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My original intention was to create a comprehensive edition of Whitman interviews, an ambition that seemed

My research into the development of the interview genre made it clear that conceiving interviews as necessarily

"My friend." Spoke of Swinburne & Tennyson. Most kind. Head from behind like Darwin. Bought a book.

"As for poetry, my boy, listen to this."

Now, however, I put my faith in humanity.

He said simply but without petulance, and as if he rather pitied my intelligence: "Of course my poetry

And, after all, in "O Captain! my Captain!"

At the time of my acquaintance I could not lay my finger on any more definite example of this than his

Knowing this I never attempted, during my talks with him, to question him or draw him out on any subject

And of course this applies also to my own account of him, as I saw him from day to day at a period very

manner he may have shown in earlier life, or on other occasions, no defects were ever observable in my

They seemed charged with a new beauty and a new meaning addressed to my individual soul; and long did

—After a refreshing night's sleep I awoke to the singing of some sweet little songsters at my window.

I did not see him again for about forty years, when one day he came to my house and asked me,— " 'Do

I believe, too, that I once existed before I lived in my present form, and that I shall again live as

an individual after I have changed my present form."

Rome—where I received a most cordial welcome from him and his good wife, who is my wife's cousin.

Rome, like myself, is an Annan man—and much did I enjoy that talk about my dear old home, three thousand

I asked him to write his name in my book, and I found it to be John Y.

river, the ceaseless movement, and the brilliant and varied panorama of "Manhattan from the Bay." ¹ On my

In the year 1885 I lived with my father in a small house in Eagle Street, Bolton.

My father was a millwright in the employ of a large engineering firm in the town, and I—then thirty-one

My mother had died in January of that year, and certain experiences of mine in connection with that event

Soon after her death a few of my intimate friends, who often came singly to see me, began to make a special

the last five or six lines as from my living pulse."

Bucke to my left.

My friends do not realize my condition. They persist in imagining that I am like them."

: "Have you noticed my chair?

"My supper is my main meal now.

Speaking of my trip he said that he had felt uneasy in consequence of my late arrival.

"Yes," he said, "my right arm is my best, but I have a good deal of power in my left."

knee with my bag of crackers.

is the result of my sitting.

And now I'll write my name on it, and I want you to take it to Wallace with my love."

Davis to my wife.

"But my 'Good-Bye' is probably my last bit of writing.

"Some of my friends feel—Dr.

My poems do not discuss special themes and are short. And, anyhow, that is my method.

He enquired what my programme was for the rest of my jaunt.

W. read it, and then said to me: "My best friends are women. They are my best friends.

A Visit to Walt Whitman A visit to Walt Whitman On a hot August afternoon, in 1889, my wife and I went

And Walt replied: "Well my friends who have known me longest have told me, many times, that I always

And then he added, after reflecting a moment: "I think my poems are like your West—crude, uncultured,

Walt sat in his arm-chair, and held wife with his right hand and me with his left, and said: "So long, my

Do you not see, O my brothers and sisters?

During my attendance upon Mr.

'I have had my hour'; I have had my hour ; only let me rest in peace until its close."

In these days and nights it is different; my mutton-broth, my little brandy, to be 'turned' promptly

My only difficulty with Mrs. Davis and Warren was in getting them to let me do my full share.

table, a knock at the door of our room—which served both as dining and sitting room—was answered by my

O'Connor offered to go out on the search with him; but before they started my husband asked me, aside

Walt had left his "carpet bag" with my husband, on his way down, wishing to be burdened with as little

When I expressed my doubts about his coming to us on his return from camp,— my husband's answer was,

My own first impression after reading the quarto edition of Leaves of Grass, recommended by Emerson to

Visits from English friends are perhaps my chief diversion."

Philadelphia, 1883. is going off slowly—not much cared for by my friends—but I like it.

He asked me somewhat about my life and doings at home.

There is something in my nature furtive like an old hen!

Time alone can absolutely test my poems or any one's.

There was no hurry in his manner; having found me a seat, and then only leaving hold of my hand, he sad

had thought before (and I do not know that I had) that Whitman was eccentric, unbalanced, violent, my

Putting on his grey slouch hat he sallied forth with evident pleasure, and taking my arm as a support

My original idea was that if I could bring men together by putting before them the heart of man, with

As to my own opinion, why", said Holmes, "I have already given you that.

I am trying to cheer him up and strengthen him with my magnetism."

Come to my house on Sunday evening, and I will have him there to meet you."

It would give me great pleasure to grant this request, out of my regard to Mr.

it, as he showed when I went to give him an account of my interview with the Secretary.

" 'I cock my hat as I please, indoors and out,' " I quoted.

one day in Boston that Joaquin Miller, whose acquaintance I had gained through a poetical trifle of my

Whitman— I have tried all my life to write for the masses.

A few days later I called upon Whitman, my pockets stuffed with verses.

At its conclusion he smiled forgivingly and asked me to tell him about my grandfather on my mother's

Such a boy, to my mind, is positively nauseating.

