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consisted of the Poems alone—some months afterwards the extracts &c. prefacing the text, as here, were

the manuscripts, and these, along with other clues, suggested to Grier a range of dates during the 1860s

None of the manuscripts were published in Whitman's lifetime, though they share similarities with some

"Introductions Intended or American Editions of 'Leaves of Grass,'" Walt Whitman's Workshop (Cambridge

cents each January 1856: 93 copies in "cloth plain" at 22 cents each Bindings in June and July 1855 were

Cloth bindings in December 1855 and January 1856 were probably binding B, with blindstamped ornaments

If this statement reflects the amount that was eventually paid and no additional copies were bound, the

Whitman varied in his reports of how many copies were printed.

Bibliography of American Literature , Vol. 9 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1991), 31–2.

Bibliography of American Literature papers.

American Literary History , 15.2 (Summer 2003): 248–75. Nierman, Judith. "Walt Whitman's ."

"More About the 'Publication' of the First American Literature 28.4 (1957): 516–17.

Another 196 were bound in paper or boards.

One reason the copies of these books were distinct was because the printed gatherings were not bound

Two stages of what were probably B bindings were noted in December 1855 and January 1856; one of the

Several of the copies were offered for sale at stores in New York and Brooklyn after they were printed

Several of the reviews also were included in the 1860 pamphlet Imprints , produced and promoted by Thayer

or magazines exactly as they were printed here.

Poet," which was published in American Phrenological Journal in October 1855.

For the review, see " An English and American Poet 22 (October 1855): 90–91.

Leaves of Grass Imprints: American and European Criticisms on "Leaves of Grass" .

Boston, Massachusetts: Thayer and Eldridge, 1860. ---. "Leaves Droppings." .

An American bard at last!

Where is the vehement growth of our cities?

Walt Whitman was born on Long Island, on the hills about thirty miles from the greatest American city

From the American Phrenological Journal. AN ENGLISH AND AN AMERICAN POET. .

"Were the dark ages poetical?" it will be asked.

if our colors were struck and the fighting done?

Were I as the head teacher or charitable proprietor or wise statesman, what would Were I to you as the

and in them were the fathers of sons . . . and in them were the fathers of sons.

They were taught and exalted.

Three of the reviews were written anonymously by Whitman.

Whitman's lifelong practice of printing slips, see Michael Winship, "Walt Whitman," Bibliography of American

Based on this, Ed Folsom has suggested that first and second-state signatures were not kept consistently

Three of the reviews were written anonymously by Whitman.

if our colors were struck and the fighting done?

Were mankind murderous or jealous upon you my brother or my sister?

Do you enjoy yourself in the city? or engaged in business?

and in them were the fathers of sons . . . and in them were the fathers of sons.

They were taught and exalted.

The Americans of all nations at any time upon the earth have probably the fullest poetical nature.

The largeness of nature or the nation were monstrous without a corresponding largeness and generosity

—As if it were necessary to trot back generation after generation to the eastern records!

The American poets are to enclose old and new for America is the race of races.

For such the expression of the American poet is to be transcendant and new.

I have heard what the talkers were talking . . . . the talk of the beginning and the end, But I do not

If nothing lay more developed the quahaug and its callous shell were enough.

 . . . . the blocks and fallen architecture more than all the living cities of the globe.

if our colors were struck and the fighting done?

Were mankind murderous or jealous upon you my brother or my sister?

Were all educations practical and ornamental well displayed out of me, what would it amount to?

Were I as the head teacher or charitable proprietor or wise statesman, what would it amount to?

Were I to you as the boss employing and paying you, would that satisfy you?

The Congress convenes every December for you, Laws, courts, the forming of states, the charters of cities

and mangers . . the mows and racks: Manufactures . . commerce . . engineering . . the building of cities

To think that the sun rose in the east . . . . that men and women were flexible and real and alive . 

. and act upon others as upon us now . . . . yet not act upon us; To think of all these wonders of city

Do you enjoy yourself in the city? or engaged in business?

It is not to diffuse you that you were born of your mother and father—it is to identify you, It is not

If I were to suspect death I should die now, Do you think I could walk pleasantly and well-suited toward

. . . . my clothes were stolen while I was abed, Now I am thrust forth, where shall I run?

they lie un- clothed unclothed ; The Asiatic and African are hand in hand . . . . the European and American

And whether those who defiled the living were as bad as they who defiled the dead?

and in them were the fathers of sons . . . and in them were the fathers of sons.

