rMAGE EVALUATION TEST TARGET (MT-S) k // ^ :/ r/. ^ !■ = II I.I 11.25 ■fiUl win 1.4 1.6 V ■z HiotDgraphic .Sciences Corporation 33 WEST MAIN STREET WEBSTER, N.Y. 14580 (716)872-4503 iV ^.^•v fv ■^ # <^ «■ '1. ^^<^ 5^' .igf .V^ e but his own — seems to nie a piece of extraordinary good fortune. It is made as good as certain by these notes that Whitman's original thought was to publish his ideas in the form of lectures. I believe he had formed this intention some years before such a book as " Leaves of Grass" was planned or even thought of. Nor did he drop the notion of lecturing as an integral part of his scheme of self-presentation after he began to write the " Leaves," but held to it certainly until after the war. It is even likely that the apparent impossibility of ever really publishing his verse even after this was printed in '55 and '56 (for the copies of these early editions could neither be sold nor given away) caused him more than ever to turn his thoughts to the lecture platform. Be this as it may the present volume shows conclusively that Whitman planned, and at least partly wrote, lectures before he began to write the " Leaves," and that he continued to plan and to work at lectures, at least at intervals, almost all the lest of his life. Whitman, like Bacon, took " all knowledge for his province " though he would per- haps attach a slightly different meaning to that expression. In any case he aimed to know as far as possible all there was to be learned. It is both interesting and instructive to observe how he sought to carry out his scheme of self-education. One of the means he employed, a means that, in part, gave material for this volume and is therefore mentioned here, was as follows: He took a work on universal geography — divided it into pieces of some fifty pages each; between these pieces he distributed numerous extra maps, a large quantity of blank paper (about equal in quantity to that printed upon) and every dozen or so leaves a number of stub leaves — then had the whole bound into a big, thick volume, which was so made as to open very freely. This volume he studied and kept continually adding to. To the stubs and on the blank leaves he pasted newspaper and magazine pieces — each one in its proper place, — those relating to Italy, Greece, Asia Minor etc. would be pasted in so as to fill out and complete the text. Then when he met a man who had traveled he got from him all he could, wrote out an abstract of it and placed that in its proper place in the book. In this way he constructed a volume which was a storehouse of information (geographical, ethnological, social, religious, industrial etc.) dealing with all parts of the world and the inhabitants of each part. Other of his scrapbooks were good -sized volumes of blank paper intermixed with stub leaves — into these he collected — some loose, some pinned, and others pasted in — news- paper cuttings and magazine articles, MS. notes being added either written on the margin of magazine articles, on the leaves of the scrapbook or on loose paper which was either pinned or pasted in, or in many instances simply placed between the leaves of the book. R. M. B. 3 ■if CONTENTS. EDITOR'S PREFACE, V. PART I. First Drafts and RiaecTEn I.ines and Passages, Mostly vkrv Fragmentary. FROM 'aKAVES OF GrASS." LARGELY ANTECEDENT TO THE 1855 EDITION, PART II. Notes on the Meaning and Intention of " Leaves of Grass," 55 PART III, Memoranda from Books and from His Own Reflections. Indicating the POET'S Reading and Thought Preparatory to Writing "Leaves of Grass," 75 PART IV. Shorter Notes, Isolated Words, Brief Sentences, Memoranda. Suggestive Expressions, Names and Dates, •1 3X PART V. Notes on English History, 181 PART VI. A LIST OF Certain Magazines and Newspaper Articles Studied and Pre served by Walt Whitman and Found Among His Papers, 193 " A Trail of Drift and Debrisr - Leaves of Grass, p. 203. > ?! PART I. First Dkaits and Ri;ji:cti;i) Links and Passages, iMostia virv lMo they not thrive .'' Will c ibinet officers become blue or yellow from excessive gin ? Shall i receive the great things of the spirit on easier terms than I do a note of hand ? Leaves of Grass — First Drafts. 17 Who examines the philosophies in the market less than a basket of peaches or barrels of salt fish ? Who accepts chemistry on tradition ? The light picks out a bishop or pope no more than the rest. A mouse is miracle enough to stagger bilious of infidels.