My recollections of Walt Whitman date back to three or four years prior to the civil war.

Our chambers were the meeting places for several small circles of my young men friends.

My Captain!

But I, with mournful tread, Walk the deck my Captain lies, Fallen cold and dead."

my captain!" above quoted. But the little KEEPSAKE is prized not the less on that account.

For my part when I meet anyone of erudition I want to get away, it terrifies me.

Not like some of my friends, very thick at first, then falling off."

I should have my friends there, as I have here."

I am feeling pretty well so far (Yet I attribute my feeling pretty well now to my visit for the last

year and a half, to the Creek and farm, and being with my dear friends the S—'s).

"Publish my name and hang up my picture as that of the tenderest lover." — Leaves of Grass .

To my reminiscences of the poet in his later years, and my description of his homes and haunts, let me

The deeply felt emotion with which "My Captain" is read invariably brings tears to the eyes of hearers

My health is reasonably good."

, My Captain," (encouraged by a gentle-kindly ejaculation of "Bravo, bravo!"

I tell you it's an impossibility to me; why, my whole income from my books during a recent half-year

its eight periods of growth, "hitches," he calls them, he completes them with the annex, "Good-bye my

Whispers of Heavenly Death" cannot be an irreverent person; the impassioned "prayer"— "That Thou, O God, my

For that, O God, be it my latest word, here on my knees, Old, poor, and paralyzed, I thank Thee....

When this is commented upon he laughingly says, "Oh, yes, my friends often tell me there is a book called

Conversations with Walt Whitman: My First Visit MY FIRST VISIT.

S ADAKICHI : "My father is a German, but my mother was a Japanese and I was born in Japan."

ONE of my first visits, after I had returned to Philadelphia from my first European trip, was to the

In my books, in my prose as well as my poetry are many knots to untie."

my captain' with which he generally concluded.

These were my first years with Emerson, and the questions provoked by my confession of this fact would

He lifted my common experience into biblical sanctity, and impelled my whole life to expanding issues

He thoroughly respected my autonomy, never once crossing my transactions with printer or binder.

Can I have won my battle after all?...

If I go there with a magazine under my arm, or a paper in my pocket, he is quite likely to ask me to

It is my own spirit, my own feeling—to accept and try and listen, and don't be too quick to reject, and

my fig tree.

I ask myself more than a little if my best friends have not been women. My friend Mrs.

My attempt at "Leaves of Grass"—my attempt at my own expression—is after all this: to thoroughly equip

Eyre .— I want to call attention to "My Captain," a poem which has in it the element of the dramatic

first met Whitman, beginning a friendship that will always form one of the pleasantest memories of my

The task in question, however, would naturally have fallen to my colleague and intimate friend, Frederic

before, I believe—he dropped in upon Guernsey at the Herald and introduced himself with the words: "My

Making known my errand, he greeted me cordially.

"In the moral, emotional, heroic, and human growths (the main of a race in my opinion), something of

The table was set for four, and I, the youngest of the party and the sole representative of my sex, had

for my vis-à-vis the ample figure of the poet clad in light gray linen, his wide rolling shirt collar

I mentioned a name that had more than once come to my mind, as we talked,—Victor Hugo.

My companion assented. I added with enthusiasm, "It has been a perfectly happy day to me, Mr.

My last glimpse of him was in his house at Camden, when he was recovering from a long illness.

My first meeting with Walt Whitman occurred when I was a boy and had occasion to ask for a certain residence

I did not know who or what he was, but on his answering my question I was so struck with the quality

My first visit to him occurred some years later, in the little house on Mickle Street which has been

matter of punctuation, and it was a source of annoyance to find the title of his latest book, "Good Bye My

The moment Garfield came over to our side of the car, I gave him my seat and I took his.

Remember me to all my old friends in New York."

My theory has been to equip, equip, equip, from every quarter, my own power, possibility—through science

But my mind is animated by other ideas.

My parents' folks mostly farmers and sailors—on my father's side of English—on my mother (Van Velsor's

—This year lost, by death, my dear, dear mother—and, just before, my sister Martha—(the two best and

my Captain!

O the bleeding drops of red, Where on the deck my Captain lies Fallen cold and dead. O Captain!

my Captain!

My Captain does not answer; his lips are pale and still; My Father does not feel my arm, he has no pulse

But I, with mournful tread, Walk the deck my Captain lies, Fallen cold and dead.

Among my earliest indiscretions was Walt Whitman.

fame and no peril to my immortal soul, not to speak of my standing in society?

Whitman was the author of the lines, and my quoting them among my earliest indiscretions.

No one can read "My Captain" or "Pioneers" without seeing that there was capacity for music in the man

Bend down and touch lightly with my lips the white face in the coffin.

I made a call upon Captain Green, one of the vice-presidents of the Penn.

calmly: As at thy portals also, death, Entering thy sovereign, dim, illimitable grounds, To memories of my

"You want to know in a word, then, the sum total of my life philosophy as I have tried to live it and

as I have tried to put it in my books.

