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This has not been one of my best days, nor one of my worst, either.

swear I will am can not to evade any part of myself, Not America, nor any attribute of America, Not my

body—not friendship, hospitality, procreation, Not my soul—not the last explanation of prudence, Not

One consideration rising out of the now dead soldier's example as it passes my mind, is worth taking

If the war had continued any long time these States, in my opinion, would have shown and proved the most

perhaps other illustrations (why not use the phototypes of your father & mother that Gutekunst got up for my

Your friend RM Bucke Gables Here is a Bucke letter which you may stick into the proper place of my vol

know what she would do, forced to quit her nice home: but such things will occur, and then it is, at my

My Sister Mrs Coll sends me a little money at times, which buys a load of wood and some groceries.

f'm my friend Mrs: Johnston | NY 305 17 th Street East Our dear Uncle Walt.

Nothing could surpass the filial love she has given me: the confidence in my judgment: the loving obedience

—[these] are the two questions that are in my mind just now— Mattie has a bad cough and I have had several

I do not think it worth while to risk everything in trying to "stick" it out in a bad bargain— Give my

I expect to go to Boston on Friday or Saturday—after which my address will be to the care of Kennedy

to persuade myself that from this New Year forward everything is to be first-rate with me & with all my

perhaps in a day or two I may be able to render them in a better shape, when I write again to tell you of my

Caught in my rhymester's cup from earth's delight Where English fields are green the whole year long,

Sometime when you are sending you can return me the article for my collection.

I keep up my spirits as well as I can, but find it all pretty depressing.

Though a stranger to you, in your Book you have been my friend, and so I salute you.

own heroic measure (or a poor attempt to imitate it) by one of the members of the Melancholy Club, my

My dearest love to you. & my most fervent prayers & good wishes are yours always.

No 109 North Carolina Av Atlantic City September 3d 1888 My Dear Mr Whitman Frank and I read your "Old

I think you will be interested to know that my cousin, of whom I have made mention to you as being intimate

—I am yet young but have had more experience for my age than many Desiring to thoroughly understand the

work I have undertaken I make these inquiries—My dearest wish is like Burns'— "That I for poor Columbia's

I have been tempted to make too much perhaps of my chosen association with our greatest in England this

completed task—3 dramas—that just a faint breath of that larger air that breathes from you has come my

This business established by my old and valued friend Mr.

merely a little preamble to prepare your mind for a request Miss Langley desired me, when at Reading—(my

I shall not be surprised to see my highest claims for you (for making which I have been counted a lunatic

My copy of Sarrazin has come to hand by the afternoon's mail—it is as you said, a lovely little book.

I am still confined to the room & chair—eat & drink moderately—my meals mostly mutton-broth with bits

badly off—worse—& I am much worried ab't him—he is laid up, mainly bed fast, in his house—very bad, at my

It is falling soft and steady as I write here at my desk in my office and from time to time look up and

along—quite decided bowel action in the forenoon, & a good thorough hot-water bath (tub) in the afternoon—my

you have before)— To-day opens dark & wet & lowering enough—no severe cold yet—I still have signs of my

INSANE ASYLUM LONDON ONTARIO 14 April 91 Am still here in my big bedroom (across the hall from the one

was good of you to send it me—it is a noble production and raises Wallace even higher than ever in my

the pressure is so great that I can't get the moment to sit down, for as yet I am the only nurse, & my

I try to keep my courage up, & not to look ahead more than I must.

you since I rec'd your last letter or not—but it came safe, & was glad to hear from you—write soon, my

the perfect copies soon—we had a fine long pouring rain here all last night—I am writing this home at my

It has been my plan to have you up here for the summer if I could pursuade persuade you to come, But

I have always had my opinion of him.

We are back home again & I am busy about my farm work.