He was wise also, He was six feet tall . . . . he was over eighty years old  . . . . his sons were massive

from head to foot, It attracts with fierce undeniable attraction, I am drawn by its breath as if I were

one man . . . . he is the father of those who shall be fathers in their turns, In him the start of populous

I saw the rich ladies in full dress at the soiree, I heard what the run of poets were saying so long,

best farms. . . . . others toiling and planting, and he unavoidably reaps, The noblest and costliest cities

things in their attitudes, He puts today out of himself with plasticity and love, He places his own city

They live in other young men, O kings, They live in brothers, again ready to defy you: They were purified

They were taught and exalted.

and the barefoot negro boy and girl, And all the changes of city and country wherever he went.

American Feuillage. AMERICAN FEUILLAGE. AMERICA always! Always our own feuillage!

Always the prairies, pastures, forests, vast cities, trav- elers travelers , Kanada, the snows; Always

drift spooning ahead, where the ship in the tem- pest tempest dashes; On solid land, what is done in cities

sit on the gunwale, smok- ing smoking and talking; Late in the afternoon, the mocking-bird, the American

day, driving the herd of cows, and shouting to them as they loiter to browse by the road-side; The city

Do you think the great city endures? Or a teeming manufacturing state?

greatest city in the whole world. 5 The place where the great city stands is not the place of stretch'd

Where the city stands with the brawniest breed of orators and bards; Where the city stands that is beloved

city of the healthiest fathers stands; Where the city of the best-bodied mothers stands, There the great

city stands. 6 How beggarly appear arguments before a defiant deed!

You flagg'd walks of the cities! you strong curbs at the edges! You ferries!

I think heroic deeds were all conceiv'd in the open air, and all great poems also; I think I could stop

Whoever accepts me, he or she shall be blessed, and shall bless me. 6 Now if a thousand perfect men were

to which you were destin'd— you hardly settle yourself to satisfaction, before you are call'd by an

countries, habitus of far- distant far-distant dwellings, Trusters of men and women, observers of cities

Look'd toward the lower bay to notice the arriving ships, Saw their approach, saw aboard those that were

yellow light, over the tops of houses, and down into the clefts of streets. 4 These, and all else, were

I loved well those cities; I loved well the stately and rapid river; The men and women I saw were all

also; The best I had done seem'd to me blank and suspicious; My great thoughts, as I supposed them, were

as much of you —I laid in my stores in advance; I consider'd long and seriously of you before you were

that the old accounts, bibles, genealogies, are true, without exception; I assert that all past days were

what they should have been; And that they could no-how have been better than they were, And that to-day

MY MORNING'S ROMANZA. 1 Now list to my morning's romanza—I tell the signs of the Answerer; To the cities

, The best farms—others toiling and planting, and he unavoidably reaps, The noblest and costliest cities—others

things in their attitudes; He puts to-day out of himself, with plasticity and love; He places his own city

The City Dead-House. THE CITY DEAD-HOUSE.

BY the City Dead-House, by the gate, As idly sauntering, wending my way from the clangor, I curious pause—for

American masses!

Were all educations, practical and ornamental, well dis- play'd display'd out of me, what would it amount

Were I as the head teacher, charitable proprietor, wise statesman, what would it amount to?

Were I to you as the boss employing and paying you, would that satisfy you?

Because you are greasy or pimpled, or that you were once drunk, or a thief, Or diseas'd, or rheumatic

my clothes were stolen while I was abed, Now I am thrust forth, where shall I run?

west, as they lie unclothed, The Asiatic and African are hand in hand—the Euro- pean European and American

Were you thinking that those were the words—those upright lines? those curves, angles, dots?

Were you thinking that those were the words—those delicious sounds out of your friends' mouths?

them—my qualities interpene- trate interpenetrate with theirs—my name is nothing to them; Though it were

echo the tones of Souls, and the phrases of Souls; If they did not echo the phrases of Souls, what were

If they had not reference to you in especial, what were they then?

the scaffold;) —I would sing in my copious song your census returns of The States, The tables of population

RECEPTION JAPANESE EMBASSY, JUNE, 1860. 1 OVER the western sea, hither from Niphon come, Courteous the

spit their salutes; When the fire-flashing guns have fully alerted me— when heaven-clouds canopy my city

To us, my city, Where our tall-topt marble and iron beauties range on opposite sides—to walk in the space

Were the precedent dim ages debouching westward from Paradise so long?