* 35 Night of south winds— night of the large few stars ! Still slumberous night- mad, naked summer night! Smile, O voluptuous, procreant earth ! Earth of the nodding and liquid trees ! Earth of the mountains, misty-top't ! Earth of departed sunset-Earth of shine and dark, mottling the tide of the river' Earth of the vitreous fall of the full moon just tinged with blue ! Earth of the limpid gray of clouds purer and clearer for my sake ! Earth of far arms— rich, apple-blossomed earth ! Smile, for your lover comes ! Spread round me earth ! Spread with your curtained hours ; Take me as many a time you've taken ; Till springing up in * * * Prodigal, you have given me love ; Sustenance, happiness, health have given ; Therefore, I to you give love ; O, unspeakable, passionate love !f 36 I know many beautiful things about men and women. But do not know anything more beautiful than to be freehanded and always qo on the square. ° I see an aristocrat ; I see a smoucher grabbing the good dishes exclusively 10 himself and grinning at the starvation of others as if it were funny. I gaze on the greedy hog ; he snorts as he roots in the delicate greenhouse How those niggers smell ! Must that hod- boy occupy the same stage with me ? Doth the dirt doze and forget itself ? • Cf. " Leaves of Grass," p. 34, 55 edition, and p. 54, current edition. + Cf. "Leaves of Grass," '55 edition, p. 27, current edition p. 46. i8 Leaves of Grass — First Drafts. And let tomatoes ripen for busters and night walkers, And do no better for me — Who am a regular gentleman or lady, With a stoop and a silver door-plate and a pew in church ? And is the day here when I vote at the polls, One with the immigrant that last August strewed lime in my gutter ? One with the thick-lipped black ? And can dew wet the air after such may be elected to Congress, And make laws over me ? Have you heard the gurgle of gluttons perfectly willing to stuff themselves While they laugh at the good fun of the starvation of others, But when the gaunt and the starved awkwardly come for their slices The quiet changes to angry hysterics. It is for babies to lift themselves out of the I go not with the babies who I am none of the large baby sort ; I have no wish to lift myself above breathing air, and be specially eminent or attractive ; I am not quite such a fool as that, I remain with people on average terms — I am too great to be a mere leader. I am the poet of Reality, And I say the stars are not echoes, And I say that space is no apparition ; But all the things seen or demonstrated are so ; Witnesses and albic dawns of things equally great, yet not seen. I announce myself the Poet of Materials and exact demonstration ; Say that Materials are just as eternal as growth, the semen of God that swims the entire creation. Hurrah for Positive Science I Bring honey-clover and branches of lilac ! These are the Philosophers of Nature, Every one admirable and serene, Traveling, sailing, measuring space, Botanizing, dissecting, or making machines.* * Cf> " Leaves of Grass," '55 edition, p. 2b ; current edition, p. 47. : •> Leaves of Grass — First Drafts. 19 Tiinent or 38 I am a curse : a negro thinks me ; You cannot speak for yourself, negro ; I lend him my own tongue ; I dart like a snake from your mouth. My eyes are bloodshot, they look down the river, A steamboat paddles away my woman and children. His iron necklace and red sores of the shoulders I do not mind, The hopples at the ankles and tight cuffs at the wrists must not detain me. I go down the river with the sight of my bloodshot eyes, I go to the steamboat that paddles off my woman and children. I do not stop with my woman and children, I burst the saloon doors and crash on a party of passengers. But for them I too, should have been on the steamer I should soon * His very aches are ecstacy. 39 40 I am a hell-name and a curse : Black Lucifer was not dead ; Or if he was I am his sorrowful, terrible heir ; I am the God of revolt — deathless, sorrowful, vast ; whoever oppresses me I will either destroy him or he shall release me. Damn him, how he does defile me ! Hoppler of his own sons ; breeder of children and trader of them — Selling his daughters and the breast that fed his young. Informer against my brother and sister and taking pay for their blood. He laughed when I looked from my iron necklace after the steamboat that carried away my woman.f 41 I stand at the top of the street, I know the great procession is coming, * Cf. " Leaves of Grass," '55 edition, p. 74 ; passage not in current edition. + Cf. " Leaves of Grass," '55 edition, p. 74 ; nothing corresponding in current edition. 20 Leaves of Grass — First Drafts. I see the towering caps of pioneers far off through the dark, I see the gilt-tip't staves of policemen clearing the way, Above the roar I hear the clear tutti of victorious horns.* 42 Topple down upon him. Light ! for you seem to me all one lurid curse ; Damn him ! how he does defy me, This day or some other I will have him and the like of him to do my will uprm, They shall not break the lids off their coffins but what with pennies on their eyes I will have them, I will tear their flesh out from under the graveclothes. I will not listen — I will not spare — ! am justified of myself : For a hundred years I will pursue those who have injured me so much ; Though they hide themselves under the lappets of God 1 will pursue them there, I will drag them out — the sweet marches of Heaven shall be stopped with my maledictions. 