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Once I Pass'd Through a Populous City. ONCE I PASS'D THROUGH A POPULOUS CITY.

ONCE I pass'd through a populous city imprinting my brain for future use with its shows, architecture

, customs, traditions, Yet now of all that city I remember only a woman I casually met there who detain'd

me for love of me, Day by day and night by night we were together—all else has long been forgotten by

THE FIRST AMERICAN POET .

In the year 1860, we published a literary paper called "The Fireside," in which we devoted a page to

Moreover he is a genuine American man, the most original and truest Democrat of his time.

Westminster Review 74 n.s. 18 (October 1860), 590. Moncure Conway, Dial (August 1860), 517-19.

The First American Poet

Westminster Review 74 n.s. 18 (October 1860), 590.; Moncure Conway, Dial (August 1860), 517-19.; "Marco

Bozzaris," poem about the fighter for Greek independence by the American poet Fitz-Greene Halleck; "

friend, "Bumble-bees & Bird Music" safe to hand this morning—does me good—makes me feel exactly as if I were

Sea rolling up on broad smooth sands there, but with treacherous reefs just beyond on which there were

And the castle on its wooded height in the very midst—& the great cavern below that runs through the city

Drink is the giant evil of the city as of the north generally—Such a sensible rugged healthy looking

If Per were here he would return your friendly message. Bees best love.

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

from your Western golden shores, The countries there with their populations, the millions en-masse are

Were the children straying westward so long? so wide the tramping?

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?

A NEWER garden of creation, no primal solitude, Dense, joyous, modern, populous millions, cities and

to his old habit, the poet spent an hour or more on the ferry, swinging pendulum-like between this city

The publishers were capital fellows.

I like the city itself exceedingly, and I think it will in a short time become a cosmopolitan city such

Don't ask me to class Philadelphia with Boston, New York, or the wide-awake Western cities.

I cannot class it with other cities, and you must not compel me to talk about it.

greatest city in the whole world. 5 The place where a 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 belov'd

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!

How the floridness of the materials of cities shrivels before a man's or woman's look!

neck with incomparable love, Plunging his seminal muscle into its merits and demerits, Making its cities

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

What does it mean to American persons, progresses, cities?

Underneath all, individuals, I swear nothing is good to me now that ignores individuals, The American

by irrational things, I will penetrate what it is in them that is sarcastic upon me, I will make cities

The publishers were capital fellows.

I like the city itself exceedingly, and I think it will in a short time become a cosmopolitan city such

I cannot class it with other cities, and you must not compel me to talk about it.

No copies w orth me ntioning were sold of any issue.

"You have eliminated, then, none of the lines which were deemed objectionable?"

And if the body were not the soul, what is the soul?

A WOMAN waits for me, she contains all, nothing is lacking, Yet all were lacking if sex were lacking,

WE TWO, HOW LONG WE WERE FOOL'D.

ONCE I PASS'D THROUGH A POPULOUS CITY.

ONCE I pass'd through a populous city imprinting my brain for future use with its shows, architecture

me soon as possible by letter here, of the dates of my copyrights on Leaves of Grass —I think they were

in 1856, 1860, 1866 (or 7) and in 1876—but want to know exactly — Walt Whitman If you have a printed

of the leading publishers of the United States is a literary event, for through it the greatest American

I rubbed my eyes a little to see if this sunbeam were no illusion, but the solid sense of the book is

Though these words were afterward somewhat taken back—a little Galileo-like, through fear of the New

He looks exceeding well in his broad hat, wide collar and suit of modest gray.

is already established as a popular American classic.

The name and address written in pencil were added later, likely in 1881, when Whitman visited Boston

Although Whitman also visited Boston in 1860, John Soule's photography studio did not move to 338 Washington

The name and address written in pencil were added later, likely in 1881, when Whitman visited Boston

Although Whitman also visited Boston in 1860, John Soule's photography studio did not move to 338 Washington

from the beginning) but by superiority, additions, modernness, &c—The Thayer & Eldridge plates of 1860

copies—can be stopt stopped instantly by me & will be—(The matter is not of any moment however)—The plates were

Pieces that were evidently written later, and intended to be eventually put under Leaves of Grass now

Hence, at one time, our admiration for orators that were ornate to the verge of inanity.

Dire were the grimaces of the mourners in high places, and dire are their grimaces still.

There were plenty of criticisms to make, even after one had finished crying Oh!

A cardinal sin in the eyes of most critics is the use of French, Spanish, and American-Spanish words

where I was born, Well-begotten, and rais'd by a perfect mother, After roaming many lands, lover of populous

pavements, Dweller in Mannahatta my city, or on southern savannas, Or a soldier camp'd or carrying my

poems that with you is hero- ism heroism upon land and sea, And I will report all heroism from an American

love, indi- cating indicating it in me, I will therefore let flame from me the burning fires that were

, the electric telegraph stretching across the continent, See, through Atlantica's depths pulses American

respond within their breasts, their brains, the sad reverberations,) The passionate toll and clang, City

to city joining, sounding passing, Those heart‑beats of a Nation in the Night.

