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GOOD-BYE MY FANCY. * T HERE is something at once very pathetic and courageous in this definitive leave-taking

My life and recitative . . . . . .I and my recitatives, with faith and love Waiting to other work, to

And again: Good-bye my Fancy, Farewell dear mate, dear love!

May-be it is you the mortal knot really undoing, turning— so now finally Good-bye—and hail, my Fancy.

Good-Bye My Fancy

During the pause he laughed very gently and took my hand and said: "See—I am off again—talking about

my health—as if there was nothing in the world but my pains and aches to be considered."

That eases my conscience." We exchanged rolls of proofs.

My sister Gussie had sent him in some asparagus. "Oh! it was princely!

Spent the rest of my timetilluntil bed writing letters for W. Friday, July 6, 1888.

have been 2 weeks in a fever of parturition & have gone over all the notes writings, & literature of my

past life in relentless search for material to enrich the book on my hero.

Please don't tell anyone of my project yet— wd would you?

But my chief object is to propagandize.

My Puritan training as a Calvinistic ministers son hindered it for a long time.

As I left my overcoat in Washington, I have been compelled to get something here—so I have bought me

Then away late—lost my way—wandered over the city, & got home after one o'clock.

& heft, to say nothing of my reputation, is doing pretty well.

Then I thought I would come up & sit a while in my room.

So long, dear Pete—& my love to you as always, always.

If my accumulation of shoes—my cast-off shoes—like wine and Old Daubs were increased in value by cobwebs

Vault Company in the land boasted a receptacle wide and deep and strong enough to house and protect my

My only sorrow at this moment is in that: its the last drink in the bottle and two blocks to where my

But first of all in its protestations of undying love—which, even to the remotest corners of my heart

It will be my first appearance in this Annual.

St was too much for me & my brain actually reels. I have never seen architecture before.

You would see your own in St , but it took my breath away.

It was more than I could bear & I will have to gird up my loins & try it many times.

If I loose lose my wits here why go further? But I shall make a brave fight.

I write you this dear Walt to help recover my self.

FATHOMLESS DEEPS. 1 RISE O days from your fathomless deeps, till you loftier, fiercer sweep, Long for my

O wild as my heart, and powerful!)

you have done me good, My soul prepared in the mountains absorbs your immortal strong nutriment, Long

had I walk'd my cities, my country roads through farms, only half satisfied, One doubt nauseous undulating

like a snake, crawl'd on the ground before me, Continually preceding my steps, turning upon me oft,

FATHOMLESS DEEPS. 1 RISE O days from your fathomless deeps, till you loftier, fiercer sweep, Long for my

O wild as my heart, and powerful!)

you have done me good, My soul prepared in the mountains absorbs your immortal strong nutriment, Long

had I walk'd my cities, my country roads through farms, only half satisfied, One doubt nauseous undulating

like a snake, crawl'd on the ground before me, Continually preceding my steps, turning upon me oft,

He looked at me and seemed to see some distrust in my face. "You think I am condemning Lathrop?

I love him—honor him: if there's anything comes short it excites my regret: I judge no one."

My dear Mr. Burroughs,I have just finished your book on Birds and Poets.

accumulating thunder in my own way.

I get my hands loose now and then, and feel that I have done a little something.

Was perfectly satisfied with my arrangement of it.

revelation—brought me conviction of many stray thoughts, observations—was in itself confirmation of my

the Post—was coming upon my close—reserving for the end my sally, my big guns—as the Irish carter, who

It sat down without mercy on my Irishman's spirit.

When I told him my trouble in doing this—"Well—it was well done at last, which is the important point

Dear Friend I was to tell you about my acquaintanceship with Tennyson, which was a pleasant episode in

my life at Haslemere Hearing of the extreme beauty of the scenery thereabouts & specially of its comparative

It is pleasant to see T. with children—little girls at least—he does not take to boys—but one of my girls

nor understand the full meaning of your own words—"whoso touches this, touches a man" —"I have put my

My love, flowing ever fresh & fresh out of my heart, will go with you in all your wanderings, dear Friend

morning, & was welcome, as any thing from you will always be, & the sight of your face welcomer than all, my

Lew, as to me & my affairs there is nothing very new or important—I have not succeeded in getting any

expenses—but it is my own fault, for I have not tried hard enough for any thing—the last three weeks

I have not felt very well—for two or three days I was down sick, for the first time in my life, (as

It is now about 3 o'clock, & I will go out & mail this letter, & then go & get my dinner—So good bye,

Mr Walt Whitman, Dear Sir, For the first time in my life I heard of you last winter, and your wonderful

That was my first acquaintance with you. It was also a revalation revelation .

