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Kittermaster (a lawyer, nephew of Mrs Bucke's & good friend of mine) and one of my little boys drove

or at one side or other of the road—a good team, free travelers—altogether a grand day—today up to my

weather—upon the whole the finest December we ever had here—has changed, & to-day is dark & sulky & dripping—My

this morning—I am sitting here in the big chair—have eaten some ice cream — drank a cup of milk for my

INSANE ASYLUM LONDON ONTARIO 28 July [June] 18 91 Just as I sent off my last note came yours of 24 th

certainly use the note to Tennyson for I want much to see him and to be able to tell you about him on my

picture or two besides—the one in the hat I call "the laughing philosopher" —I am sitting here alone in my

big ratan arm chair in my den—Supper soon—I only eat two meals (no dinner) but relish them— Walt Whitman

Traubel, With Walt Whitman in Camden, Thursday, September 12, 1889 and Saturday, September 14, 1889: "My

kind of feeling, I am thankful they are so few—for you know I am getting to be an old fellow—though my

temperament for buoyancy & fun I believe increases instead of diminishes—I shall take my vacation considerably

of Justice Washington . 187 Thursday night—½ past 8 Dearest mama, I will write you a line, to begin my

myself, nobody in the building besides me, but the watchman—Mama dear, I suppose you got the order in my

I was appointed last Wednesday, my new grade & pay commence on Nov. 1st—I haven't got a letter from home

has gone to New York—he is badly afflicted with sore eyes, & has gone there to see the best oculists— My

lately—to-day have been out f'm two to three hours—start at 11 abt—Stopt at Harleigh Cemetery to look again at my

Give my love to all—I most envy the S W salt air that must be breezing in there to day— Walt Whitman

W. 3 July 1880 My dear Friend I write you one line to ask you if you can do me a little favour favor

A few of my friends, who are poets, have been pleased to do honour to themselves & to Scott, & they have

Asylum for the Insane, London, March 23 d 18 80 My dear Walt The two copies of "Leaves of Grass" came

vols volumes —Do not mail the books to Anderson as I told you on 18 but mail them to —Please answer my

July 10 th 1880 My dear Walt Whitman.

I remain My dear Walt Whitman Yours Faithfully Josiah Child Josiah Child to Walt Whitman, 10 July 1880

'90 Much the same—stupid condition—fine sunny day—passable night—buckwheat cakes honey & coffee for my

furnish them in MSS a new book (60,000 words) on Abrm Lincoln, for a new series Makers of America —my

have not stirred out—the roads and rivers here all block'd blocked with snow and ice—the last week my

Rice, to me about a week after the piece appeared, one of the most eulogistic, solid acceptances of my

a visit to very kind Quaker folks, particular friends of mine —had a good time—good grub—a horse to my

I am well as usual—nothing very new with my affairs (but the last six or eight months has kind of gone

Dearest Mother, I have grown better the last four or five days, & don't have that pain in my head now

It has got pretty cold here the last two days—I wear my big old overcoat.

Dear John Burroughs I have got back here after ten weeks' absence, & find myself all the better for my

you papers from here which of course you have rec'd received —I enclose the baby's photo, returned —my

Boston, Sept: September 24 1881 Dear Alma Every thing is going on & has gone on satisfactorily—My book

plate-casting, & if things turn out wrong any way I shall have only myself to blame, for I have had my

reprint "Encyclopædia Brittanica"—I send you by express a little package of books—the three Vols. of my

me—mainly because it satisfies me best, upon the whole —What you say about Mrs Spofford's say lubricates my

This is the first letter I have written for weeks, and I am afraid I write rather obscurely, for my hand

did not answer and acknowledge them I regret to have done so; but if you knew how great the mass of my

and bladder troubles and fearful weakness of ten weeks ago—At present I am sitting by the oak fire in my

T. has been and is invaluable to me—my books are all printed etc.

Were I near you I should like to have the honor of paying my personal respects to you.

If you would write your name upon my 1855 edition, which I intend to present to a public library, I should

I was in Washington the 2nd and I went to No 34 4 ½ Street and pawned my Watch a good American Lever,

for $22.07 which I was to pay within a month but I was robbed of my pocket Book which contained a receipt

feeble, and have distress in the head—these are the worst features—but am gradually regaining the use of my

written a short letter to Hannah , & also one to Jeff —which they must have rec'd by this time— I keep up my

I rec'd your letter, dear mother—you may rest assured that I write the exact facts about my sickness—I

window looking out on the river & scenery—it is beautiful weather now—they have sent over & paid me my

"My Voice Goes After What My Eyes Cannot Reach": Pragmatic Language and the Making of a Democratic Mythology

My voice goes after what my eyes cannot reach, With the twirl of my tongue I encompass worlds and volumes

to balance them at last, My knowledge my live parts....it keeping tally with the meaning of things,

Come my children, Come my boys and girls, and my women and household and intimates, Now the performer

, Depriving me of my best as for a purpose, Unbuttoning my clothes and holding me by the bare waist,

I round and finish little, if anything; and could not consistently with my scheme.

"'Leaves of Grass' indeed (I cannot too often reiterate) has mainly been the outcropping of my own emotional

No one will get at my verses who insists upon viewing them as a literary performance, or as aiming mainly

"I was in Washington at the time—the early years of my stay there—was feeling pretty well—the paralysis

To my question he said: "Yes, Wendell Phillips thought very well of it.

As I was going he waved his hand—"My best wishes attend you, boy!" Did not stay long.

I supposed so—felt it in my bones. It is too warm here now?"

It was my idea that he should make this his headquarters—then stretch out some—see more of the States

To my notion that we must not have a reader of books, W. laughed out an "amen!"

Said to me very quickly after my coming: "I have had visitors today—several.

