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I cross'd the Nevadas

About This Item

  • Title: I cross'd the Nevadas
  • Date: About 1865
  • Creator(s): Walt Whitman
  • Whitman Archive ID: yal.00009
  • Source: Yale Collection of American Literature, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library. 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: The lines on this manuscript, apparently from either a late draft or a presentation copy, are from the poem "Rise O Days from Your Fathomless Deeps," first published in Drum-Taps. Whitman most likely wrote this manuscript in 1865, the year he published Drum-Taps and the year he met Byron Sutherland, a young soldier, whose name is written on the back of the leaf. Sutherland sent the poet a letter from Corry, Pennsylvania in September 1865.
  • Related Item(s):
    • On the back of this leaf Whitman wrote the names and addresses of Byron Sutherland and Mrs. Annie Stowe. See yal.00478.
    • See wwa.00052.
  • Cite this page: Whitman, Walt. "I cross'd the Nevadas." The Walt Whitman Archive. Gen. ed. Matt Cohen, Ed Folsom, & Kenneth M. Price. Accessed 19 April 2024. <http://www.whitmanarchive.org>.
  • Source File: yal.00009.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] [cut away] I cross'd the Nevadas, I cross'd the  
 plateaus, I ascended the towering rocks along the  
 Pacific, I sail'd out to sea, I sail'd through the storm, I was re- 
 fresh'd by the storm, I watch'd with joy the threatening maws  
 of the waves, I mark'd the white combs where they  
 career'd so high curling over, I heard the wind piping, I saw the  
 black clouds,   [begin leaf 1 verso]
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