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Sept: 5. 1890 My dear Master I am sincerely obliged to you for your letter of August 19.

With the explanation you have placed in my hands, in which you give me liberty to use, I can speak with

The conclusion reached is, to my mind, in every way satisfactory.

either by your detractors or by the partizans of some vicious crankiness—sets me quite at ease as to my

I will tell my bookseller in London to send you a copy of the "Contemporary" in which there is an essay

Whitman's "Rejoinder" was also reprinted in Good-Bye My Fancy (Prose Works 1892, Volume 2: Collect and

But yet I must exchange my token for yours—brazen for golden gifts, as the Greek poet said.

The misfortune of my poem is that it presupposes much knowledge of antiquity—as for instance that this

Gais, Switzerland June 13 1875 My dear Sir I was very much delighted some weeks ago to receive a copy

Time does not diminish my reverential admiration for your work, nor do the unintelligent remarks of the

My permanent address is: Clifton Hill House Clifton, Bristol.

My dear Sir, When a man has ventured to dedicate his work to another without authority or permission,

This must be my excuse for sending to you the crude poem in wh. which you may perchance detect some echo

Grass in a friend's rooms at Trinity College Cambridge six years ago till now, your poems have been my

What one man can do by communicating to those he loves the treasure he has found, I have done among my

I fear greatly I have marred the purity & beauty of your thought by my bad singing.

This is my permanent address.

I live here in a large old house wh. belonged to my father—a house on a hill among trees looking down

Yet I felt that if you liked my poem you would write.

In these I trust the spirit of the Past is faithfully set forth as far as my abilities allow.

The little girl in one of them is my youngest child.

Charles my younger boy and all the child we have left lives at home with us though it seems somewhat

Pennsylvania , Dec. 29 th 188 4 Walt Whitman Esq Camden, New Jersey Dear Sir: My friend Col.

Walt Whitman, Esq., My dear Sir, I enclose you a map of Harleigh Cemetry, which I though I had sent before

Whitman Camden Dear Sir I trust you will pardon me for intruding upon you—after you read my letter—I

I am oh so very glad—but not so with me—on the contrary I am gradually growing worse—my case is called

I was first attacked in my right eye last Oct. it passed off and in April it again showed itself in the

side of my face roof of my mouth tongue & throat—I can only swallow liquid food. my speech is badly

" thatwould Who is he become my follower?

What I and be asregardless experi ence or shall go from my composition with portray out a shred of my

I heard low one my you,too, murmuring through ofthe wristsaround my head, Heard the pulseof you,when

"He you who spreads a wider breast than own the my proves width of my own.

"BefIrwas born out of my mother, generations guided me, My embryo has never been torpid nothing

as my body did its food.

It strengthened my faith, and very curiously wrought upon and contributed to my sense of self, my personality

And again: "My comrade!

O my rapt song, my charm—mock me not!

When it was concluded he added O Captain, My Captain ,and a few other pieces, and joining them to the

New Jersey Sept 21 st Dear Walt: I am down here for a week or two, under the direction of my Dr, taking

Now mainly what I write for is this, to ask you to come up & be my guest for a week.

My publishers still stick to me for a book & say that if I am not content with the usual 10 per cent,

The heat is delicious I have a constant bath in my own perspiration.

June 28th [1864] Dear Walt It was my purpose to write to you while home, but ill health prevented me

from fulfilling half my plans.

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.

My nephew, Chancy B. is with me for a few days but leaves to-morrow; so does Sulic for Kingston.

new, all strange, & very mixed; but I am now fairly master of the situation, & though I do not expect my

I was so warm & snug & my nest was so well feathered; but I have really cut loose & do not expect to

My greatest loss will be in you my dear Walt, but then I shall look forward to having you up here a good

to close up this bank, then I shall make me another nest among the rocks of the Hudson and try life my

I hope you are well & will write to me, & will go up & see my wife.

My berry crop & other crops were much injured.

I think I shall send my wife down there this winter; in the mean time I wish you would look into it.

The morning after my return some wretch poisoned my dog & the loss has quite up set upset me.

I have not been my self myself since.

Alcott praised my Emerson piece, but Sanborn appeared not to know anything about my writings.

I got the Library Table with Blood's sanguinary review of my book.

He evidently wanted to pitch into my Eagle, but was afraid of the claws.

, but the day has been so beautiful & the charm of the open air so great that I could not long keep my

My bees are working like beavers & there is a stream of golden thighs pouring into the hive all the time

I spend all my time at work about the place & like it much.

I slept in my boat or under it all the time.

The next week after I returned home I wrote up my trip for the magazine, using the health & strength

say about you, with extracts, but I cannot catch you in any mistake, as I wish I could, for that is my

I wish I could also find a slip in Shakspeare Shakespeare , or Tennyson, but I cannot according to my

The baby is doing well & completely fills my heart. Wife is about as usual.

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

Commemoration Ode," which has often, since its publication, been contrasted with Whitman's own tribute, "O Captain

My Captain!"

The baby is lying on the lounge in my room as I write, I hear him nestle & see that his eyes are open

& now I am paying the penalty of the exposure to the severe cold in another attack of neuralgia in my

I have just sent off my MS. to Briton.