That is all of yours I have ever read, just enough to whet my appetite.

I want it badly but had spent all my spare change before I knew I wanted it.

it round like a barrel, as it were, the poetry was all choked out and it fell flat and insipid from my

My dear Friend Your kind letter came to hand yesterday.

I never think of you but it makes my heart glad to think that I have bin permited to know one so good

I have got my leg but I think that I will never be able to walk much on it as my stump is so short but

if I cant I can go on my crutches for they appear to be a part of myself for I have bin on them so long

I have not succeeded in getting a position in any of the Depts yet thoug my M.C. tried quite hard Gov

My friends!

I did put it into my pocket.

Accept my thanks.

"You've said it for me: that's the substance of my philosophy.

My p. o. address remains the same. I am quite well and hearty.

"My head is behaving itself right decently just now. But it's funny, how unambitious my body is.

My fatal procrastination has tripped me up at last.

"My notes are very accurate.

"I want no club founded in my name."

The effect upon me was slow, though one of the surgeons there finally called my attention to my own peril

Add- ing, after looking in my face: "Don't feel bad about it—I don't."

They may be wrong in what they say of my book but they are not wrong in their love: love is never wrong

So I wonder over Kennedy—do not quite get him adjusted in my perspective.

I get to look for Bucke as I look for my breakfast." While we were talking Harned came in.

As I left W. held my hand for a long time (his hand was very warm) and said: "What I say of my head does

I did not attempt to show him my letters.

It is impossible to say why I have not done so—pardon my procrastination, which, with regard to my private

correspondence, I am afraid is one of my sins.

Here at my work I am delighted. I like my work—I am partly on the Ledgers & partly at the Counters.

I intend giving our Clarke permission to quote from my Notes but my feeling in regard to the letter is

But I was about to say, thank the Professor for me—give him my love.

Now I am sorry—my stomach won't digest it—and there it is!

I find that so much of my food seems to amount to nothing just in that way."

the public in my literary products.And I owe it to him that my heart warms to you, who are helping him

I seek and feel after the bodily presentment of a man who occupies my thought.

/ Why are there men and women that while they are nigh me the sun-light expands my blood?

/ Why when they leave me do my pennants of joy sink flat and lank?

blood—that if I walk with an arm of theirs around my neck, my soul leaps and laughs like a new-waked

—(Am I loved by them boundlessly because my love for them is more boundless?

truth, my sympathy, and my dignity.

As far as my life goes it is written in the past.

For years it was my wish to live long enough to round out my life's story in my little book, 'The Leaves

I continue my work reading or writing to my friends."

as I tried to put it in my books.

It is only the closest student would find it in my works.

My purpose was to kill two birds with one stone—get well and fix up the "Carpenter", but I fear neither

I never was so tired in my life, and am so sleepy that I drop off in slumber if I sit a few minutes in

beard grow down all over the rocks like sea-weed, and cover the sea, and my hair spread backward over

Give her my best love.

I heard that Higginson did not like my "Good Gray Poet." This is sad.

his January 16, 1872 letter to Rudolf Schmidt, Whitman wrote that Freiligrath "translates & commends my

Don't mind my not answering them promptly, for you know what a wretch I am about such things.

girls, & about Mr Arnold —of course you won't forget Arthur, & always when you write to him send him my

But, my darling, it is a dreadful thing—you dont know these wounds, sicknesses &c—the sad condition in

evenings altogether at the hospitals—my day, often.

I like Washington very well (did you see my last letter in N Y Times of Oct 4, Sunday?)

THAT shadow, my likeness, that goes to and fro, seek- ing seeking a livelihood, chattering, chaffering

it where it flits, How often I question and doubt whether that is really me; But in these, and among my

lovers, and carolling my songs, O I never doubt whether that is really me.

would try to write, blind, blind, with my own tears.

