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Search : of captain, my captain!
Format : manuscript
Year : 1855

59 results

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 . . . .

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

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

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

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!

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

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

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

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

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).;

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

hands are cut by the

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

when I visited the Asylum and they showed me their most smeared and slobbering idiot, Yet I knew for my

for my consolation, of the great laws that emptied and broke my my brother s Whitman probably drafted

My hand will not hurt

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

7 196 My touch hand will not hurt what it holds, and yet will devour it, That It must remain whole perfect

Only one minute, only two or three passing bulging sheathed touches, Yet they gather all of me and my

spirit into a knot, They hold us so long enough there, to show us what life we can be,— And that my

senses and our flesh, and even a part of flesh, is seems more than all life.— What has become of my senses

My hand will not hurt

[Fa]bles, traditions

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

do not procreate like men; all of them and all existing creeds grows not so much of God as I grow in my

moustache, And I am myself waiting my time to be a God; I think I h shall do as much good and be as

pure and prodigious, and do as much good as any; — And when my do, I am, do you suppose it will please

wriggles through the world mankind and hides under helmets and it is not beloved never loved or believed.— My

Annotations Text:

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

And to me each minute

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

sings as well as I, because although she reads no newspaper; never learned the gamut; And to shake my

Annotations Text:

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

you know how

  • Date: 1855 or before
  • Creator(s): Walt Whitman
Text:

. * shall uncage in my breast a thousand armed great winged broad‑ wide‑winged strengths and unknown

I want that untied tenor, clean and fresh as the Creation, whose vast pure volume floods my soul.

paces and powers, uncage in my heart a thousand new strengths, and unknown ardors and terrible —making

furious than hail hail and lightning. that leap lulling me drowsily with honeyed uncaging waking in my

likely relates to the following lines, from the poem that would be titled "Song of Myself": "I open my

To be at all

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

thousands, each one with his entry to himself; They are always watching with their little eyes, from my

head to my feet.

lift put the girder of the earth a globe the house away if it lay between me and whatever I wanted.— My

I think I could dash

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

.— what my touch wanted any thing whatever I wanted.— Surely I am out of my head!

I am lost to myself and someth something else Nature in another form has laid down in my place.

My Spirit sped back to

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

My Soul Spirit was curious and sped back to the beginning, sped back returned to the times when the earth

eternally; And devise themselves to this spot place These States and this hour, Again But yet still my

My Spirit sped back to

myself to celebrate

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

.— I celebrate myself to celebrate you; every man and woman alive; I transpose my my spirit I pass as

that hear me; I am loosen the voice tongue that was tied in you them In me It begins to talk out of my

The wild gander leads his

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

The press of my foot to the earth springs a hundred affections, They scorn the best I can do to relate

What is nearest and commonest and nearest and cheapest and easiest is Me, Me going in for my chances,

myself to bestow myself on the first that will take me, Not asking the sky to come down to receive my

Night of south winds

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

Still Night of Sleep—my bridal Night!

Earth of the limpid gray of clouds purer and clearer for my sake!

left with Andrew

  • Date: 1854 or 1855
  • Creator(s): Walt Whitman
Text:

lines 40 letters 1120 1120 letters in page of Skakspere Shakespeare 's poems 1600 letters in one of my

sauntering the pavement, 9 great are the myths, I wander all night 10 Come closer to me Who learns my

Outdoors is the best antiseptic

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

Clean er shaved and more grammatical folks I call Mister, and lay the tips of my fingers inside their

headline in the morning papers, and pass the time as comfortably as the law allows.— But for the others, my

Lofty sirs

  • Date: Between 1840 and 1855
  • Creator(s): Walt Whitman
Text:

.— I assume this day, the whole debt of all I take my place by right among the sudorous or sweaty men

a handsomer man with be has better finer health and cleaner shaped limbs than I, who do business in my

I know many beautiful things

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

night walkers And do no better for me— Who am a regular gentlemen or lady, With a marble broad stoop to my

And is the day here when I vote at the polls, One with the immigrant that last August strewed lime in my

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