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I loafe, and invite my soul; I lean and loafe at my ease— Observing a spear of Summer grass."

I know that the hand of God is the elderhand of my own, And I know that the spirit of God is the eldest

brother of my own, And that all the men ever born are also my brothers…and the women my sisters and

I guess it must be the flag of my disposition, out of hopeful green stuff woven.

is as big to me as any, Logic and sermons never convince, The damp of the night drives deeper into my

I laid my hat down. We shook hands.

I showed him the title page my father had drawn. He looked at it quietly—was greatly interested.

In this case the wives were on my side. Alma, the present Mrs.

That's the way of some of my friends." Kirk had written of Charles the Bold?

My dear Walt—I most cheerfully write the note that you request to Gen.

: at least, in forenoon and part of the afternoon: but "gathered together again" later on: "made up my

My answer to it has crossed the letter enclosing yours.

He then said: "Well, it is sweet—it is helpful to my soul—to hear that from you: it is the best thing

For my own part, I cannot explain my faith in the book: my satisfaction, if I may say so, is intuitive—not

When he spoke to me I may have nodded my head: when people advise me I have a way of saying 'yes, yes

"What I experience or portray shall go from my composition without a shred of my composition.

You shall stand by my side and look in the mirror with me."

"I am the teacher of Athletes; He that by me spreads a wider breast than my own, proves the width of

my own; He most honors my style who learns under it to destroy the teacher; The boy I love, the same

what he had recently described in "A Backward Glance O'er Travel'd Roads" as his program to "exploit [my

The dominant themes in the two annexes, "Sands and Seventy" and Good-Bye my Fancy," as well as in "Old

Speaking to Horace Traubel about their subject matter, Whitman said, "Of my personal ailments, of sickness

This questioning mood may be found in "Queries to my Seventieth Year," published about a month before

Still the lingering sparse leaves are, he says, "my soul-dearest leaves confirming all the rest, / The

that Walt acted as a substitute father to his brothers and sisters, as he suggests in an early story, "My

"I nourish active rebellion," Whitman challenges (section 14); "Camerado, I give you my hand!

with him I love" (1860 Leaves), but even for Whitman, the decision to publicly "tell the secret of my

Perhaps he was thinking of Vaughan when he wrote, "This the far-off depth and height reflecting my own

that he would "confront peace, security, and all the settled laws, to unsettle them" ("As I Lay with My

I was on my way to the opening meeting of the Unitarian Conference in Philadelphia.

It taught me my own definiteness of address—what my friends call my superfluity.

If my memory serves me, I went that day.

Harper's Bazaar, and W., at the name Harper's exclaimed—"That reminds me—did I tell you that I got my

As to his mail (Warren had just been to the Post Office): "This whole week my mail has been small, and

Looking back over my own time—looking into the period starting with '61—'62—I have nothing to regret,

It is a vivid touch out of life—I see it as if physical phenomena, this moment before my eyes.

I demand that my whole emotional nature be powerfully stirred.

I never saw him—but in my early years, in Brooklyn, when I loafed a good part of my spare time on the

With W. nearly an hour—though on my first coming he spoke of "the bad day" he had had, "a weary congregation

Will send you $5 the first of every month.Inclosed find $10, which please hand to Walt with my love,

I am very very busy and cannot say more tonight.Sincerely yoursJ H Johnston Will you destroy my letter

W. said, "I sent them copies of my leather-covered book: did they get them?"

That has often been on my mind."

W. said immediately after my entrance, "And what of Wallace, Horace?

But my conception is so at odds with any churchey theological ideas on the subject, I often think perhaps

W. very amusingly described his condition to Bucke, "My head easily gets in a whirl now.

Now I feel as if my brain had an envelope like the outer crust of a pudding—a dense, mucoussed cover

My deafness is directly chargeable to it."

Why do you tremble and clutch my hand so convulsively?

Aye, this is the ground, My blind eyes even as I speak behold it re-peopled from graves, The years recede

That and here my General's first battle, No women looking on nor sunshine to bask in, it did not conclude

I saw him at the river-side, Down by the ferry lit by torches, hastening the embarcation; My General

But when my General pass'd me, As he stood in his boat and look'd toward the coming sun, I saw something

Why do you tremble and clutch my hand so convulsively?

