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  • Literary Manuscripts / Loose Manuscripts 104

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Search : of captain, my captain!
Sub Section : Literary Manuscripts / Loose Manuscripts

104 results

O Captain! my Captain!

  • Date: March 9, 1887
  • Creator(s): Walt Whitman
Text:

O Captain! my Captain! O Captain! my 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

My Captain!," which was published first in 1865.

O Captain! my Captain!

Annotations Text:

This manuscript is a signed, dated, handwritten copy of "O Captain! My Captain!

of the verso of this manuscript is currently unavailable.; A signed, dated, handwritten copy of "O Captain

My Captain!," which was published first in 1865.; Transcribed from digital images of the original.

How gladly we leave the

  • Date: Between 1850 and 1855
  • Creator(s): Walt Whitman
Text:

eventually titled "Song of Myself": "The boatmen and clamdiggers arose early and stopped for me, / I tucked my

trowser-ends in my boots and went and had a good time."

and wicked" may relate to the following line, which occurs later in the same poem: "Ever myself and my

Annotations Text:

eventually titled "Song of Myself": "The boatmen and clamdiggers arose early and stopped for me, / I tucked my

trowser-ends in my boots and went and had a good time."

and wicked" may relate to the following line, which occurs later in the same poem: "Ever myself and my

trowser-ends in my boots and went and had a good time" (1855, p. 18).

and wicked" may relate to the following line, which occurs later in the same poem: "Ever myself and my

born at all is equally

  • Date: Between 1850 and 1855
  • Creator(s): Walt Whitman
Text:

three winters to be articulate child Whitman revised this poetic fragment and used it in "Who Learns My

Annotations Text:

Whitman revised this poetic fragment and used it in "Who Learns My Lesson Complete?

appeared in the 1855 edition of Leaves of Grass, in a poem that would eventually be entitled "Who Learns My

: "I know it is wonderful . . . . but my eyesight is equally wonderful . . . . and how I was conceived

in my mother's womb is equally wonderful, / And how I was not palpable once but am now . . . . and was

airscud

  • Date: Between 1850 and 1855
  • Creator(s): Walt Whitman
Text:

Draft lines on the back of this manuscript leaf relate to the poem eventually titled "Who Learns My Lesson

Annotations Text:

Song of Myself": "Echos, ripples, and buzzed whispers . . . . loveroot, silkthread, crotch and vine, / My

respiration and inspiration . . . . the beating of my heart . . . . the passing of blood and air through

my lungs, / The sniff of green leaves and dry leaves, and of the shore and darkcolored sea- rocks, and

.; Draft lines on the back of this manuscript leaf relate to the poem eventually titled "Who Learns My

Remember that the clock and

  • Date: Between 1850 and 1855
  • Creator(s): Walt Whitman
Text:

to an "Elder Brother" is reminescent of lines "And I know that the hand of God is the elderhand of my

own, / And I know that the spirit of God is the eldest brother of my own" (15—16).

Annotations Text:

to an "Elder Brother" is reminescent of lines "And I know that the hand of God is the elderhand of my

own, / And I know that the spirit of God is the eldest brother of my own" (15—16).

is reminiscent of lines from the poem that read "And I know that the hand of God is the elderhand of my

own, / And I know that the spirit of God is the eldest brother of my own" (1855, pp. 15–16).; Transcribed

The Great Laws do not

  • Date: Between 1850 and 1855
  • Creator(s): Walt Whitman
Text:

.— I rate myself high—I receive no small sums; I must have my full price—whoever enjoys me.

