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Search : of captain, my captain!
Work title : Song Of Myself
Section : Literary Manuscripts

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Brutish human beings

  • Date: 1857-1859
Text:

reinforce the truthfulness of Pierson's stories about the "koboo," Whitman mentions the fact that Captain

Captain Walter M.

Poem incarnating the mind

  • Date: Before 1855
Text:

Grier notes that a portion of this notebook (beginning "How spied the captain and sailors") describes

Poem incarnating the mind

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

/ My children and grand-children, my white hair and beard, / My largeness, calmness, majesty, out of

the long stretch of my life" (145).

received pay.— from the lips and fingers hands of the vict captors victors.— How fared The young captain

the greatness and beau large hearts of heroes, All the courage of olden time and How spied the the captain

Grier notes that a portion of this notebook (beginning "How spied the captain and sailors") describes

Annotations Text:

Grier notes that a portion of this notebook (beginning "How spied the captain and sailors") describes

women

  • Date: Between about 1854 and 1860
  • Creator(s): Walt Whitman
Text:

whom we knew not before Then the great authors take him for an author And the great soldiers for a captain

O laugh when my eyes settle the land The imagery and phrasing of these lines bears some resemblance to

and dwells serenely behind it.— When out of a feast I eat bread only corn and roast potatoes fo for my

dinner, through my own voluntary choice it is very well and I much content, but if some arrogant head

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

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

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

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 . . . .

How gladly we leave the

  • Date: Between 1850 and 1855
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

My tongue can never be

  • Date: Between 1850 and 1855
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

those used in Unnamed Lands, a poem published first in the 1860 edition of Leaves of Grass.; duk.00003 My

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

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

Remember that the clock and

  • Date: Between 1850 and 1855
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."

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

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!

med Cophósis

  • Date: Between 1852 and 1854
  • Creator(s): Walt Whitman
Text:

In the 1855 edition of Leaves of Grass , Whitman included the lines: "Who learns my lesson complete?

My Lesson Have you learned my lesson complete: It is well—it is but the gate to a larger lesson—and And

mother generations guided me, / My embryo has never been torpid . . . . nothing could overlay it; /

All forces have been steadily employed to complete and delight me, / Now I stand on this spot with my

White noted a relationship between these pages and the poems "Who Learns My Lesson Complete?

Annotations Text:

White noted a relationship between these pages and the poems "Who Learns My Lesson Complete?

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

airscud

  • Date: Between 1850 and 1855
Text:

On the reverse (nyp.00100) is a fragment related to the poem eventually titled Who Learns My Lesson Complete

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 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.

The Elder Brother of the

  • Date: Before or early in 1855
Text:

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

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

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

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

I entertain all the aches

  • Date: Before or early in 1855
Text:

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

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

What babble is this about

  • Date: Between 1850 and 1867
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 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

In the course of the

  • Date: Between 1850 and 1855
Text:

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

It is no miracle now

  • Date: Between 1850 and 1855
Text:

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

And I have discovered them

  • Date: Between 1850 and 1855
Text:

however, physical and thematic similarities with And I have discovered them by night and by, above, and 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).;

[med Cophósis]

  • Date: Between 1852 and 1854
Text:

White noted a relationship between these pages and the poems Who Learns My Lesson Complete?

Priests!

  • Date: Between 1850 and 1855
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

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

Talbot Wilson

  • Date: Between 1847 and 1854
  • Creator(s): Walt Whitman
Text:

as two—as my soul and I; and I gu reckon it is the same with all oth men and women.— I know that my

trousers around my boots, and my cuffs back from my wrists and go among the rough drivers and boatmen

I tell you just as beautiful to die; For I take my death with the dying And my birth with the new-born

lips, to the palms of my hands, and whatever my hands hold.

hands, and my head my head mocked with a prickly I am here after I remember crucifixion and bloody coronation

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