Aye, this is the ground, My blind eyes even as I speak behold it re-peopled from graves, The years recede

That and here my General's first battle, No women looking on nor sunshine to bask in, it did not conclude

I saw him at the river-side, Down by the ferry lit by torches, hastening the embarcation; My General

But when my General pass'd me, As he stood in his boat and look'd toward the coming sun, I saw something

Washington September 15 1863 Dear Mother Your letters were very acceptable—one came just as I was putting my

unionists I have met in the hospitals, wounded or sick—one young man I guess I have mentioned to you in my

must have been a giant in health, but now he is weaker, has a cough too)—Mother, can you wonder at my

mother, I have writ quite a letter—it is between 2 & 3 o'clock—I am in Major Hapgood's all alone—from my

at 4 o'clock at a Mr Boyle's —I am going—(hope we shall have something good)—dear Mother, I send you my

I think I never in my life felt so wholly blue and unhappy about any one's going away as I did and have

One reason that I have not written to you before is that I have been so unhappy I thought my letter would

Our affairs remain as they did when you left, & that is one cause of my delay.

hideous, William forbids my giving any of them away.

Walt that I hope he will come home soon, & see papa, & tell him I send my love to him & a kiss.

I do not press my finger across my mouth, I keep as delicate around the bowels as around the head and

Amelioration is my lesson, he says with calm voice, and progress is my lesson and the lesson of all things

I am the teacher of athletes, He that by me spreads a wider breast than my own proves the width of my

own, He most honors my style who learns under it to destroy the teacher.

What is commonest and cheapest and nearest and easiest is Me, Me going in for my chances, spending for

Ken recommended that in preparation for my work I read the chapter of Guidelines for Electronic Text

imagining "gentle" to mean gradual and pleasant, as in "a gentle slope," so I pictured myself easing my

Though I found the "gentle introduction" daunting and more often blunt than gentle, by working my way

My experiences since those first days have only reinforced my initial impressions; as I've worked at

Perhaps a portion of my frustrations (and also insights) are the result of Ken's somewhat fortuitous

W. saw a copy of Unity in my hand. "What have you got there?"

I spoke of the absence of sun from this room—my regret that it was so.

He feels so well just now, he accepts my confidence.

And he added, "my sister-in-law was here today.

W. then: "Well—Baptist: it is the same thing for my purposes.

was along-shore at about that place I had learned to swim as a boy, and W. was greatly interested in my

My dear Mr.

to grasp your hand on your birthday.Yours very truly,William Carey "I guess I'll have to let you do my

was all right: Johnson said the advertisements of pictures for autographs were honestly put forth, in my

I left with him proof of his "autobiographic note," which he promised to send up to my house tomorrow

I said: "Let Ed get it of my mother when he goes up to the house"—to which—"That's so—that will do—though

I was so drawn to them—they seemed so significant—I took my scissors—cut them out—and shall try to keep

them, if I can—if they don't get mislaid and buried, like so much of my material.

He spoke of this today and as illustrating his notion gave me a letter from his table and called my attention

I was compelled to [take] many car rides in my transit to "the city."

birth—to such an one there is a debt due of allegiance and profound gratitude.I thank you Sir, with all my

I go to my home in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, tomorrow.

W. writing on my entrance. Did not appear well, nor was he.

I think I must not forget to include the boy in my story."

He writes to tell me he had seen my Brazilian poem in a Parisian paper—says he likes it—congratulates

My impression of Father Taylor is very vivid because I heard him repeatedly.

Then, "My friends must understand that: it is one of the bottom principles of 'Leaves of Grass.'"

On the table was the appendix to "Good-Bye My Fancy." I picked it up and examined.

I replied, "I am only glancing at it—my impression is a good one: I always like your personal chit-chat

To my assent proceeding, "And yet there are some who would doubt all that—doubt it utterly.

If he meddles with your book in New York, I will do my utmost in all directions to have him removed from

His taking up for that miserable Chadwick against me, misrepresenting and falsifying my argumentation

The Unitarian Index did a rascally thing lately in reprinting Chadwick's letter verbatim, without my

Underwood excused himself for not printing my answer on the ground that it was too "personal"!!!!!

I would fain make my own Copy complete to the present times, so would thank you for a line giving me

But why need I ask when I see now before my minds eye several passages in your Poems that answer all

appeared to you, and if it was to you the truth it seems to have been to me in thus sending to you, as my

comrades men and women such as you sing in your Poems. there again you see I find fresh spirit for my

were not so close fisted, I should predict that they would buy copies of the book by the score, but my

I am doing fairly well—am getting where I pay expenses now, with my entertainments.

A wealthy lady of culture by chance came to one of my evenings at B's church, & was thus pleased , she

bought my Carlyle & Emerson, & engaged me for two parlor entertainments at her own home.