I feel satisfied my visit will be worthy of me and of my Hosts and Favorites; I leave it to them how

appeared in two of the poems in that edition, eventually titled "A Song for Occupations" and "Who Learns My

Annotations Text:

appeared in two of the poems in that edition, eventually titled "A Song for Occupations" and "Who Learns My

in the eleventh poem of the first (1855) edition of Leaves of Grass, ultimately titled "Who Learns My

I will have my own whoever enjoys me, / I will be even with you, and you shall be even with me" (1855

and nobody else am the

  • Date: Between 1850 and 1855
  • Creator(s): Walt Whitman
Text:

am myself and nobody else, am the greatest traitor, I went myself first to the headland, — my own hands

Annotations Text:

I have lost my wits . . . .

I and nobody else am the greatest traitor, / I went myself first to the headland . . . . my own hands

My tongue can never be

  • Date: Between 1850 and 1855
  • Creator(s): Walt Whitman
Text:

204 My tongue must can never be content with pap harness from this after this, It c will not talk m in

My tongue can never be

Annotations Text:

harness," "traces," "the bit"—may relate to the extended metaphor developed in following lines: "Deluding my

bribed to swap off with touch, and go and graze at the edges of me, / No consideration, no regard for my

draining strength or my anger, / Fetching the rest of the herd around to enjoy them awhile, / Then all

halt in the shade

  • Date: Between 1850 and 1855
  • Creator(s): Walt Whitman
Text:

.— wood-duck on my distan le around. purposes, nd white playing within me the tufted crown intentional

Annotations Text:

/ It seems to me more than all the print I have read in my life. / My tread scares the wood-drake and

wood-duck on my distant and daylong ramble, / They rise together, they slowly circle around. / . . .

Can ? make me

  • Date: Between 1850 and 1855
  • Creator(s): Walt Whitman
Annotations Text:

bribed to swap off with touch, and go and graze at the edges of me, / No consideration, no regard for my

draining strength or my anger" (1855, p. 33).; 22; Transcribed from digital images of the original.;

The spotted hawk salutes the

  • Date: Between 1850 and 1855
  • Creator(s): Walt Whitman
Text:

He swoops by me, and rebukes me hoarse ly with his invitation; He complains with sarcastic voice of my

Annotations Text:

roughs, a kosmos" (1855, p. 29) and "The spotted hawk swoops by and accuses me . . . . he complains of my

gab and my loitering. / I too am not a bit tamed . . . .

Sail out for good? for aye, O mystic yacht!

  • Date: 1890 or 1891
  • Creator(s): Walt Whitman
Text:

to speed take me truly really on to deep waters Now, now to thy divinest venture (I will not call it my

Good bye My Fancy | Sail out for Good Etc | Page 7—Good Bye My Fancy This manuscript is a draft of "Sail

Annotations Text:

"; Good bye My Fancy | Sail out for Good Etc | Page 7—Good Bye My Fancy; Transcribed from digital images

As in a Swoon

  • Date: Between 1872 and 1876
  • Creator(s): Walt Whitman
Text:

not included in any subsequent editions of Leaves, Whitman did include it in the 1891 volume Good-Bye My

Annotations Text:

not included in any subsequent editions of Leaves, Whitman did include it in the 1891 volume Good-Bye My

not included in any subsequent editions of Leaves, Whitman did include it in the 1891 volume Good-Bye My

In the gymnasium

  • Date: Between 1850 and 1860
  • Creator(s): Walt Whitman
Text:

first several lines of "Pictures" (not including these lines) were eventually revised and published as "My

Annotations Text:

first several lines of "Pictures" (not including these lines) were eventually revised and published as "My

The first several lines of "Pictures" (not including this line) were revised and published as "My Picture-Gallery

Topple down upon him

  • Date: Between 1850 and 1855
  • Creator(s): Walt Whitman
Text:

for I am you seem to me all one lurid Curse oath curse; I look down off the river with my bloodshot eyes

, after 10 I see the steamboat that carries 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

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

Annotations Text:

how he does defile me, / How he informs against my brother and sister and takes pay for their blood,

/ How he laughs when I look down the bend after the steamboat that carries away my woman" (1855, p. 74