And to my doubting—"It was the man Arnold, from England—Edward Arnold, author of 'Light of Asia'—you

Called my attention (though it was not needed, the room so fragrant) to a cluster of woodbine on the

s on my way home at 5.30. He sat fanning himself—the day very hot.

My newsman gave me a copy of the Atlantic (specimen) of December last.

Finally he admitted my distinction, and further that he perhaps did Ingersoll injustice.At 7.20, hurrying

Returned me the Bazaar, remarking of it: "My wonder more and more is, over the pictures—how much of this

Called my attention to some new doughnuts on the table.

W. called him "My young English socialist friend" and thought—"There is a mystery about him—he does not

"I do not think any trace of such a thing is to be found in me—in my book—in Leaves of Grass: I know

it has never animated me—put me by a straw's measure to right, to left: altered my career, life, work

verified—there is no mystery there to clear up: that is all thorough, authentic—substantially from my

went to the parlor first, remarking: "Warrie—let us go in here: I don't know whether I'm standing on my

head or my heels."

As to my "trinity of Americans—Emerson, Lincoln, and Whitman"—he laughed heartily.

Explained to him substance of my letter to Truth—that they should let me write about new book—review

Then, "I suppose my article should be in Thursday's issue. I wish you would look out for it.

My changes were very few—and anyhow, the real speech is the speech we entirely lost."

If she brought a half loaf of bread to my house, she took butter or tea away in return for it, and I

Nothing of me, or of the future to arise for me, out of my labour, and progressions.

My idea was, that, if I did go to Europe, "to let her board, in the most comfortable manner, and raise

1873 march March 4 5 oclock o'clock dear walt Walt i suppose you have got my letter i wrote last saturday

and mrs Mrs. buckly be a kind of mother to me and little poor hattie Hattie it made the tears come in my

hot weather i think it would us both good so we must both get so we can walk without limping good bie my

Louis, August 20th 1868 Dear Brother George I must beg pardon for my seeming delay abt sending the enclosed

stands it like a good fellow—dont grumble a bit  I hope you have been occasioned no inconvenience by my

write me occasionly and I often wonder why Mr Lane or McNamee does not write me—certainly they are in my

Brooklyn Oct. 8th/63 My dear Walt I yesterday wrote you enclosing the $10 from Mr Kirkwood for the use

Martin "1 "  Henry Carlow In my yesterdays letter I said something about the acknowledgement of the moneys

morning mother is not quite so well,—a bad cold—yesterday Jess was sick all day—there is no doubt Walt in my

Jeff speaks of my trying for a leave of absence but I hardly think it would be of any use at present,

Give my love to all G. W.

Whitman I am in as good health as ever I was in my life George Washington Whitman to Louisa Van Velsor

I have just written to Walt, and although it is pretty late, I must write you a few lines while my hand

musent say anything about it Mother or the rebs might hear of it and come over here and eat us all up)  my

Well Mother it is getting chilly sitting here in my tent as the fire has gone out, so I must bid you,

But I have been very much occupied in thought, as well as much of my time in going daily, & some days

Give him my love if you see him. Jeannie is well, & sends love.

Give my love to your mother, & with much love to you - hoping soon to see you. Yours— Nelly.

This has been my life:— From early morn till evening, I've labored here for naught, And others coming

"And some other coming after—," When I've fallen by the way— With a touch completes my life work— And

turn, suffered leaf-flight and twig-flight, and with a fair enough outside, shall fall, at last, with my

In his Memoirs, Neruda wrote of his own work, "If my poetry has any meaning at all, it is [its] tendency

Another poet of this same hemisphere helped me along this road, Walt Whitman, my comrade from Manhattan

Nixonicide and Praise for the Chilean Revolution) with the following invocation:It is as an act of love for my

good as such-like, visible here or anywhere, stand provided for in a handful of space, which I extend my

arm and half enclose with my hand; That contains the start of each and all—the virtue, the germs of

WHAT am I, after all, but a child, pleased with the sound of my own name?

to keep house without stopping Hattie's schools and I did not wish to do that—but I shall not sell my

them away as I best may and hope as soon as Hattie gets a couple of years older we will try again Well my

thinking or wondering about you—I have often thought how I would like to see you and if I can so arrange my

his remarks to others of how it was to live with Louisa and George: "[I] have for three years, during my

as at an inn—and the whole affair in precisely the same business spirit" (Correspondence 3:47), and "My

the morning, & keeps me a good bed and room—all of which is very acceptable—(then, for a fellow of my

s face was radiant: I know he fully entered into my idea—indeed endorsed it.

W. said: "My first impulse would have been to get mad at the delay; but as you say, when I see the dishes

We discussed my idea of closing the volume with a paragraph from Sarrazin. W. took hold at once.

Greatly curious about my meeting with Franz Vetta (Louis Neumayer) today—and questioned me explicitly

Digestion is poor—poor indeed—I am in a bad way: belly, bladder, catarrh—my brain, physical brain—all

And to my questions as to how the book wore on him, he said assuringly—"Well, well!

"The wife was my friend—I was proud of her—and they had good babies—how I loved them!

And at my assent he did go on for some time.

Called my attention to a copy of The Illustrated London News sent by Pearsall Smith.

"It has parts of which I have my doubts.

My brother George knows the fraud. He was a pipe inspector there in New York.

W. called my attention to a curious circular issued by his painter, Curtz.

Said: "I have been spending one of my usual unrelieved monotonous days—feeling very well, except for

this strange, palling weight in my head, which wears down, a constant pressure upon me."

Whitman ever heard of me, or that he would care to hear, but he has my sympathy, and best wishes for

Stockton:Dictated::W. exclaimed—"Indeed I do care—all those things are touching—go straight to my heart