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A.MS. draft.loc.00248xxx.00236[(Returning to my pages front once]between 1873-1876poetryhandwritten1

[(Returning to my pages front once]

Earls Colne Halstead August 12, 1873 My dearest Friend The paper has just been forwarded here which tells

My Darling—let me use that tender caressing word once more, for how can I help it, with heart so full

My darling.

around, returns once more, as I have every summer for five & twenty years, to this old village where my

in fact, the old Priory they have inhabited ceased to be a Priory at the dissolution of monasteries—My

Whitman referred to Rossetti's edition as a "horrible dismemberment of my book" in his August 12, 1871

May 20 th /73 My dearest Friend Such a joyful surprise was that last paper you sent me, with the Poem

& by thoughts you have given me blent in & suffusing all: No hope or aim or practical endeavour for my

For there is not a line nor a word in it at which my spirit does not rise up instinctive and fearlessly

draught that I know is for me, because it is for all—the love that you give me on the broad ground of my

Good bye my best beloved Friend. Annie Gilchrist.

Whitman referred to Rossetti's edition as a "horrible dismemberment of my book" in his August 12, 1871

50 Marquis Rd Camden London Nov. 3/'73 My dearest Friend, All the papers have reached me—3 separate packets

(with the hand writing on them that makes my heart give a glad bound).

May you be steadily though ever so slowly gaining ground, my Darling!

My children all continue well in the main.

And how that line will gladden my eyes Darling! Love from us all. Goodbye.

Whitman referred to Rossetti's edition as a "horrible dismemberment of my book" in his August 12, 1871

editorial decisions, which included editing potentially objectionable content and removing entire poems: "My

Or it may be my words have led you to do me some kind of injustice in thought,—& then I could defend

only might, but ought, on pain of being untrue to the greatest, sweetest instincts & aspirations of my

own soul, to answer it with all my heart & strength & life.

out life giving warmth & light to my inward self as actually as the Sun does to my body, & draws me

to it and shapes & shall shape my course just as the Sun shapes the Earth's.

Sept 4–1873 I am entirely satisfied & at peace "my Beloved—no words can say how divine a peace.

My Darling! take comfort & strength & joy from me that you have made so rich & strong.

When my eyes first open in the morning, often such tender thoughts yearning ineffably pitying sorrowful

—my hands want to be so helpful, tending, soothing, serving my whole frame to support the stricken side

My children send their love, their earnest sympathy.

not think hard of me for not writing oftener, especially the last seven months—If you could look into my

his letter to Anne Gilchrist of August 18, 1873, a ring: "The enclosed ring I have just taken from my

finger & send you with my love."

, 1873, she wrote about her children; and on December 18, 1873, she said of his health: "Perhaps if my

I turn my face to the westward sky and before I lie down to sleep, deep & steadfast within me the silent

Dear Sir When my friend, Mr.

The "Leaves of of Grass" have become a part of my every-day thought and experience.

Often when I have been alone in the company of one or other of my dearest friends, in the very deliciousness

My dear M r Whitman, Thank you for the kind thought which sent me the newspaper containing good news

under all feeling which the fact of your illness produces lies the one feeling (which the growth of my

Burroughs would be willing to take the trouble; (& he would add to my gain if he would mention to me

My wife joins with mine her love & both go to you together. We are well.

It has always seemed to me more my proper work than prose, but if a sufficient experiment proves the

am so much afraid you have been worried about me I hope not—for I care as much about your health as my

How is Eddy I send ever & ever so muc much love to you my dear and to all Han Hannah Whitman Heyde to

Burlington Tuesday Morning March 4 1873 My Dear Brother How are you this morning.

little I feel glad when its it's bright pleasant weather I think maybe you will gain faster,—I know my

from him and the dear little girls Do you remember Walt some years ago, what a bad time I had with my

back (I think it was neuralgie neuralgia of the spine) anyway I was well only my back I could not walk

do like that young fellow that is so kind to you, Peter Doyle I shall always remember him Good bye my

1873 Saturday Afternoon June 7 My dear Brother I wish I had written to you before, but first I could

here as anywhere and I will like to have you here, it wont won't make a straws straw's difference in my

new, all strange, & very mixed; but I am now fairly master of the situation, & though I do not expect my

I was so warm & snug & my nest was so well feathered; but I have really cut loose & do not expect to

My greatest loss will be in you my dear Walt, but then I shall look forward to having you up here a good

to close up this bank, then I shall make me another nest among the rocks of the Hudson and try life my

I hope you are well & will write to me, & will go up & see my wife.