Were the centuries steadily footing it that way, all the while unknown, for you, for reasons?

, And the tidy and fresh-cheek'd girls—and the barefoot negro boy and girl, And all the changes of city

noises of the night-owl and the wild cat, and the whirr of the rattlesnake; The mocking-bird, the American

Think of the time when you were not yet born; Think of times you stood at the side of the dying; Think

DRUM-TAPS. 1 FIRST, O songs, for a prelude, Lightly strike on the stretch'd tympanum, pride and joy in my city

costumes of peace with indifferent hand; How your soft opera-music changed, and the drum and fife were

our pre- lude prelude , songs of soldiers,) How Manhattan drum-taps led. 2 Forty years had I in my city

The blood of the city up—arm'd! arm'd!

you Mannahatta; Old matron of this proud, friendly, turbulent city!

sonorous voice ringing across the continent; Your masculine voice, O year, as rising amid the great cities

Over the traffic of cities—over the rumble of wheels in the streets: Are beds prepared for sleepers at

the earth and the sea never gave us; Not through the mighty woods we go, but through the mightier cities

What, to pavements and homesteads here—what were those storms of the mountains and sea?

And do you rise higher than ever yet, O days, O cities! Crash heavier, heavier yet, O storms!

prepared in the mountains, absorbs your im- mortal immortal strong nutriment; —Long had I walk'd my cities

ground before me, Continually preceding my steps, turning upon me oft, ironically hissing low; —The cities

City of Ships. CITY OF SHIPS. CITY of ships! (O the black ships! O the fierce ships!

City of the world!

city of hurried and glittering tides!

City of wharves and stores! city of tall façades of mar- ble marble and iron!

Proud and passionate city! mettlesome, mad, extrava- gant extravagant city! Spring up, O city!

not with terror; But suddenly, pouring about me here, on every side, And below there where the boys were

Twenty thousand were brought against us, A veteran force, furnish'd with good artillery.

close together, very compact, their flag flying in the middle; But O from the hills how the cannon were

day; But the night of that, mist lifting, rain ceasing, Silent as a ghost, while they thought they were

torches, hastening the embar- cation embarcation ; My General waited till the soldiers and wounded were

Smell you the buckwheat, where the bees were lately buzzing?)

soon be better. 4 Ah, now the single figure to me, Amid all teeming and wealthy Ohio, with all its cities

incessantly asking, rising in cries from my heart, While yet incessantly asking, still I adhere to my city

; Day upon day, and year upon year, O city, walking your streets, Where you hold me enchain'd a certain

I see a sad procession, And I hear the sound of coming full-key'd bugles; All the channels of the city

(Were you looking to be held together by the lawyers? Or by an agreement on a paper? or by arms?

lines—a desperate emergency; I saw a hundred and more step forth from the ranks— but two or three were

(Washington City, 1865.) SPIRIT whose work is done! spirit of dreadful hours!

(Washington City, 1865.)

TO the leaven'd soil they trod, calling, I sing, for the last; (Not cities, nor man alone, nor war, nor

back-top ; The faces of hunters and fishers, bulged at the brows —the shaved blanch'd faces of orthodox citi

I saw the rich ladies in full dress at the soiree, I heard what the singers were singing so long.

incomparable love, Plunging his seminal muscle into its merits and de- merits demerits , Making its cities

, The superior marine, free commerce, fisheries, whaling, gold-digging, Wharf-hemm'd cities, railroad

to American persons, pro- gresses progresses , cities? Chicago, Kanada, Arkansas?

I will make cities and civilizations defer to me!

while weapons were everywhere aim'd at your breast, I saw you serenely give birth to immortal children

let those that were prisoners take the keys! (Say! why might they not just as well be transposed?)

Let the Asiatic, the African, the European, the Ameri- can American , and the Australian, go armed against

Let there be wealthy and immense cities—but still through any of them, not a single poet, savior, knower