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Dear Sir It is my birthday and I am so grateful to you for the comradeship of Leaves of Grass that I

My mother and sisters have just reached New York The girls are quite young and going to give Recitations

I had my choice when I commenc'd.

My Book and I—what a period we have presumed to span!

my own distinctive era and surroundings, America, Democracy?)

I felt it all as positively then in my young days as I do now in my old ones; to formulate a poem whose

But my volume is a candidate for the future.

My dear Walt Whitman, The good ship 'Crystal' landed me safe at Leith a fortnight & more ago, after a

From the Castle, which overlooks the whole place, I had an inspiring vision of the past on my first afternoon

than usually unwell, but Walter Scott's people tell me that they have had better news, which relieves my

If you have, I wish you would give me a line of introduction to him for my brother Bertie (Albert) who

Next week (as you will see by my enclosed circular) I am to speak in Chickering Hall on Literary London—rather

What with Stedman —who celebrated my last night in America yesterday by toasting me with mint-juleps

series of poets was last year begun by Walter Scott the publisher under the occasional editorship of my

and in their list a month or two after my arrival in London as a student of life & letters this year,

I saw rather to my astonishment your name amid the rest, & feeling that in some ways I had a special

As for my own share, all I really care about is to procure a serviceable popular edition, giving all

I feel very much inclined to say a great deal more about my hopes and ideals, but to-night perhaps it

I believe I even blushed a little to find my lines so bravely in evidence.

For my own part, I feel now that concentration is the one thing that I lack.

Your card of the 24th came two days ago, not a little to my relief.

Whitman: "Because you have, as it were, given me a ground for the love of men I thank you continually in 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,

Camden 3rd Jany. 188 8 Your card of 24 th Dec. came two days ago, not a little to my relief.

He lives in the next street to Cowley St. from which by the way I may have to move shortly as my sister

this at the Reading Room of British Museum, & must end it rather hurriedly having to run off to meet my

Whitman: "Because you have, as it were, given me a ground for the love of men I thank you continually in my

Kennedy has not crossed my sight very recently; I hope to spend an evening with him before I leave.

young fellows over there, who have written lately, have also sent greetings & love, to which adding my

Vistas completed in turn, my cup will be overflowing indeed.

talk with such an one often, & I am sorry that the C's are going away to the country for Easter for my

It is all out of my hands now, and I do hope everything will turn out well.

The P.M.G usually treats me rather cavalierly over my own things: the young fellows who do the literary

Did you ever read his Story of My Heart?

I, too, often doubt any absolute empire, even the most cosmic, over the human will: that is my feeling

but I must not wait any longer now, though there is a fog outside & a fog or something of the sort in my

Llwyngwril, a primitive little village, quite away from town- ways & fashions, I stayed for four weeks with my

Having it in my drawer or on the table as I write, it makes me feel as if you yourself had been in the

For my own sake, as well as yours, I wish it were!

thought over it very seriously, besides asking Dr Bucke's opinion about issuing a 2nd Edn at all of my

you, but I have a bad habit of putting off things—as you know, & week after week slips by & accuses my

This remissness is very much of a part with the rest of my story of late.

Opposite my window the birds kick up a great row in the branches, as they discuss the delicate question

T O Walt Whitman 24 May 18 90 Greeting, my dear Poet, for your 71 st birthday—now so close at hand,—greeting

I trust the new year's voyage will at least be less painful,—free from such vexations as that of my Lady

Later when I got back here to my rooms, & read your reference to the slips again, I realised that if

It gives me quite a new conception of my own importance in the world.

(Give him my hearty greetings!)