Still at times my thoughts will go back & hover & nestle about the little home & the many familiar places

I graze in them with my eyes daily. Grass like this is never seen so far south on the Potomac.

summit, & could see the Catskills 50 miles to the North, & peaks that I recognized as visible from my

I have plenty of time on my hands now, but do not seem able to turn it to any account in a literary way

I can't get back my ruminating habit.

My nephew, Chancy B. is with me for a few days but leaves to-morrow; so does Sulic for Kingston.

was sick, and when I was taken sick, she very kindly stayed with us, and has taken all the care off my

28 Feb. 1873 Saturday noon My dear dear walt Walt i have just got your letter the money came all safe

difference but i doo do feel sometimes if i could have something except the regular fare i should like it as my

My dear walt Walt its another monday Monday morning and edd Edd and me is alone george George has gone

i have been better of the rheumatism this winter untill until a week or so ago i got quite lame in my

knees so i could hardly get down stairs but i think i took cold going out to the privy getting my feet

hardly realize she is gone as her picture hangs here and looks so much like life it brings the tears to my

21 April 1873 monday Monday My ever dear walt Walt i thought i would write to you to day as i dident

the best and the largest sometime i feel bad enoughf enough if i was younger i should show some of my

getting along if you think you cant can't get a house for us to live in worry about me i shall live my

words "dignity" and "now" Louisa Van Velsor Whitman canceled the phrase "it would bee all good to have my

21 March 1873 M 21 My dear darling walt Walt i receeved received your letter yesterday likewise the gra

mention her name matti Matty was a kind daughter to me i have cause to regret her death) good bie give my

My dear Walt i received your letter yesterday we got the papers you send walter Walter dear i am glad

monday Monday afternoon My dear walt Walt as i am here in the sellen salon or dining room as its called

Camden Feb. 1873 febuary February 27 My dear walt Walt i have been waiting till this thursday Thursday

Saturday My dear Walt i have received severall several paper s this week but no letter that has been

of company this week mostly girls from the place where she used to work all have to be taken up in my

got hans Han's letter and Jeffs Jeff's poor matt i feel so bad about her i cant can't keep her out of my

our house you must send your love to her also when you write i wish you would write to them this is my

sometimes you are writing at your desk well i am writing this down stairs all alone i have been on my

though maybee maybe i would come but i havent haven't had a word from her since she dident didn't get my

letter) write as often as you can dear and say if you got my letter of Louisa Van Velsor Whitman to

30 Jan 73 My dear darling walt Walt I have just got your letter i am glad my dear you are as well as

Walter dear remember me to peter write just as you are say you are better than you are god bless you my

1873 march March 4 5 oclock o'clock dear walt Walt i suppose you have got my letter i wrote last saturday

and mrs Mrs. buckly be a kind of mother to me and little poor hattie Hattie it made the tears come in my

hot weather i think it would us both good so we must both get so we can walk without limping good bie my

My dear walt Walt i received your letter to day its a great consolation to get your letters nearly all

the comfort i have) as i have no one to talk too to about any of my own i get letters from helen price

without hearing mine they think Lou is in the family way and therefore she has to be kept up stairs in my

since i got up this morning till i come up to writ write this letter i have had very little good of my

8 April 1873 My dear walt Walt i got your letter of sunday Sunday and monday Monday and the papers all

fereplaces fireplaces and its much cheaper to have stove pipes than firplac es what do you think of my

For the poem that he enclosed, see "Sea Captains, Young or Old," published in the April 4, 1873 issue

confined comments on his condition to two brief remarks, that he did "not feel very well" and that "My

Now wait till I get my dress fixed and Papa waited and then she fell over & never spoke another word

volumes of Horace Traubel's With Walt Whitman in Camden (various publishers: 1906–1996) and Whitman's "My

If my article on you should appear in any american magazine, I should like to have sent a copy.

