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Aroused by my entrance he was at once cordial and inquisitive. Talked well. Looked well.

Yet I have made up my mind to be cheerful: to sustain myself by what philosophy I can."

"Yes, I often think of it, especially of late days—how fortunate I have been in my friends: I doubt if

This is the very centre, circumference, umbillicus, of my whole career.

So it was with me: I had to cut up my capers.

My dear mother knew it well—warned me of it, counselled me. And it was not without effect.

And after a pause, with a quiet smile, "He calls me master—opens the letter 'My dear Master'"—and then

from it, when domestic troubles, very sad and serious to me, set me back, so that I never fully got on my

My legs are completely gone—but the paralysis hardly touched my speech, and, as far as I know, did not

He went away from here, expecting to stop with my friends—the Romes—to see them—in Brooklyn—then set

Williams in to see me about birthday—anxious lest it might be passed over, but agreeable in face of my

O'Donovan spoke of my New England Magazine article. Had he seen the Lippincott's article?

of its mass yet also of its thinness (for it is quite thin now)—Eakins interposed, "That was one of my

At one moment he leaned impulsively forward, "Do you know, dear, you remind me of my dear dear friend

And they are evils, too—I know it—but like evils, prove the good—just as I said to my doctor yesterday

keep, if not fairly, at least not markedly worse and I hope to find you "right side up with care" on my

But the main thing I want to talk about to you today is my visit yesterday to Lord Tennyson.

But after all I fear I can give you but a faint notion of the pleasure my visit was to me.

Give Horace my love and show him this letter, tell him to keep it.

oblivious to my presence.

My head especially—filled me with whirlings, whizzings, spiralings—seeming to send every effervescence

to my poor brain.

I had caught a glimpse of them on Chestnut St. in one of my hurried runs out.

W. suddenly started to get up—asked me for my hand—came to table (east).

He seemed to seal my identity. All great teachers given this power.

such directions respecting the proceedings allowed to as I may deem expedient, or to express to you my

I regard the subject of your letter, and the request for my advice and direction in the premises, as

As per my promise to Bucke, I urged W.'s preface to O'Connor's book.

the minister, Cake"—who "out-Heroded Herod in coming here"—proposing—"communal marriages, in a way—in my

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

Ont., 19 June 18 90 I am now fairly settled down here for the summer, have pretty well caught up with my

Have just received a letter from my brother Eustace of Ottawa containing this comical passage "I was

The preface was included in Good-Bye My Fancy (Philadelphia: David McKay, 1891), 51–53.

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.

text had for its third line: "Doubtless I could not have perceived the universe, or written one of my

Whitman deletes this line in 1867 and replaces it with "(I loved a certain person ardently and my love

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

Bent to the very earth, here preceding what follows, Terrified with myself that I have dared to open my

whose echoes recoil upon me, I have not once had the least idea who or what I am, But that before all my

And I would that my tongue could utter The thoughts that arise in me!

A man who has had my career is safe against the like.

Now, in these late days, as I look back upon the past, I can see that, in a sense, my misfortunes have

been my fortunes—that it must have been altogether right for me to have travelled a rough, hard road—so

My father has been making a large copy of the Gutekunst picture and W. said: "I shall probably stop in

And on my negative merrily exclaiming, "Nor have I bite!"

"I have had quite a curiosity," he said once more, "to fall on the track of my Brazilian poemetta—I looked

Advising me to take my summer trip to Canada and Dr.

At my entrance W. asked, "What news do you bring?"

fact is, although I had always had the kindliest thought of Boker, he was never a great element in my

I am sure I feel it an honor to be asked, and am glad to have my word go in there, for I feel it is in

I had my doubts from the first."

And the brother, too—Wilhelm—a great man by all my means of knowing.

I am glad you were on hand last night to say your word of dissent, and my word in the bargain."

mast—roughing it in that line a life through—but he was a man, every inch of him—as I may say it again, using my

I should wish everywhere to bear my testimony to him.

But," he added, "as this is a good paid-for piece, let me follow out my custom—credit the poem where

—And after a pause: "But first I want to find my 'last will and testament'"—laughingly—"it is here somewhere

Called my attention to an English catalogue, rehearsing rare and autographed Whitman books for sale—prices

No word from Bucke, but, "Every couple of days I have something from my Lancashire friends—some letter

I want a couple for my sisters, one for my niece, a couple for Lancashire, one for Symonds.

for a week past felt like the devil, Doctor: no relief—none at all—except when I sleep—and curiously my

He said again, "I seem to get no relief—except as I come here—rest stretched out on my back.

He told Longaker, "Doctor, somehow or other I took the notion—it is another of my evil whims I suppose—that

Then said the beautiful Queen Kriemhilde, "My husband i the most noble, and by right this kingdom, and

the queen to Hagen, and, looking upon him with hatred, "Restore," said she, "before it is too late, my

said Kriemhilde, "one useful thing, at any rate, you have restored to me, The sword, the weapon of my

I have made up my mind that the camp hospitals are pretty well cleaned out, the worst cases are here

The more I see of them in the Army, the higher & broader my estimate of them.

So, doctor, I still remain here in Washington, occupying my time nearly altogether among the wounded

most are blanks —I was at Pike's Peak—I liked Denver City very much—But the most interesting part of my

bridge over the Mississippi river —I often go down to the river, or across this bridge—it is one of my

I often think of you & no doubt you often do of me—God bless you, my darling friend, & however it goes