43 Where the little musk ox carries his perfumed bag at his navel, Where the life car is drawn on its slip noose At dinner on a dish of huckleberries, or rye bread and a round white pot cheese.f ! I I ! ! ! 44 I call back blunderers ; I give strong meat in place of panada ; I expose what ties loads on the soul. Are you so poor that you are always miserly, Priests ? Will you prize a round trifle like a saucer, done in red and yellow paint .'' I offer men no painted saucer — I make every one a present of the sun ; I have plenty more — I have millions of suns left. J 45 I entertain all the aches of the human heart Outside the asteroids I reconnoitre at my ease. * Cf. "Leaves of Grass," '55 edition, p. 84, and current edition, p. 354. + Cf. "Leaves of Grass," '55 edition, p. 36, current edition, p. 56. t Cf. " Leaves of Grass," '55 edition, p. 14, and current edition, p. 30. ^ *? Leaves of Grass — First Drafts. 21 46 Poem of existence. We call one the past and we call another the future, But both are alike the present. It is not the pist, thoup[h we call it so — nor the future though we call it so, All the while it is the present only. The curious realities now everywhere — on the surface of the earth in the. interior of the earth — What is it? Is it liquid fire ? Are there living creatures in that? Is it fire ? Solid ? Is there not toward the core some vast, str?in,ii;e, stiftling vacuum ? Is there anything in that vacuum ? Any kind of curious Hying or tloating life with its nature fitted ? The existences on the innumerable stars, with their varied degrees of perfection, climate, swiftness Some probably are but forming, nut so advanced as the earth — (Some are no doubt more advanced). There is intercommunion. One sphere cannot know another sphere, Communion of life is with life only, and of what is after life. Each sphere knows itself only, and cannot commune beyond itself, Life communes only with life, Whatever it is that follows death .... 47 There can be nothing small or useless in the universe ; The insignificent is as big as the noble ; What is less than a touch ? All truths wait in all places, They wait with inclined heads and arms folded over their breasts ; They neither urge their own birth nor resist it ; They do not need the obstetric forceps of the surgeon ; They enclose to those who ever fetches the warmth of the light and the moisture of rain. Logic and sermons never convince ; The dew of the night drives deeper into the soul. 22 Leaves of Grass — First Drafts. A test of anything ! It provrs itself to the experience and senses of men and women ! Brinjr it to folk and you will see whether they doubt ; They do not doubt contact or hunger or love ; They do not doubt iron or steam ; We do not doubt the mystery of life ; We do not doubt the east and the west ; We do not doubt sight * 48 Of Biography, and of all literature and art. That it has not been well written because it has not been written by authors who considered their subjects with reference to the ensemble of the world — because everything, every subject has been made too prononc(^. The charm of nature is that everything is with the rest —and is not prononc6, but yet distinct, individual and complete in itself. 'i: 1 To a Literal. Your subject is always too pronounced, You have not considered your subject with reference to its place and with reference to the ensemble of the world. The great statements, censuses, poems, essays, dictionaries, biographies, etc., are those that stand in their places with the things of the world. Behold nature ! how distinct, individual, complete, Each toward all and nothing supersedes the rest. (0 Walt Whitman's law — For the new and strong artists of America For the fresh brood of perfect teachers, literals, the diverse savans and the coming musicians, There shall be no subject but it shall be treated with reference to the ensemble of the world — and no coward or copyist shall be any more allowed. There shall be no subject too pronounced — all works shall acknowledge the divine law of indirections, There they stand, 1 see them already, each easy in its place," Statements, music, poems, dictionaries, biographies, essays — * Cf. " Leaves of Grass," '55 edition, p. 33, and current edition, p. 53. Leaves of (irass — First Drafts. 23 How compli-'te, how interfused -No one supcirsedes the rest. They do not seem to me Hke wh;U I siiw in arricre, in the old volumes and specimens, They seem to me hke nature at hist (America has given rise to them, and I have also.) They seem to me Uke the sky with ch)uds — hke trees with rusthng leaves, like stretching waters with ships sai'ing on in the distance. They seem to me at last as good as animals and as the rocks, earth and weeds.* 49 In American schools sit men and women — Schools for men and women are more necessary than for children. 50 Enough C) fastened and loosened contact. 