Clausen, who Rudolf Schmidt called "my old friend and countryman," corresponded with Schmidt after he

was in bankruptcy, Redfield noted that the balance due Walt Whitman ($63.45) "will have to go in with my

I think my estate will pay 50 cents on the dollar: hope so at any rate."

your Mother telling me of your very severe illness in wich which you have our Heartfelt Sympathy (Both my

poor hand at it—and the trouble with cousin-Sarah she writes her letters so plainly—you must excuse my

that interests me just now and I will tell you all about—it is to take place this month) to two of my

wifes that can grace the parlor or grace the kitchen (if need be) this is the kind of wife, men in my

I could have written a more sympathetic letter (But then my heart is so full of my own sad Afflictions

Sea Captains, Young or Old

look—We would like to pop in on you some evening—what a jolly time we would all have would we not Give my

Walt Whitman after she added this postscript: "Write to poor Mat Walter dear  i am about as usual  my

Louis— Apl 24th 1873 My dear Mother— Your letter was handed me just as I was leaving the city to go to

My health, and that of the Children continues first-rate  we get along nicely at Mrs Bulkley['s] and

I am ashamed that I have not been more thoughtful in this respect—but what with Mat's sickness and my

Louis, Monday Feb 24th 1873 My dear dear Mother Since Matties death I could not write you before—there

 she was cheerful to a degree and at noon of the day she died sat up in her chair and directed how my

and then took my horse and buggy arriving at the house abt 3ck—I found Mattie dressed—furs &c on—sitting

awaiting me—I took her in my arms and carried her out to the buggy as I sat her in—she said "wait now

'till I fix my dress"—these were the last words she spok—She then fell over on her side I immediately

Louis March 26th 73 My dear Mother I received your latest letter—I was glad indeed to hear from you—yet

acknowledged on March 13 that "the principal trouble is yet in the head, & so easily getting fatigued—my

whole body feels heavy, & sometimes my hand" (Edwin Haviland Miller, ed., The Correspondence [New York

Louis, Feb 7th 1873 My dear Mother I wrote you a few days ago apprising you as to Mattie's health  I

to keep house without stopping Hattie's schools and I did not wish to do that—but I shall not sell my

them away as I best may and hope as soon as Hattie gets a couple of years older we will try again Well my

thinking or wondering about you—I have often thought how I would like to see you and if I can so arrange my

Louis, March 30th 1873 My dear Walt Although I have written two or three letters to you, and Hattie one

dear, dear, sister Matty—O how I have been thinking of you, & shall all day—I have not now the use of my

Louis May 9th 1873 My dear Walt I received your letter and I do not think you can form an idea how very

sincerely hope that you are right in your theory that the slow recovery indicates permanency—I hope to God, my

Portions of this manuscript contributed to Some Personal and Old-Age Jottings, Good-Bye My Fancy (1891

Dear Friend Abby, and all my friends, Helen & Emmy & Mr.

Arnold, I will write a line only—My paralysis still leaves me extremely feeble—& with great distress

I have lost my dear, dear sister Martha, in St.

present I can hardly move ten steps without feeling sick—I am sitting here now in the rocking chair in my

writing this—most of the time alone which suits me best—it is paralysis of left side—Love to all— Walt (My

it goes, it will be all right—the little Philadelphia paper piece was about the right statement of my

My brother Jeff has come on from St.

excursion, a week on a yacht voyage—I told him to call on you, if possible—& he will if he can work it—My

her I rec'd received her letter & thank her for it—I have not felt to write to her, or any one but my

I have had—but unspeakable —my physical sickness, bad as it is, is nothing to it— The following are

May 23 d my inexpressibly beloved mother died in Camden.

Though my plans depend on yet uncertain results, my intention, as far as any thing, is, on getting stronger

My post office address continues there, (Solicitor's Office Treasury.)

I send my love to Percy, & all your dear children.

The enclosed ring I have just taken from my finger & send you with my love.

August 12, 1873, Gilchrist, moved by newspaper reports of his continued illness, addressed him as "My

98–101) she wrote about her children; and on December 18, 1873, she said of his health: "Perhaps if my

I turn my face to the westward sky and before I lie down to sleep, deep & steadfast within me the silent

way we talked of, (& I have no doubt we shall,) & satisfaction is felt on both sides, it is certainly my

Whitman observed to Horace Traubel in 1889: "What a sweat I used to be in all the time . . . over getting my

I send you a paper same mail with this, containing a little piece that describes my case.

I have not forgotten you, my loving soldier boy, & never shall. Walt Whitman 322 Stevens st.