Joel Myerson (New York: Garland, 1993), 2:520; Major American Authors on Cd-Rom: Walt Whitman (Westport

Joel Myerson (New York: Garland, 1993), 2:520; Major American Authors on Cd-Rom: Walt Whitman (Westport

Near by were a pile of corrected proof-sheets bearing the heading "Leaves of Grass."

His ruddy features were almost concealed by his white hair and beard.

making the book is to give A Recognition of All Elements compacted in one— e pluribus unum , as it were

I have also accepted as a theme the modern business life, the streets of cities, trade, expresses, the

"Of the American poets," he said, "I would place Emerson first, then Bryant, Longfellow and Whittier.

upon the angry bull, the majority of cultivated minds begin to see that Walt Whitman is the most American

of poets and one of the brightest lights of American literature.

Without attempting to argue the point it may be said that were all records of America destroyed and Walt

Dire were the grimaces of the mourners in high places, and dire are their grimaces still.

There were plenty of criticisms to make, even after one had finished crying Oh!

for city and land for land.

CITY OF ORGIES.

CITY of orgies, walks and joys, City whom that I have lived and sung in your midst will one day make

Or the vaunted glory and growth of the great city spread around me?

if I could be with you and become your comrade; Be it as if I were with you.

FIRST O songs for a prelude, Lightly strike on the stretch'd tympanum pride and joy in my city, How she

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

Forty years had I in my city seen soldiers parading, Forty years as a pageant, till unawares the lady

of this teeming and turbulent city, Sleepless amid her ships, her houses, her incalculable wealth, With

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

Near by were a pile of corrected proof-sheets bearing the heading "Leaves of Grass."

His ruddy features were almost concealed by his white hair and beard.

making the book is to give A Recognition of All Elements compacted in one— e pluribus unum , as it were

I have also accepted as a theme the modern business life, the streets of cities, trade, expresses, the

"Of the American poets," he said, "I would place Emerson first, then Bryant, Longfellow and Whittier.

My mother is away staying with Beatrice in Edinburgh city, recruiting her health, which has most sadly

theatric manner a kind, good heart, oh, so kind, I feel as if I would do anything for her, her manners were

Were her last words to Grace.

I hear that the young American artists are doing capitally filling their pockets.

range and diversity—always the continent of Democracy; Always the prairies, pastures, forests, vast cities

floes, White drift spooning ahead where the ship in the tempest dashes, On solid land what is done in cities

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

rude carts, cotton bales piled on banks and wharves; Encircling all, vast-darting up and wide, the American

and down, casting swift shadows in specks on the opposite wall where the shine is; The athletic American

ONCE I PASS'D THROUGH A POPULOUS CITY.

ONCE I pass'd through a populous city imprinting my brain for future use with its shows, architecture

What does it mean to American persons, progresses, cities?

A NEWER garden of creation, no primal solitude, Dense, joyous, modern, populous millions, cities and

city of spires and masts! City nested in bays! my city! ALL IS TRUTH.

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

City of the world!

City of wharves and stores—city of tall façades of marble and iron!

Proud and passionate city—mettlesome, mad, extravagant city!

(Washington City, 1865.)

ages that men and women like us grew up and travel'd their course and pass'd on, What vast-built cities

and phrenology, What of liberty and slavery among them, what they thought of death and the soul, Who were

O I know that those men and women were not for nothing, any more than we are for nothing, I know that

Do their lives, cities, arts, rest only with us? Did they achieve nothing for good for themselves?

There are very few ideas in Germany about American literature, past, present, or future.

was to be expected of American literature; just the conventional praise and blame—plenty of the former

And his tone of mind is just that of his countrymen in general towards things American.

I always ask Americans about you here.

I heard you were coming to England this year—I suppose that's not true.

See Walter Grünzweig, Constructing the German Walt Whitman (Iowa City: University of Iowa Press, 1995

footnote on p. 200 of the article "Poetry of the Future" in the February 1881 issue of the North American

These were prominent literary figures of the time. J. G.

Tyrrell, Fellow of Trinity College, Dublin, and many of the contributors were present and former Trinity

John William Draper's History of the American Civil War (3 vols., New York, 1867–70; London, 1871).

, To India and China and Australia and the thousand island para- dises paradises of the Pacific, Populous

cities, the latest inventions, the steamers on the rivers, the railroads, with many a thrifty farm,

the sea-bird, and look down as from a height, I do not deny the precious results of peace, I see populous

cities with wealth incalculable, I see numberless farms, I see the farmers working in their fields or

spacious and haughty States, (nor any five, nor ten,) Nor market nor depot we, nor money-bank in the city

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!