Hear my fife

  • Date: Between 1850 and 1860
  • Creator(s): Walt Whitman
Text:

Hear my fife!—I am a recruiter Who Come, who will join my troop?

first several lines of "Pictures" (not including this line) were eventually revised and published as "My

Hear my fife

Annotations Text:

first several lines of "Pictures" (not including this line) were eventually revised and published as "My

of the poem (not including this line) were revised and published in The American in October 1880 as "My

Will you have the walls

  • Date: Between 1850 and 1855
  • Creator(s): Walt Whitman
Annotations Text:

See in particular: "And I know that the hand of God is the elderhand of my own, / And I know that the

spirit of God is the eldest brother of my own" (1855, p. 15–16).; Transcribed from digital images of

were paid for with steamships

  • Date: Between 1850 and 1855
  • Creator(s): Walt Whitman
Text:

Because I am in my place what of that? The perfect male and female are everywhere in their place.

Annotations Text:

the 1855 edition of Leaves of Grass, later titled "Song of Myself": "I resist anything better than my

own diversity, / And breathe the air and leave plenty after me, / And am not stuck up, and am in my

Black Lucifer was not dead

  • Date: Between 1850 and 1855
  • Creator(s): Walt Whitman
Text:

and the breast that ha fed his young , and so buys a nomination to great office; i I nforme d against my

brother and sister and got t ook aking pay for their blood, hearts; l L aughed when I looked from my

iron necklace, after the steamboat that carried away my woman.— Whitman probably drafted this manuscript

Annotations Text:

how he does defile me, / How he informs against my brother and sister and takes pay for their blood,

/ How he laughs when I look down the bend after the steamboat that carries away my woman" (1855, p. 74

O joy of my spirit

  • Date: Between 1850 and 1867
  • Creator(s): Walt Whitman
Text:

O joy of my spirit uncaged—it hops like a bird on the grass mounds of earth.

O joy of my spirit

Annotations Text:

The first several lines of "Pictures" (not including this line) were revised and published as "My Picture-Gallery

A similar line in that poem reads: "O the joy of my spirit! It is uncaged!

The Elder Brother of the

  • Date: Before or early in 1855
  • Creator(s): Walt Whitman
Text:

The Elder Brother of the soul—my soul.

Annotations Text:

Grass, ultimately titled "Song of Myself": "And I know that the spirit of God is the eldest brother of my

Remember how many pass their

  • Date: Between 1850 and 1860
  • Creator(s): Walt Whitman
Annotations Text:

.; TThis manuscript bears some similarity in subject to the poem that became "Who Learns My Lesson Complete

The sores on my shoulders

  • Date: Between 1850 and 1855
  • Creator(s): Walt Whitman
Text:

11 He The sores on my neck shoulders are from his iron necklace I look on the off on the river with my

bloodshot eyes He stops the steamboat and till she will paddle off with away take my woman, and paddle

The sores on my shoulders

Annotations Text:

titled "The Sleepers": "How he laughs when I look down the bend after the steamboat that carries away my

Who knows that I shall

  • Date: Between 1850 and 1855
  • Creator(s): Walt Whitman
Annotations Text:

of Grass, eventually titled "Song of Myself": "The supernatural of no account . . . . myself waiting my

It is no miracle now

  • Date: Between 1850 and 1855
  • Creator(s): Walt Whitman
Text:

Henceforth After this day, A touch shall henceforth be small Little things is shall be are henceforth my

my tongue proof and argument It They shall tell s for me that people In them, the smallest least of

over all, and what we thought death is but life brought to a finer parturition.— An inch's contact My

Annotations Text:

The clearest relation is to the line: "A minute and a drop of me settle my brain" (1855, p. 33), but

I entertain all the aches

  • Date: Before or early in 1855
  • Creator(s): Walt Whitman
Text:

I entertain all the aches of the human heart Outside the asteroids I reconnoitre at my ease.

