In Whitman's Hand

Manuscripts

About this Item

Title: Topple down upon him

Creator: Walt Whitman

Date: Between 1850 and 1855

Whitman Archive ID: uva.00258

Source: Papers of Walt Whitman (MSS 3829), Clifton Waller Barrett Library of American Literature, Albert H. Small Special Collections Library, University of Virginia. Transcribed from digital images of the original. For a description of the editorial rationale behind our treatment of manuscripts, see our statement of editorial policy.

Editorial note: Whitman probably drafted this manuscript in the early 1850s as he was preparing materials for the first (1855) edition of Leaves of Grass. It is a draft of lines that appear in the fourth poem of that edition, eventually titled "The Sleepers."

Related item: Lines on the back of this manuscript leaf relate to the poem eventually titled "Faces." See uva.00566.

Notes written on manuscript: On leaf 1 recto, in unknown hand: "10"

Contributors to digital file: Caitlin Henry, Nicole Gray, and Kenneth M. Price



[begin leaf 1 recto] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[Page image: https://whitmanarchive.org/manuscripts/figures/uva.00258.001.jpg]

Crash Topple down upon him, Curse! [Cursing?] Light! for I am ^you seem to me all one lurid Curse oath curse;

I look down off the river with my bloodshot eyes, after
I see the steamboat that carries off
away my woman.—

Damn him! how he does defile me


^This day, or some other, I will have him and the like of him to curse the do my will upon.

They shall not hide themselves ^lie at peace even in their graves tombs with pennies on their eyes

I will would will break the lids off their coffins but what
I will have then

I will tear their flesh out from under the
grave‑clothes


I will not listen—I will not spare—I will
am justified of myself::

The I will pursue fFor a million hundred years ^I will pursue those who
have injured me so much.

Though they cover hide themselves with under the lappets
of God I will drag them there pursue them there.

I will stop the drag them out—the sweet marches of heaven ^shall be stopped with
my maledictions.—


[begin leaf 1 verso] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[Page image: https://whitmanarchive.org/manuscripts/figures/uva.00258.002.jpg]




Comments?

Published Works | In Whitman's Hand | Life & Letters | Commentary | Resources | Pictures & Sound

Support the Archive | About the Archive

Distributed under a Creative Commons License. Matt Cohen, Ed Folsom, & Kenneth M. Price, editors.