Just as he was about to recite 'My Captain,' a little girl, the granddaughter of Edmund Clarence Stedman

He , I daresay, is not altogether wrong about my other self, who is possessed at times with the itch

I believe I last wrote to you from Carmarthen, where I stayed with my dear grand-parents, making excursions

thoughts, (as I dropped with ready strides down those Welsh mountains at nightfall, or arm-in-arm with my

Here my Uncle Percival, who is a Naturalist & Poultry-fancier, among other things, has a house almost

Last week my brother, Percy, who is an actor, came up to town with the news that he was going off to

He sails to-morrow afternoon by the "Norham Castle" from Blackwall, & to-day my Father & Mother, anxious

It is absurd that I have never yet found my way to France.

Yesterday I went down to Blackwall to see my brother stowed safely on board the "Norham Castle."

The other day he & his father drove round here, & in my absence carried off Edith, who had never seen

My dear Walt Whitman, I have just been reading your lines in the "Herald" for this morning, which hold

My adventures since leaving you have not been very startling, but they have been full of everyday life

Yesterday my good friend Cyrus Butler, a kind & wealthy old gentleman, took me quite a round of studios

Bucke's place on Wednesday, where I will look to send you a further note on my doings.

I have good news of my brother at last, & so am free to sail for England in a fortnight.

The discussion after my paper, in which Sanborn took a main part, was full of interest, & there was a

general agreement with my position, & that part based on Leaves of Grass in especial.

London To 2 d March '89 My dear Walt Whitman, During the past day or two I have been arranging your portraits

between the lines, feeling all the time as if I can still see you in your great arm-chair—as during my

It is this impression that I must try to convey as far as may be in my article in the S. A.

So my instinct for life & the open road grows stronger every day. "Right Jack Health!"

I believe I told you that my sister Edith was with me here.

"The sea-wind & the sea Made all my soul in me A song for ever!"

by the way, to say that a note has come to say a package (of portraits presumably) from you, awaits my

I shall be able now to get on with my article for the 'Scottish Art Review' as soon as I am back in town

Whitman: "Because you have, as it were, given me a ground for the love of men I thank you continually in my

last three or four weeks, & before returning to London tomorrow I should like to tell you something of my

Before beginning about myself, though,— many thanks for the Lippincott's article.— My Book & I , which

North Sea Interlude," and so it was natural that I should go down to the sea-shore a good deal during my

—then, two or three days ago, I went over to Browney Valley, to see my old friends the coal-miners &

Believe this, of yours most affectionately Ernest Rhys After to-day my address is again Sq.

If I came, I should have to send letters to the papers here, & perhaps lecture too, to pay my way; for

I come to my last halfpenny indeed almost every week, & am getting quite used to the condition at last

Camden, 14 th Aug. '89 My dear Walt Whitman, Your welcome p'card of July 23 rd reminds me how the time

has slipped away since my last letter to you.

The practice I had in America, & the vocal exercises that I used to indulge in during my mountain rambles

working men,—chiefly socialists; so I gave them as good an account of Leaves of Grass in connection with my

To my great delight, there proved to be several men there who knew L. of G. & who were able to join with

opposite side of the river, & the sound of fire-bells & galloping horses in the distance, drew me out of my

My American trip seems to have given me a new energy of assimilation too.

My dear Walt Whitman, I was very glad to have your postcard two or three days ago, & to find that you

My work—editing &c., made me come away at last sooner than I wished to.

through a quiet & picturesque cwm or valley,—so reaching this place, Carmarthen, where I stay with my

have been dipping more & more into old Welsh romance & poetry, of late; eking out with a dictionary my

Oct. '88 My dear Walt Whitman, Your card was welcomed the other day; but I was sorry it did not give

I suppose these late weeks here have been the happiest of my life,—in the sense of physical delight at

Every day I gather in this way some new association to add to my store; & all the while I am picking

My hat was all worn out, and Papa sent me a new one, by the post man. I like my new hat.

it harmed me, giving others the same chances and rights as myself—As if it were not indispensable to my

equality was also based on the teaching of Christ as he had seen it practiced by the Quakers: "I wear my

to the President at his levee" and "Good-day my brother, to Cudge that hoes in the sugar-field" ("Song