It is only the closest student who would find it in my works.

The sum total of my view of life has always been to humbly accept and thank God for whatever inspiration

STARTING NEWSPAPERS (ANOTHER ACCOUNT) Reminiscences —( From the "Camden Courier." )—As I sat taking my

As I cross'd leisurely for an hour in the pleasant night-scene, my young friend's words brought up quite

How it made my heart double-beat to see my piece on the pretty white paper, in nice type.

My first real venture was the "Long Islander," in my own beautiful town of Huntington, in 1839.

I enjoy'd my journey and Louisiana life much.

I opened the door, and stood for a moment on the threshold before I could find my voice to speak.

What was my horror when, right in the midst of the exposure, the old bard waved his hand majestically

As far as my life goes it is written in the past.

For years it was my wish to live long enough to round out my life's story in my little book, 'The Leaves

I continue my work reading or writing to my friends."

as I tried to put it in my books.

It is only the closest student would find it in my works.

Sir Edwin rushed toward him and exclaimed, "My dear friend, I am delighted to see you."

It stirs the cockle of my blood to read the nice things you say of me."

"Have you some of my poetry in your memory?" exclaimed the aged poet.

"My words itch at your ears till you understand them," he had said.

My heart was palpitating, my nerves tingling, and every sense was alert as we entered the little house

I paused—my nervousness quite gone—feasting my eyes, warming my heart,—when lo!

I have dismissed whatever insulted my own soul or defiled my body.

"My rendezvous is appointed," I murmured, as I kissed him.

of my friends.

, probably my last.

It is called 'Good-bye, My Fancy,' and is now in the press.

with me and encouraged me in my theories.

Give my regards to all my friends, and particularly to the press fellows, for I never forget that I was

with countless cartridges of money coming up, and of endless change going down—to none of these were my

or forbidden; and, of all men in Philadelphia, he it was whom I most desired to see and to thank for my

In a strong round hand he inscribed my name in the volume we had discussed, gave me some precious pictures

"I found this in my coat," he said. "I don't often put on this coat.

My names are Song, Love, Art. My poet, now unbar the door."

"Art's dead, Song cannot touch my hear, My once love's name I chant no more."

It puts me in mind of my visit to a church when I was a boy.

It was a Presbyterian church and the preacher was in a high box above my head.

"Every fine day I have my stalwart attendant wheel me out, often to the Federal street ferry, where,

As Carlyle says in his life of John Sterling, many of my seances with O'Reilly are written in star-fire

meeting at Young's was a most memorable one, and Emerson was kind enough to select the passages from my

England are imperative and I must soon sail for merrie England, and after a short stay I will keep my

promise to visit you and to renew my pleasant memories of the Pacific slope.'

I do not trouble my spirit to vindicate itself or be understood.

The six sentences may be a key to those who like me, but say they don't understand my book.

"Give my regards to all the boys in New York city, and don't forget it."

The door was opened in response to my ring by a gentle faced, wistful eyed, elderly woman.

I told him of passages in his writings which I admired and referred particularly to "My Captain," that

bells; But I, with mournful tread, Walk the deck; my captain lies Fallen, cold and dead.

I had outstayed the moments to which I was pledged to limit my visit.

almost human tenderness in the atmosphere, to get up and go out, and as I was being wheeled about by my

But I staid just a little too long in my unaccustomed wanderings, because I had not been out before during

It was after sunset when I got back to my home, and I enjoyed my supper better than I had for many a

I can read the magazines, and my friends from abroad keep me advised as to what is going on in the world

Whitman said: "I am jogging along in the old pathway and my old manner, able to be wheeled about some

days and in rainy weather content to stay shut up in my den, where I have society enough in my books

I see a good many actors, who seem to have a fondness for my society. The death of George H.

"Tennyson still writes to me, as do Buchanan and my German friends.

"John Burroughs is my oldest literary friend now living.

"Then you are welcome to my home," Walt Whitman replied, giving him both his hands.

I think the dinner my good friends gave me recently, at Morgan's Hall, gave me a new lease of life.

"At least here I am surrounded by my books, and the roses you see my friends send me daily.

Arnold, you are right welcome to my home."

My second wife, you know, was an American lady, and that gives me a claim on your people.

There was no ceremoniousness about my visit to the President, and as a journalist I liked my brief talk

Chairman Grey delivered the address of welcome, to which the poet responded briefly as follows: "My friends

All I have felt the imperative conviction to say I have already printed in my books of poems or prose

Deeply acknowledging this deep compliment with my best respects and love to you personally—to Camden—to

Give more than my regards to Walt Whitman, who has won such a splendid victory over the granitic pudding-heads

There is a certain idea in my works—to glorify industry, nature and pure intstict.

I always remember that my ancestors were Dutch .

In my books, in my prose as well as my poetry, are many knots to untie.

I don't know why some men compare my book with the Bible.

Mendelssohn is my favorite. I always like to hear him.