I will only say that my soul and my sympathy all go out towards you and I often think of you as the one

Traubel,My thanks for your very good note.

The "circle" is my own creation.

Give him my love. I haven't things ready-made to say to him. Just give him my love.

Horace to meet me at Dooner's to breakfast that day—hope to see you toward noon—same day—Sunday— No, my

That same day, he wrote Horace Traubel: "I am over my eyes in work and my right arm is helpless and painfull—it

edition you got of Shephard, four or five weeks ago—with the remaining copies (if any) of the 25 sent by my

I have somewhere between 300 & 350 of my little book of later poems, "As a Strong Bird on Pinions free

If you care to have the sole & exclusive command of all my books in existence, take this offer.

I am sick & paralyzed—a tedious prospect still before me—& should be glad to have the books off my hands

With Walt Whitman in Camden in 1889: "What a sweat I used to be in all the time . . . over getting my

previously published in Leaves of Grass, "Passage to India" was Whitman's attempt to "celebrate in my

—I don't well know when my American Selection will be out: my work on it is done, & the rest depends

I sent on the copy of your works transmitted for "The Lady," after some little delay occasioned by my

seems very considerably impressed with the objects & matter of interest in London: I wish it might be my

previously published in Leaves of Grass, "Passage to India" was Whitman's attempt to "celebrate in my

…My brain is too sensitive.

Camden June 19 1890 My dear friend & all It is a wonderful fine day, cool enough & I am feeling fairly—every

was glad to see him—he looks well—I hear from Dr Bucke f'm Canada, & f'm Edw'd Carpenter —he is well—my

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

Whitman occasionally referred to Stafford as "My (adopted) son" (as in a December 13, 1876, letter to

reverential terms his meeting with Walt Whitman: "The memory of that 'good time' will ever be one of my

most valued possessions and it is associated with my most unique experience.

and, while I cannot send you anything particularly new, I re-dedicate to you all, as follows, one of my

s Purport," "For Us Two, Reader Dear," and "My Task" (?). The cluster was rejected by B. O.

Rossetti I am drawn toward, and though my first impression of him was that he was a high flown literary

as Assistant Secretary Richardson has impressed me into his service here & proposes to retain me & my

I have seen enough of cities, & streets & art and pictures & museums to stand me all the rest of my days

, and am in a hurry to set my face westward.

fried eggs on a perfumed napkin, and the napkin on beautiful tissue paper & the whole on a china plate (my

Whitman referred to Rossetti's edition as a "horrible dismemberment of my book" in his August 12, 1871

…My brain is too sensitive.

evn'g as usual (always welcome)—he is well—is a clerk in a bank in Phila—Am sitting at present alone in my

I enclose one of my late circulars as it may have a wisp of interest to you.

Robert Browning (1812–1889), known for his dramatic monologues, including "Porphyria's Lover" and "My

volumes of Horace Traubel's With Walt Whitman in Camden (various publishers: 1906–1996) and Whitman's "My

day—Expect Dr B[ucke] here to day —continue on myself badly enough—catarrhal crises—nights not so bad—made my

O'C and Dr & T & I—have had my 4½ meal with zest—we all send best respects & love to you & to the friends

sixty-five poems that had originally appeared in November Boughs (1888); while the second, "Good-Bye my

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

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

It connects itself with memories of my mother's like condition—her only companion often a canary too.

And then, "Yesterday—if I had not felt my pulse—known by its regular beat that all was right there, I

These visits are in some ways my damnation! These strangers—who make me deaf and blind!

And my sister, George's wife."

I never lose my respect for the printer boys, however they aggravate me at times."

My experience has been that they have left me honestly alone, always to say my say as I wished to say

Dear Walt: I have sent you the MS of my letter to Bucke.

The collection of my anti-Comstock letters has been positively prevented up to date, by simple lack of

I was thinking of you when I wrote the first and third of my three reasons against transfer.

Do you see my dilemma?

I aimed, also, in my contribution to the volume, to add to its interest and attractiveness.

Thy recognition of my loss goes to my heart.

My parcel and its contents will speak to thee more then I can write thee.

I gaze on the Sea while I eat my food and think of thee in the of summer I gaze on the sea, and in the

eldest Lad is now in Japan is second voyage to Celina and yet only 16 years old—my youngest is also

He I hope someday will visit your Land. my two lads I would like to see settled there on Land, only I

I already begin to think about my return to Washington. A month has nearly passed away.

