Last of ebb a machine readable transcription Walt Whitman Ken Price Ed Folsom Transcription and encoding Nick Krauter Lisa Renfro Jennifer R. Overkamp Andrew Jewell Kenneth Price Brett Barney Nicole Gray Ashlyn Stewart The Institute for Advanced Technology in the Humanities University of Iowa University of Nebraska-Lincoln The National Endowment for the Humanities The United States Department of Education 2004 The Walt Whitman Archive
The Institute for Advanced Technology in the Humanities Alderman Library University of Virginia P.O. Box 400115 Charlottesville, VA 22904-4115 whitman@jefferson.village.virginia.edu

The text of the original item is in the public domain. The text encoding and editorial notes were created and/or prepared by the Walt Whitman Archive and are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0). Any reuse of the material should credit the Walt Whitman Archive. Permission to reproduce the graphic images of the original item has been granted by the owners of the original for this publication only.

 yal.00046 This manuscript is a draft of the poem "Last of Ebb, and Daylight Waning," first published in the "Fancies at Navesink" sequence of poems in the August 1885 issue of Nineteenth Century. Whitman probably composed this manuscript shortly before its publication in 1885.

This manuscript is a draft of the poem "Last of Ebb, and Daylight Waning," first published in the "Fancies at Navesink" sequence of poems in the August 1885 issue of Nineteenth Century.

 Whitman, Walt Last of ebb, and daylight waning 1885 Yale Collection of American Literature, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library Transcribed from digital images of the original. On the back of the first leaf is a letter from J. M. Rollo to Whitman dated January 12, 1885. Unknown updated transposition encoding updated relations encoding regularized name for infrastructure corrected proofed, added verso images and relatedItem encoding updated list of staff in titleStmt; corrected miscellaneous attribute errors converted, added schematron declaration Added third digit to leaf numbers Added missing periods Removed paragraph tags inside notes; re-blessed Added date and work markup Added a derived head and altered the title in the title statement Added two spaces based on Ken's proofing of on-line display. Blessed Edited Revised; checked Transcribed; encoded last 2 11 At the Mouth of the River Last of the the ebb, and daylight waning, Scented sea‑breaths landward making—smells of the salt and sedge incoming, While many the a half‑caught voice sound comes up from those frantic the whirls and eddies, Many the a muffled confession, many a the a sob and whispering word, As of speakers voices speakers far or hid. 12 How they sweep down and out! how they mutter! Hopes Pride of youth manhood——tones of the dying— athe chorus of age's complaints—feverish love,—the last, —hope's last bitter words, Haply the The heHeroes unknown, unnamed, borne down off——the poets and artists unknown, yet greater than any, known Some suicide's despair's beguiling words, cry, and wish, Away Away tTo the boundless waste, and to and never again return.ing. 13 2 So Hold ye so many burnt-out lives, O ye drowning tide and waning fading light!? Such ventures, —such aspirations lost? such failures? On # (On!! on to oblivion,, # then! ye ventures aspirations lost aspirations On, more quickly quicker on quicker yet yet, ye sweltering, whirling, shrouding waters!) ebb!) waters!) On to oblivion then! on quicker, quicker yet on, quicker yet, on ye sweltering shrouding watersr (On for your time ye furious debouché! On, quicker yet