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

wait, I am fully satisfied, I am glutted, I have witness'd the true lightning, I have witness'd my cities

Several ladies called, and a number of "outsiders," and all were received with due empressment empressement

There were over three hundred visitors in the course of the evening, some from England.

gave some times of his printer life, as a young man (1838 to 1850), and his working in different cities

In the course of the evening various little speeches were made, and Mr.

lines unpublished in Whitman's life, but which appeared in other manuscript drafts with lines that were

The lines that appear in this manuscript were published posthumously as part of a poem titled "Supplement

Joel Myerson (New York: Garland, 1993), 2:624; and Major American Authors on CD-Rom: Walt Whitman (Westport

lines unpublished in Whitman's life, but which appeared in other manuscript drafts with lines that were

The lines that appear in this manuscript were published posthumously as part of a poem titled "Supplement

Joel Myerson (New York: Garland, 1993), 2:624; and Major American Authors on CD-Rom: Walt Whitman (Westport

The essay appeared in the February 1881 issue of The North American Review.

These corrections were made after the piece's initial publication, and reflect changes that Whitman made

rec'd received —I am now back here finishing up—only stayed staid a few days in Concord, but they were

ever—more indeed than could be described—Wasn't it comforting that I have had—in the sunset as it were—so

New York in about a week—shall stay at Johnston's, (address me there Mott avenue & 149th street N Y city

In one, among the city streets a laborer's home appear'd, After his day's work done, cleanly, sweet-air'd

suite of noble rooms, 'Mid plenteous books and journals, paintings on the walls, fine statuettes, Were

All, all the shows of laboring life, City and country, women's, men's and children's, Their wants provided

(at $1 a head) & they say there never was a more high toned crowd collected in the town—full half were

Y. papers —(will send you the Critic of the latter city next Monday or Tuesday with my piece in)— Havn't

Haven't felt very well lately—a real bad spell last night & this forenoon—don't feel right living in the city

Balch of The American (Philadelphia), for which he received $20 (Whitman's Commonplace Book).

Picture-Gallery" to Balch on October 8, 1880, for which he received $5, and which appeared in The American

of Walt Whitman, who, some will have it, is by preeminence of art and nature our representative American

deepest ethical instincts of a great multitude—we should certainly hope the vast majority of those American

Would it were as clean! In form he reminds us of Martin Farquhar Tupper.

Yet the prevalent tone of his verses is curiously Asiatic, as though he were an incarnation of Brahma

and were not.

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

North American Review.

I think (though I am not sure) that an article on it will appear in The American soon, by a couple of

But I have never wondered that you were caviare to the general; because, although I see clearly that

to keep that mark fresh and deepening for seven-and-twenty years, is no little achievement for an American

"Were it the will of heaven an osier bough Were vessel strong enough the seas to plow."

The clear recognition and pathetic portrayal of the home affection in the Americans, not less than their

The book deserves study even as a metrical anomaly, were it not entitled to consideration upon much higher

In that city they have had a Philosophical society for some years, and now Griggs & Co, the principal

The papers in the volume were chiefly written in Canada since Mr Smith has lived there, and several of

They were collected into a book in Canada, but subsequently taken by the publishing house of Macmillan

The American features are not all that the æsthetic fancy craves, but they are not so hopelessly lost

If it were possible to see the genius of a great people throwing itself now into this form, now into

A Perfect Poem-Picture of American Democracy. The Hermit Thoreau's Opinion of Our Good Gray Poet.

Walt Whitman is, par excellence, the poet and priest of democracy—the American type of democracy; the

In "Leaves of Grass" Walt Whitman has personified—or rather, idealized—the genius of American democracy

It is the Kosmos as viewed from the standpoint of the American idea of democracy—the sovereignty of each

On the whole it is to me very brave and American. We ought to rejoice greatly in him.

To think that the sun rose in the east—that men and women were flexible, real, alive—that every thing

To think the thought of death merged in the thought of materials, To think of all these wonders of city

To think how much pleasure there is, Do you enjoy yourself in the city? or engaged in business?

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

The threads that were spun are gather'd, the weft crosses the warp, the pattern is systematic.

wast not granted to sing thou would'st surely die.) 5 Over the breast of the spring, the land, amid cities

day and night with the great cloud darkening the land, With the pomp of the inloop'd flags with the cities

not what kept me from sleep,) As the night advanced, and I saw on the rim of the west how full you were

and there, With ranging hills on the banks, with many a line against the sky, and shadows, And the city

men, I saw them, I saw the debris and debris of all the slain soldiers of the war, But I saw they were

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

I WAS asking for something specific and perfect for my city, Whereupon lo!

people—manners free and superb—open voices— hospitality—the most courageous and friendly young men, City

city of spires and masts! City nested in bays! my city! ALL IS TRUTH.

But I too announce solid things, Science, ships, politics, cities, factories, are not nothing, Like a

Dakota" which has always been to me like a saunter through spicy, summer-warm woods, when the brooks were

I have read too your views in the North American Review on The Poetry of the Future.

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

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

to me the same as they are to you, I loved well those cities, loved well the stately and rapid river

, The men and women I saw were all near to me, Others the same—others who look back on me because I look'd

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

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

Ah now the single figure to me, Amid all teeming and wealthy Ohio with all its cities and farms, Sickly

Osgood & Co. of this city. Mr.

All who came in contact with the venerable poet were charmed by his cheery kindness, his wit and humor

Subtler than ever, more harmony, as if born here, related here, Not to the city's fresco'd rooms, not

what joys were thine! Mr.