Annotations Text:

Compare these lines from that edition: "I lean and loafe at my ease . . . . observing a spear of summer

You villain, Touch

  • Date: Between 1850 and 1855
  • Creator(s): Walt Whitman
Text:

the breath is leaving my throat; ! Open your floodgates!

I am faintish I can contain resist you no longer think I shall drop sink , Take drops the tears of my

¶Little as your mouth yo lips are am faintish I am faintish; and it has drained me dry of my strength

Annotations Text:

. . . . my breath is tight in its throat; / Unclench your floodgates!

Inscription

  • Date: About 1867
  • Creator(s): Walt Whitman
Annotations Text:

original "Inscription" to the 1867 edition, ultimately appearing under the title "Small the Theme of My

In the course of the

  • Date: Between 1850 and 1855
  • Creator(s): Walt Whitman
Text:

Have I hasten to inform you it is just as good to die, and I know it; I know it For I take my death with

the dying, And my birth with the new-washed babe Whitman probably drafted this manuscript in the early

Annotations Text:

pass death with the dying, and birth with the new-washed babe . . . . and am not contained between my

Whatever I say of myself

  • Date: Between 1850 and 1855
  • Creator(s): Walt Whitman
Annotations Text:

manuscript appeared as the following, in the poem eventually titled "Song of Myself": "All I mark as my

for lect on Literature

  • Date: 1850s or 1860s
  • Creator(s): Walt Whitman
Text:

series of lectures & readings &c. through different cities of the north, to supply myself with funds for my

Annotations Text:

series of lectures & readings &c. through different cities of the north, to supply myself with funds for my

Priests

  • Date: Between 1850 and 1855
  • Creator(s): Walt Whitman
Text:

Until you can explain a paving stone, to every ones my perfect satisfaction O Priests , do not try to

Annotations Text:

. / I intend to reach them my hand and make as much of them as I do of men and women" (1855, p. 64).;

See in particular the lines: "The supernatural of no account . . . . myself waiting my time to be one

I cannot guess what the

  • Date: Between 1850 and 1855
  • Creator(s): Walt Whitman
Annotations Text:

The Great Laws do not" also includes draft lines that appeared in the poem later titled "Who Learns My

I am a curse

  • Date: Between 1850 and 1855
  • Creator(s): Walt Whitman
Text:

—I lend you my own mouth tongue A black I dart ed like a snake from his mouth.— I My eyes are bloodshot

, they look down the river, A steamboat carries off paddles away my woman and children.— Around my neck

am T The His i ron necklace and the red sores of my shoulders I do not feel mind , h H opples and ball

ankles and tight cuffs at the wrists does must not detain me will go down the river, with the sight of my

bloodshot eyes, go in to the steamboat that paddles off wife woman and child A I do not stop with my

Annotations Text:

. / How he laughs when I look down the bend after the steamboat that carries away my woman"(1855, p.

I am become a shroud

  • Date: Between 1850 and 1855
  • Creator(s): Walt Whitman
Text:

The retrospective extasy ecstasy is upon me— I am now my soul —spirit burns volcanic The earth recedes

ashamed before my prophetical crisis.— Whitman probably drafted this manuscript in the early 1850s as

Annotations Text:

similar to the following line in the poem eventually titled "Song of Myself": "The dirt receding before my

Living Pictures

  • Date: Before 1855
  • Creator(s): Walt Whitman
Annotations Text:

The first several lines of the poem were published in 1880 as "My Picture-Gallery.