Immediately after my return from Germany (28 February) I did write to you and sent you a long article

If my thoughts did not weaken and wither, when I try to give them expression in the English language,

something rotten in the state of Denmark, still are true, I have the greatest belief of the vitality of my

peasant on Fijen (one of our fertile isles) wrote to me in the spring for two years ago to thank me for my

Clausen, termed in Schmidt's letter "my old friend and countryman," corresponded with Schmidt after he

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

My special trouble now is what they call schlerosis —an induration of the lower part of the spinal cord

I have never been troubled with costiveness in all my life, but now, like yourself, I have a partial

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

Camden May 25 My dear friend Yours of 20th recd received —At this present writing I don't think the Tribune

Scribner article a year or two ago the extracted half a column of his condemnatory views & opinions on my

often presents & in all primal poetry & attempt at returning to Creation's birth-innocence—let alone my

technical esthetic & conventional & technical literary points applicable—But you know, dear friend, my

Monday My dear walt i got your letter on saturday Saturday and got those you sent through the week i

better now Jeff left the pills and i think i will take some to night to see if it wont won't break up my

Judith and i get all the papers you send and all the money and it comes very good sometimes i tell you my

dear Walt worry walt about my trouble with nance and georgey it did make me feel bad and sorry for her

this one and what with Plumbers, Carpenters, Chimney-sweeps, painters, and house cleaners I have had my

compensation allowed to counsel upon employment by this office, I feel that I am scarcely warranted in giving my

the suggestion that you reduce it to the sum I have indicated, which, being done, I will promptly add my

Sir: Your letter of the 26th ultimo submits for my opinion this question: May a Consul retain for his

After an examination of the statutes relating to the subject, and to which you have directed my attention

It would give me great pleasure to render you any assistance in my power in regard to your discharge

of your judicial duties, but as it is not my official duty to do so, and as I am doubtful of its propriety

My letter of the 28th ultimo, addressed to you at Knoxville, in the case of Mr.

repeat that you seem to understand your Commission as requiring a much larger expenditure than was in my

Illinois, Ohio, From the measureless West, Virginia, the South, the Carolinas, Texas, (Even here in my

Each name recall'd by me from out the darkness and death's ashes, Henceforth to be, deep, deep within my

I am getting used to my new abode, & ought to get very well, for my cares are not heavy, & the people

magnetism human relations are capable of—I have told you how young & how American they mostly are—so on my

them suffering & dying—Doctor to the other friends that assisted me in Boston & to yourself, I send my

at this point, there has been so much disaster— Could you help me ever so little—send it to Han for my

My sister has assisted me the same—to keep out of debt.

while said this morning—"Why Walt you are fatter & saucier than ever"— but I will close by sending my

love, to my darling son—& to him I shall always be the same old Walt.

But my debt of gratitude to you, through your writing, is so great that I could not refuse the opportunity

For you have been literally an inspiration in my life.

April 15. 1886 My dear Mr.

Furness 50 J B Lippincott Co. 25 175 and my own check for one hundred & twenty-nine, (129) dollars, in

My dear Sir: I recd received your favor of April 13th and the book, which I'm delighted to have.

Pardon my delay in acknowledging, due to illness.

trees and fruit things is very quite quiet here except a murder now and then so now I will close with my

love good by bye from you affecinate affectionate Son and Friend John M Rogers To my Dear Father write

me—raw, wet, cloudy weather here—H Gilchrist came this forenoon to inquire, but did not come up to my

kitchen girl, giving out some bread & meat to the tramp at the gate the other day)—The strength of my

I don't see much prospect of my book on you seeing the light soon" (Feinberg; Horace Traubel, With Walt

makes a neat looking little oblong booklet—what it may am't to we will see— The most uncanny item of my

Canada (London I believe) for the purpose of finishing his veterinary studies— I am ab't as usual (my

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

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

America Jan 27 76 My dear Rudolf Schmidt It is now some time since I have written to you, or heard any

I still remain here laid up unwell from my paralysis—but keep much the same—no worse.

My Dear Walt.

This is my apology for this intrusion.

My dear Walt: I see in the papers, with agitation and alarm, the reports about your illness, which, however

But I should be in the way, considering my condition.

all through February, but am coming round, same as before—I go down three or four days at a time to my

Reminiscences so well & strongly praised in the Herald , the Critic & every where, don't confirm or add to my

431 Stevens Street Camden New Jersey May 29 '81 My dear Mr Osgood I suppose you rec'd received the copy

You already have my plan—a volume of say 400 pages, (not over 450) handy size, first class (but I know

summer quarters—His address is Centreport Suffolk Co: New York—I enclose the "Twilight Song" one of my

last,—Kennedy remains as proof reader for Boston Transcript—I am writing this in my den in Mickle St

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