If I can devise a better title I shall do so, but I think my readers will understand this one; the great

public does not care for my books anyhow.

I could convey no idea to you of how it affects my soul.

I got it, looked into it with wonder, and felt that here was something that touched on depths of my humanity

I shall talk to my Dr Doctor about you when I see him again, but if I were you I would adopt such a diet

as would make my blood as thin as possible, & so lessen the arterial strain This is common sense, &

Well, my time has come—that is all. You see, I am somewhat of a fatalist!"

I have just sent off the copy for my new vol volume : think I shall stick to "Signs & Seasons" for the

He wanted my opinion about the argument of the essay, so I told him that I never felt like quarreling

It is like a great ship that comes to windward of me & takes the breeze out of the sail of my little

He does not do full justice to Emerson as I hope to show in my essay.

"A Backward Glance on My Own Road," The Critic, 4 (5 January 1884), 1–2.

May 18, 85 Dear Walt: I have set my house & heart in order for a visit from you before these May days

You would enjoy the country here now, & it would add to the length of my days to see you here again.

July 12, 89 Dear Walt: I write you briefly this morning before starting on my 2 weeks vacation to Delaware

At that time I was having one of my streaks of insomnia, & was very wretched for two or three weeks.

I go about all day with two balls of twine at my side, training the young vines in the way they should

I had to come back to look after my farm. The heavy rains came near washing it away.

I & my man live alone in the old house, I am chief cook & bottle washer I keep well & busy, & am not

In a couple of weeks my grapes will be all off (only 1/2 crop this year) & I shall take another holiday

I wish you were here to enjoy this view, & this air, & also my grapes & peaches. Drop me a card.

My sleep was very poor while in Ky, but I think of it as the finest country I have yet seen—that is the

Only my brother is now upon the old farm.

I have to go back there at least twice a year to ease my pain.

my heart has always been!

To-day is my birth-day, too, I am 49 today. I hope spring finds you better.

My book "Signs & Seasons" will be out this month.

delighted to have been the means of giving to future generations a portrait of you that is certainly one of my

May 11 / 89 Dear Walt: Yesterday on my way up to Olive to see my wife's father, who is near the end of

for some time, yet it was a stunning blow for all that I know how keenly you must feel it, & you have my

No words come to my pen adequate to express the sense of the loss we have we suffered in the death of

Drop me a line my dear friend if you are able to do so.

It is dry as a bone here, no rain for many weeks, my potato crop is cut short 50 per cent, & all my young

I try to keep absorbed in my farm operations.

My regards to Horace Traubel. Tell me something about him when you write again.

Dec 23 d 1888 Dear Walt: I am sitting here in my bark-covered study this bright sharp day, writing you

I am feeling well, better than one year ago this time, my summers work I think has put something into

If I could only continue my farm work or else hibernate like a woodchuck I should be glad.

My first taste of the country was at Alloway, Burns' birth place.

We could have a good time here in my bark-covered shanty & in knocking about the country.

For the past two weeks my head has been ground between the upper & nether millstone of bank ledgers &

He did not even ask about your health, or any other human thing, & made me feel that my call upon him

I had resolved, for reasons of my own, not to call upon any of those fellows, & I feel like throttling

Herbert for making me depart from my resolution.

If you have a copy of my "Notes" to spare, send it to O'Connor. I have but one.

I think it would lengthen my days to see you once more.

I enclose my ck. check for the amt. amount you ask for, $100. What a blank there in New England!

I clung to the farm & lived alone with my dog, coming down here Sundays & stormy weather.

The old farm where I was born has come back upon my hands & is very embarrassing.

I tried to help my brother through with it, but he has proved unequal to the task & I have had to take

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

Feb. 27, 1890 Dear Walt: Here I am back from Pokeepsie Poughkeepsie in my little study to-night with

But few of my friends have visited me here, but here I sit by my open fire & have long long thoughts

How many times have I planted you there in my big chair by the window, or here in front of the open fire

Give him my love if you write him. I think I told you we were housekeeping in for the winter.

My winter has been flat stale & unprofitable.

We have moved back here from Po'keepsie Poughkeepsie & I am very busy in my farm & fairly happy.

I keep pretty well & lead an eventless life: read a few books, write a little now & then, & work on my

I have been busy with my pen, turning out pot-boilers, nothing else I shall keep an eye out for your

I see nothing in the literary horizon, no coming poet or philosopher My opinion is that life is becoming

My domestic skies are not pleasant & I seem depressed & restless most of the time.

Indeed I am thinking strongly of selling my place. I am sick of the whole business of housekeeping.

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

I had, in my years of loafing, forgotten how sweet toil was.

I had quite lost any interest in literature & was fast losing my interest in life itself, but these two

months of work have sharpened my appetite for all things.

I think I can make some money & may be renew my grip upon life. I was glad to see Kennedy.

He work'd worked at my father's, and had done so for two years.

him better than I expected, looks coarse & strong & healthy, has a sort of husky voice like a sea captain

I have written a short sketch as the result of my sea-shore sojourn, for the Boston "Wheelman" a new

Eldridge thinks that my publishers are dealing honestly with me.

When one of my books was published they sold the first 6 months 733 copies.

Osgood would gladly undertake my books; so would Dodd Mead & Co of Fine day here to-day, but have had