After all is said and

  • Date: Between 1850 and 1855
  • Creator(s): Walt Whitman
Text:

a makes raises but bubble of the sea-ooze in comparison with against that unspeakable Something in my

—I look back upon that time in my own days.— I have no gibes nor mocks mockings or laughter;—I have only

Annotations Text:

the 1855 edition of Leaves of Grass, which was ultimately titled "Song of Myself": "Backward I see in my

In metaphysical points

  • Date: Before or early in 1855
  • Creator(s): Walt Whitman
Text:

These words are for the five or six grand poets, too; and the masters of artists: — I waste no ink, nor my

Annotations Text:

receive you, and attach and clasp hands with you, / The facts are useful and real . . . . they are not my

something that presents the sentiment

  • Date: Between 1850 and 1856
  • Creator(s): Walt Whitman
Text:

faces of my kind something that presents the sentiment of the Druid walking in the woods " " of the Indian

Annotations Text:

The first several lines of the notebook draft were revised and published as "My Picture-Gallery" in The

ground where you may rest

  • Date: Between 1850 and 1855
  • Creator(s): Walt Whitman
Annotations Text:

drink, / But as soon as you sleep and renew yourself in sweet clothes I will certainly kiss you with my

Poem of Pictures

  • Date: Before 1856
  • Creator(s): Walt Whitman
Annotations Text:

Part of "Pictures" was published as "My Picture-Gallery" in The American in October 1880 and later incorporated

Enter into the thoughts of

  • Date: Between 1850 and 1855
  • Creator(s): Walt Whitman
Annotations Text:

this manuscript may connect to the stanza of the poem eventually titled "Song of Myself" that begins "My

There can be nothing small

  • Date: Between 1850 and 1855
  • Creator(s): Walt Whitman
Text:

senses all men is truth; Logic and sermons never convince ; me; The dew of the night drives deep er into my

Annotations Text:

/ Logic and sermons never convince, / The damp of the night drives deeper into my soul. / Only what proves

I am become the poet

  • Date: Between 1850 and 1855
  • Creator(s): Walt Whitman
Text:

19 I am become the poet of babes and the little things I descend many steps—I go backward primeval My

equanimous arms feet 209 I surround retrace things steps oceanic—I pass to around not merely my own

Annotations Text:

. / My feet strike an apex of the apices of the stairs, / On every step bunches of ages, and larger bunches

The most perfect wonders of

  • Date: 1850s
  • Creator(s): Walt Whitman
Annotations Text:

See, for instance: "I take my place among you as much as among any," (1855, p. 48); "Nor do I understand

(Poem) Shadows

  • Date: Between 1850 and 1865
  • Creator(s): Walt Whitman
Annotations Text:

Myself": "Looking in at the shop-windows in Broadway the whole forenoon . . . . pressing the flesh of my

I know as well as

  • Date: Between 1850 and 1855
  • Creator(s): Walt Whitman
Text:

Bibles i are divine revelations of God But I know say that any each leaf of grass and every hair of my

compiled composed is not august enough to dent endow answer tally a leaf of grass the partition of in my

Annotations Text:

. / I intend to reach them my hand and make as much of them as I do of men and women" (1855, p. 64).;

1848 New Orleans

  • Date: Between 1848 and 1887
  • Creator(s): Walt Whitman
Text:

My situation is rather a pleasant one.

There are many peculiarities in New Orleans that I shall jot down at my leisure in these pages.

My health was most capital; I frequently thought indeed that I felt better than ever before in my life

After changing my boarding house, Jef. and I were, take it altogether, pretty comfortable.

My own pride was touched—and I met their conduct with equal haughtiness on my part.

Do I not prove myself

  • Date: Between 1850 and 1855
  • Creator(s): Walt Whitman
Annotations Text:

See in particular the lines: "The supernatural of no account . . . . myself waiting my time to be one

City of my walks and joys

  • Date: Late 1850s
  • Creator(s): Walt Whitman
Text:

Calamus 18. p 363 City of my walks and joys!

little you h You city : what do y you repay me for my daily walks joys Not these your crowded rows of

delicious athletic love fresh as nature's air and herbage— —offering me full repa respon ds se equal of my

my own, These repay me—Lovers, continual Lovers continu only repay me.— This manuscript is a draft of

City of my walks and joys

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