My plough seems to find as much fat in the ribs of old mother Earth as ever it did & it looks just as

all night afterward—But this morning as I write, (9 o'clock after breakfast—fish, Graham bread, tea, my

in the parlor alone by the window, it is very pleasant—soothing—it is a sweet balmy, not hot morning—my

old way—am pretty well, so far this winter—(they say I am fatter & more red-faced than ever)—I spent my

boys are all curious to know about you—all wish you luck, sincerely—Well good bye for the present, my

are provided for, or plainly hinted at—to me its best points are its unmistakable atmosphere and with my

I continue in rather a lamentable condition day & night—(rather easier at this moment in my room all

entitled "A Backward Glance O'er Travel'd Roads" and sixty-five poems; while the second, "Good-Bye my

.— I enclose you my professional card.

after a fair trial I do not succeed in earning a living in this way I shall probably drift back into my

. ∗ ∗ ∗ The successive growth-stages of my infancy, childhood, youth and manhood were all pass'd on Long

–49) and I split off with the Radicals, which led to rows with the boss and 'the party,' and I lost my

And then such lapses as these: By my great oak—sturdy, vital, green—give feet thick at the butt.

An hour or so after breakfast I wended my way down to the recesses of the aforesaid dell ∗ ∗ ∗ It was

just the place and time for my Adamic air-bath and flesh-brushing from head to foot.

he is my old boss." Adding: "Evarts was a very kind, friendly fellow." In the literary way?

Germantown, Sunday night,March 3d, 1889.My dear Traubel:Now that you and Doctor Bucke are gone I have

My God! but he's a time-taker: he's slower'n pitch on a frosty morning!

My lameness is very bad, and I am very exhausted before many hours pass each day.

of the bowels, and must, under medical orders, resort to artificial means, and this is my remedy.

.: "Nor have I: but the 'chaps,' as he calls them, often come and report me so—put words into my mouth

I said: "To my inquiry as to who wrote that fine piece there about you." W.: "Oh yes!

My address is the Daily News office.Truly yours,Francis M.

W. seemed to think my question amusing.

We are back home and I am busy about my farm work.

'Well, my young smithkin, you don't believe that? you dissent from that?' 'Yes, I do.' 'Ah!

I have asked myself in the face of criticism of my own work: 'Should I reply—should I expose, denounce

But my final conviction has always been that there is no better reply than silence.

While I am working in my shop the very wood seems written all over with them.

He seems to be very genuine.I send you my last essay—on Ouida. Have you read her Tricotrin?

CAROL OF OCCUPATIONS. 1 COME closer to me; Push close, my lovers, and take the best I possess!

Neither a servant nor a master am I; I take no sooner a large price than a small price—I will have my

become so for your sake; If you remember your foolish and outlaw'd deeds, do you think I cannot remember my

are; I am this day just as much in love with them as you; Then I am in love with you, and with all my

List close, my scholars dear!

To Workingmen TO WORKINGMEN. 1 COME closer to me; Push close, my lovers, and take the best I possess;

Neither a servant nor a master am I; I take no sooner a large price than a small price—I will have my

become so for your sake; If you remember your foolish and outlaw'd deeds, do you think I cannot remember my

are; I am this day just as much in love with them as you; Then I am in love with you, and with all my

List close, my scholars dear!

THESE carols sung to cheer my passage through the world I see, For completion I dedicate to the Invisible

THESE carols sung to cheer my passage through the world I see, For completion I dedicate to the Invisible

My impressions were written on the next day, and my memory has been vividly refreshed.

He walked with bared head to my desk and laid one in my hand, saying: Please tell Mr.

The voice caught my ear.

on my desk.

My metre is loose and free.

"I don't know what it is—the weather, some meteoric influence, what—but I feel like the devil: my head

Bucke hilarious: "My God! has it come to this?"

I said: "That would not go in my pocket."

Bucke said: "My tailor is a pope: he does as he pleases." W. laughed over that.

