appearance
Overwritten brown with strikethrough
Added inline purple with double underline
Uncertain gray with wavy underline
Supplied from another source turquoise with brackets
Metamark green with triple underline
Long deletion gray background with top and bottom border
  [begin leaf 1 recto]

Poem for of of adherence to of my adherence the good old cause

the "good old cause" is that in all its diversities, in all lands, at all times, under all circumstances,—which promulges liberty, justice, the Cause of the people as against infidels and tyrants

Poem of the People

represent the People, so copious so simple, so fierce, so frivilous
  [begin leaf 1 verso]
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