51 Nor humility's book nor the book of despair nor of old restrictions ; Book of a new soldier, bound for new campaigns ; Book of the sailor that sails the sea stormier, vaster than any. are 52 It is no miracle now that we are to live always. Touch is the miracle ! What is it to be lost, or change our dresses, or sleep long, when .... A minute, a touch and a drop of us can launch immortality Little henceforth are proof, and argument needful. Eternity has no time for death each inch of existence is so. . . . And that to pass existence is supreme over all, and what we thought death is but life brought to a firmer parturition.f tivme 53 I cannot guess what the entertainment will be, But I am sure it will be generous enough, I have never yet seen the sign of a niggard in anything but man The great laws do not treasure chips, or stick for the odd cent ; I am of the same fashion — for I am their friend, •Cf. "Leaves of Grass," '60 edition, p. 185, and current edition, p. 299. t Cf. " Leaves of Grass," '55 edition, p. 33, and current edition, p. 53. 24 Leaves of Grass — First Drafts. I rate myself high — I receive no small sums ; I must have my full price — whoever enjoys me. I feel satisfied my visit will be worthy of me and of my Hosts and Favorites ; I leave it to them how to receive me.* 54 The teeth grit — the palms of the hands are cut by the turned in nails, The man falls struggling and foaming to the ground, though he buys and barters so cooly. I remember when I visited the asylum they showed me the most smeared and slobbering idiot, Yet I know for my consolation of the great laws that emptied and broke my brother The same waited their due time to clear the rubbish from the fallen tenement, And I am to look again in a score or two of ages And I shall meet the real landlord stepping forth every inch as good as myself.f 55 There is no word in any tongue, No array, no form of symbol. To tell his infatuation Who would define the scope and purpose of God. Mosdy this we have of God ; we have man. Lo, the Sun ; Its glory floods the moon. Which of a night shines in some turbid pool, Shaken by soughing winds ; And there are sparkles mad and tossed and broken, And their archetype is the sun. Of God 1 know not ; But this I know ; I can comprehend no being more wonderful than man ; Man, before the rage of whose passions the storms of Heaven are but a breath Before whose caprices the lightning is slow and less fatal ; Man, microcosm of all Creation's wildness, terror, beauty and power. And whose folly and wickedness are in nothing else existent.;}; * Cf. "Leaves of Grass," '55 edition, p. 92, and current edition, p. 304. + Cf. " Leaves of Grass," '55 edition, p. 84, and current edition, p. 354. $ Cf. "Leaves of Grass," '55 edition, p. 54; current edition, p. 77. Leaves of Grass— First Drafts. 25 jarters so 56 Great are the Myths. ... I too delight in them Great are Adam and Eve. ... I too look back and accept them. Great between them and me the risen and fallen nations, and their poets, women sages, rulers, warriors and priests. ' And that's so. easy enough ; And^I^am no shallowpate to go about singing them above the rest and deferring to And they did not become great by singing and deferring. Great are you and great am I. We are just as good and bad as the eldest or youngest or any, What the best and the worst did we can do, What they felt do we not feel it in ourselves } What they thought— do we not think the same ?* 57 I ask nobody's faith I am very little concerned about that You doubt not the east and the west, You doubt not your desires or your fingernails, You doubt not metal or acid or steam Do I not prove myself .? ' '"ci^d: "'"" """'' ^' '' '''"' "' '"''''''' ^^ ^ '^^^"^ ^-- - — All acknowledge and admire-Savans and Synods as much as the rest. I meet not one heretic or unbeliever Could I do as well with the love of the pulpit ? the whole or any part of it ? Whatever I say of myself you shall apply to yourself, it you do not It were time lost listening to me. I think there will never be any more heaven or hell than there is now Nor any more youth nor age than there is now Nor any more inception than there is now Nor any more perfection than there is now.f * Cf. ..Leaves of Grass." '55 edition, p. ,3. Poe.n o.nitted fro. current edition, t Cf. Leaves of Grass." '55 edition, p. ,4. ,„a ...^ent edition, p. 30. 26 Leaves of Grass — First Drafts. 58 Of your soul I say truths to harmonize if anything can harmonize you, Your body to me is sweet, clean, loving, strong, I am indifferent how it appears to others or to yourself. Your eyes are more to me than poems, your lips do better than play music, The lines of your cheeks, the lashes of your eyes, are eloquent to me, The grip of your hand is richer than riches.