Then about the Broadway drivers, nearly all of them are my personal friends.

So I try to put in something in my letters to give you an idea of how I pass part of my time, & what

which it is my present plan to do the ensuing winter at my leisure in Washington.

I send you my love, & so long for the present. Yours for life, dear Pete, (& death the same).

54 Manchester Road Bolton, England Jan 20 th 1891 My Dear Old Friend, By this mail I send you the current

J.W.W. called at my surgery this morning & read to me the draft of a letter to you concerning Ruskin

has been to me or how much I owe to his good influence; for he has been one of three good genii of my

life—the other two being yourself & my own, dear, good old father.

Pardon my writing thus about my friend but "out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh." &

Whitman, late in life, said to Horace Traubel: "[I] take my Ruskin with some qualifications."

This sense forbids my taking up the pen carelessly to intrude upon your attention. I. Mr. H.H.

I came to grasp it; my humility to God, my esteem to you.

to my work as a composer.

Intention must befriend me or my chance must fall.

In the first, I send you a copy of this work, I have perforce of my religious perception, vested the

Fascinated, my eyes reverting from the south, dropt, to follow those slender windrows, Chaff, straw,

O baffled, balk'd, bent to the very earth, Oppress'd with myself that I have dared to open my mouth,

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

sight of the sea taking advantage of me to dart upon me and sting me, Because I have dared to open my

Me and mine, loose windrows, little corpses, Froth, snowy white, and bubbles, (See, from my dead lips

Fascinated, my eyes reverting from the south, dropt, to follow those slender windrows, Chaff, straw,

O baffled, balk'd, bent to the very earth, Oppress'd with myself that I have dared to open my mouth,

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

sight of the sea taking advantage of me to dart upon me and sting me, Because I have dared to open my

Me and mine, loose windrows, little corpses, Froth, snowy white, and bubbles, (See, from my dead lips

PRIMEVAL my love for the woman I love, O bride ! O wife !

Then separate, as disembodied, the purest born, The ethereal, the last athletic reality, my consolation

, I ascend—I float in the regions of your love, O man, O sharer of my roving life.

cuss did me lots of good: he left me temporarily in a quarrelsome mood: I hated the room here, and my

lame leg, and my dizzy head: I got hungry for the sun again, for the hills: and though Mary brought

me up a good supper she didn't bring the sort of food required to satisfy a fellow with my appetite.

But later, next day, yesterday, the tramp's gift got into my veins—it was a slow process, but got there

10 th 89 O Good Gray Poet, When I read the notes on your life made by Ernest Rhys the tears came to my

feeling of the boundlessness of the universe, of the greatness of a man—perhaps, only perhaps, it may be my

glory to help others to "justify" your work; it surely is my heart's desire.

My excuse for writing you is the sending of a book; a first utterance, called "Voices & Undertones"—it

431 Stevens Street Camden New Jersey Jan: 15 '81 My dear friend As I have not rec'd received the proof

In the Feb: February N A North American Review there is a piece of mine about Poetry (a good many of my

send to Mr Rice, the editor, or Mr Metcalf the business manager, & I think get the sheets—you can use my

name— Walt Whitman Should you notice, send to me In my last I addressed you at 757 Broadway—is either

Dear Pete, I am having a better time here than I had my last visit.

swimming— Mother is only middling—has some pretty bad spells with rheumatism—will break up here, & go with my

It is either $120 (or $130, I am not sure—but I have a memorandum in my desk at Washington)—I am feeling

real well, & hope you are too, my loving boy.

My Dear Sir I had the honor to recive the fiew lines you addressed to me, which was delivered by my particular

In my humble opinion there is nothing so well calculated to inspire a soldier with new courage and fresh

acquaintance may ripen into a mutual attachment The preasent you sent me I received for which accept my

Dear brother I hardly know what to say to you in this letter for it is my first one to you but it will

not be my last I should have written to you before but I am not a great hand at written and I have ben

very buisy fixing my tent for this winter and I hope you will forgive me and in the future I will do

I send you my love and best wishes. Good by from Your Brother, Sergt Thomas P Sawyer P.S.