Title: hexameters
Creator: Walt Whitman
Date: Between 1850 and 1860
Whitman Archive ID: uva.00603
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: These notes about verse forms are similar to notes in "dithyrambic trochee," a manuscript currently housed at Rutgers University. Edward Grier posits that the Rutgers manuscript probably dates to around 1856, when Whitman was pursuing a self-education in poetry (Notebooks and Unpublished Prose Manuscripts [New York: New York University Press, 1984], 1:355–356). These manuscript notes may also date to that period, although the draft lines on the reverse of the leaf, which were probably written before 1855, may suggest a slightly earlier date.
Related item: Draft lines on the back of this manuscript leaf relate to the poem ultimately titled "Song of Myself." See uva.00263.
Notes written on manuscript: On leaf 1 recto, in unknown hand: "13"
Contributors to digital file: Caitlin Henry and Nicole Gray
"Then when An1dromache2 ended, said3 tall bright4 helmeted5
Hector6
All thy cares, dear wife, are partaken by me—but above them!
&c"
Aurora now Oft at the—close of the—day when the
&c.
Auro, ra now, fain daugh, ter of, the dawn,
Ex—ult, ing—trem, bling—faint, ing—dy, ing—
Possessd by—all the—muse 's paint ing