In opposition to Carlyle's hero-worship he offered in 1871 a "worship new" of "captains, voyagers, explorers

Leaves of Grass (1891) COME, said my Soul, Such verses for my Body let us write, (for we are one,) That

Ever and ever yet the verses owning—as, first, I here and now, Signing for Soul and Body, set to them my

By the Roadside," "Autumn Rivulets," "From Noon to Starry Night," "Sands at Seventy," and "Good-Bye my

this manuscript may connect to the stanza of the poem eventually titled "Song of Myself" that begins "My

head at nightfall, and he is fain to say, "I too am not a bit tamed—I too am untranslatable; I sound my

ONCE I passed through a populous city, imprinting my brain, for future use, with its shows, architec-

Give me the drench of my passions! Give me life coarse and rank!

dancers, and drink with the drink- ers drinkers , The echoes ring with our indecent calls, I take for my

love some prostitute—I pick out some low person for my dearest friend, He shall be lawless, rude, illiterate—he

one condemned by others for deeds done; I will play a part no longer—Why should I exile myself from my

What do my shouts amid lightnings and raging winds mean?)

(I bequeath them to you, my children, I tell them to you, for reasons, O bridegroom and bride.)

(Know, I am a man, attracting, at any time, her I but look upon, or touch with the tips of my fingers

, Or that touches my face, or leans against me.)

To rise thither with my inebriate Soul! To be lost, if it must be so!

SPONTANEOUS me, Nature, The loving day, the friend I am happy with, The arm of my friend hanging idly

over my shoulder, The hill-side whitened with blossoms of the mountain ash, The same, late in autumn—the

pressed and glued together with love, Earth of chaste love—life that is only life after love, The body of my

and trembling encircling fingers—the young man all colored, red, ashamed, angry; The souse upon me of my

greed that eats me day and night with hungry gnaw, till I saturate what shall produce boys to fill my

It is I, you women—I make my way, I am stern, acrid, large, undissuadable—but I love you, I do not hurt

babes I beget upon you are to beget babes in their turn, I shall demand perfect men and women out of my

O MY children! O mates!

beautiful, curious, breathing, laughing flesh is enough, To pass among them, or touch any one, or rest my

As I see my Soul reflected in nature, As I see through a mist, one with inexpressible com- pleteness

O my body!

likes of the Soul, (and that they are the Soul,) I believe the likes of you shall stand or fall with my

I were nothing, From what I am determined to make illustrious, even if I stand sole among men, From my

The oath of the inseparableness of two together—of the woman that loves me, and whom I love more than my

, (To talk to the perfect girl who understands me—the girl of The States, To waft to her these from my

own lips—to effuse them from my own body;) From privacy—From frequent repinings alone, From plenty of

the right person not near, From the soft sliding of hands over me, and thrusting of fingers through my

EARLY in the morning, Walking forth from the bower, refreshed with sleep, Behold me where I pass—hear my

voice—approach, Touch me—touch the palm of your hand to my body as I pass, Be not afraid of my body.

Deliriate, thus prelude what is generated, offering these, offering myself, Bathing myself, bathing my

songs in sex, Offspring of my loins.

over waves, toward the house of maternity, the land of migrations, look afar, Look off the shores of my

daughters, sons, preluding, The love, the life of their bodies, meaning and being, Curious, here behold my

wide sweep, having brought me again, Amorous, mature—all beautiful to me—all won- drous wondrous , My

wondrous; Existing, I peer and penetrate still, Content with the present—content with the past, By my

—In my rambles and explorations I found a woody place near the creek, where for some reason the birds

LOUIS, May 30 189 0 Dear Sir: Your brother, and my friend, Mr Thomas J.

Come, said The Soul, Such verses now, my body, let us write—write thou for me— That when I come again

Whitman's epigraph poem for the 1876 and 1891–92 editions of Leaves of Grass, beginning "Come, said my

Th 187 6 Walt Whitman Respected Sir: I began several years since the collection of the autographs of my