W. gave me a letter for my "data chest" as he called it.

1 O TAKE my hand, Walt Whitman! Such gliding wonders! such sights and sounds!

change of the light and shade, I see distant lands, as real and near to the inhabitants of them, as my

see Hermes, unsuspected, dying, well-beloved, saying to the people, Do not weep for me, This is not my

race; I see the results of the perseverance and industry of my race; I see ranks, colors, barbarisms

I have run through what any river or strait of the globe has run through; I have taken my stand on the

From the first I found it necessary to systematize my doings, and, among other things, always kept little

note-books for impromptu jottings in pencil to refresh my memory of names and circumstances and what

But before entering on my personal memoranda of the war, I have one or two thoughts to ventilate before

ABRAHAM LINCOLN—MY FIRST SIGHT AND IMPRESSION OF HIM.

It reads: 'I cannot survive the loss of the liberties of my country.'") THE EVE OF A LONG WAR.

men and their maneuvers that I was now gazing An invalid-looking man came slowly up the hill while my

The man, at my request, showed me one of the globules which he was in the habit of taking daily.

I shall remember that dinner to my dying day. We pulled up stakes, and put for home.

I made my bed in the furled sail, watching the stars as they twinkled, and falling asleep so.

An indescribable serenity pervaded my mind—a delicious abnegation of the ties of the body.

O TAKE my hand, Walt Whitman! Such gliding wonders! Such sights and sounds!

change of the light and shade, I see distant lands, as real and near to the inhabitants of them, as my

see Hermes, unsuspected, dying, well-beloved, saying to the people, Do not weep for me, This is not my

race, I see the results of the perseverance and industry of my race, I see ranks, colors, barbarisms

My spirit has passed in compassion and determination around the whole earth, I have looked for equals

1 O TAKE my hand, Walt Whitman! Such gliding wonders! such sights and sounds!

change of the light and shade, I see distant lands, as real and near to the inhabitants of them, as my

see Hermes, unsuspected, dying, well-beloved, saying to the people, Do not weep for me, This is not my

race; I see the results of the perseverance and industry of my race; I see ranks, colors, barbarisms

F2 I have run through what any river or strait of the globe has run through; I have taken my stand on

it harm'd me, giving others the same chances and rights as myself—as if it were not indispensable to my

it harm'd me, giving others the same chances and rights as myself—as if it were not indispensable to my

forced to remember another son of the people, Robert Burns, and one involuntarily thinks of his "O, my

Love's like a red, red rose, That's newly sprung in June: O my Love's like a melodie That's sweetly

(I loved a certain person ardently and my love was unreturned, Yet out of my love have I written these

hardly patience with a man who could offer the public lines like these, and call them poetry: "I tucked my

trowser-ends into my boots, and went and had a good time."

('Just now I am finishing a big volume of about 900 pages comprehending all my stuff, poems and prose

Now he writes, "Have not been out-doors for over six months—hardly out of my room, but get along better

Or in "A Carol closing Sixty-nine':— "Of me myself—the jocund heart yet beating in my breast, The body

old, poor, and paralysed—the strange inertia falling pall-like round me, The burning fires down in my

And in another passage (in the introductory essay) he says—'No one will get at my verses who insists

I do not mean by that that The Century is my ideal of a magazine: it is ideal of a kind: that's what

I had my own way of looking upon the transactions of that exciting period: I did not want to see them

appetite—to spoil my supper."

My brother George was much more excited at that time than I was: George, now up there at Burlington:

I was afraid of Ripley but Reid confirmed my impression that Greeley is or has been favorable, and he

"If I could get out, this thing would better adjust itself—but my getting out is wholly uncertain."

I know, Tom, you are able to set that into order without my help."

He was not unmindful of the good-feeling intended—"only, I am an invalid—all knocked up—careful of my

As to photos mounted—he came nearer my own fears. "This card will never get out straight.

I wish he had followed my own hints on this point—chosen a board more like that I sent him.