* 59 As of Forms. Their genesis, all genesis, They lost, all lost — for they include all. The earth and everything in it. The wave, the snake, the babe, the landscape, the human head, Things, faces, reminiscences, presences, conditions, thoughts — tally and make definite a divine indistinct spiritual delight in the soul. Of the arts, as music, poems, architecture, outlines, and the rest, they are in their way to provoke this delight out of the soul, They are to seek it where it waits — for I see that it always patiently waits. Have you sought the inkling ? Have you wandered after the meanings of the earth ? You need not wander ; Behold those forms. 60 To an Exclusive. Your tongue here ? Your feet haunting the States ? But I also haunt the States, their born defender I, determined brother of low persons and rejected and wronged persons — espouser of unhelped women, From this hour sleeping and eating mainly that I wake and be muscular for their sakes, Training myself in the gymnasium for their sakes, and acquiring a terrible voice for their sakes. Rapacious ! I take up your challenge ! 1 fight, whether I win or lose, and hereby pass the feud to them that succeed me ; And I charge the young men that succeed me to train themselves and acquire terrible voices for disputes of life and death — and be ready to respond to what- ever needs response. For I prophecy that there will never come a time, North or South, when the rapacious tongue will not be heard, each age in its own dialect. * Early or middle fifties, never used. I i t appears to Leaves of Grass— First Drafts. 27 61 As procreation, so the Soul ; As childhood, maturity, craft, lies, thefts, adulteries, so the Soul. sarcasm, greed, hatred, denial- 62 The circus boy is riding in the circus, on a fleet h orse. ^3 ^'"'disiptear'' ''"""^ """" '°'''''"'^ '''^^'^^' '^'' '^"'" ^" ^'^''^^^^ «" ^^e shore 64 O Walt Whitman, show us some pictures • America always Pictorial ! And you Wali Whitman to name them hlsmund R r uV-'^r' '""'"^'^ "'"^ pictures-it is not a f^xed house. person7 t '" "°" '"'' ^"""^' "°''^' ^"^ ^^"^^- seaboard and inland. )ther of low ble voice for 65 All tends to the soul. As materials so the soul, As procreation, so the soul-if procreation is impure, all is impure. ^^ tntsTithTb T '): '^'^ ^"' ^^'"^^ "" ""'^^^ °^^^^ ^"^^- - ^^- -"1 concurs with the body and comes not unless of the body As materials are so the soul, As experiences, childhood, maturity, suffering, so the soul, ':: the ::ur'"' "'"""■"■ "^^='^"' '^^==''' '■-'''■• ---• "--d, gluttony, S^hThd-^trrm-nrylft^MrthV™'^"' '"^ ' returned in the sou, before h, when the 66 Lo, space, eternal, spiritual, hilarious, Lo, the future free demesne of what is at present called death. • Belongs about 1880. tCf. " Leaves of Grass," 60 edition, p. ,6, current edition, p. .5. 28 Leaves of Grass — F'irst Drafts. 67 The woman that sells candies and apples, at the street-stand, The boy crying his newspapers in the morning. The malaria from low wet grounds. The red liquid heart of the earth. 68 69 How curious is the brown, divine, coarse, substantial earth, How curious the 70 The Alleghanies climbed and descended by me, the mighty Anahuacs climbed. 71 National hymns, real American music. The mas'sr's words, arrogant, fluent, final, severe. 72 Tar, turpentine, shingles, from North Carolina. The slaves drive mules and oxen drawing the rude carts. The lumber schooner. The pack of negro-dogs chained in couples for the slave-hunt. 73 Who wills with his own brain, the sweet of the float of the earth descends and surrounds him. If you be a laborer or apprentice or solitary farmer, it is the same Have you known that your limbs must not dangle ? Have you known that your hands are to grasp vigorously ? You are also to grasp with your mind vigorously Remember how many pass their whole lives and hardly once think and never learned themselves to think, Remember before all realities must exist their thoughts. Leaves of Grass — F'irst Drafts. 29 As to you, if you have not yet learned to think, enter upon it now, Think at once with directness, breadth, aim, conscientiousness, You will find a strange pleasure from the start and grow rapidly each successive week. 74 After all I set up for myself I set up profit and loss, He is greatest who has the most caution, He only wins who goes far enough. A little sum laid aside for burial money, A few clapboards around, and shingles overhead, on a lot of American soil owned, A few dollars to supply the year's plain clothing and food. And then away ! I issue myself in triumphant issues, I live as I go and I wait long besides, I never abandon myself nor the sweet of myself, nor the eternity of myself, I will not lose the bloom and odor of the earth, flowers, atmosphere. Nor the true taste of the women and men that like me aud that I like.* 75 A little sum laid aside for burial money — a few clapboards around and shingles overhead on a lot of American soil owned — a few dollars to supply the year's plain clothing and food — and then away. Prudence has interminable eyes, rejects money, modern prudence, money-making. Abandonment of such a being as you are to the toss and pallor of years, To be a doer of deceits, underhand dodgings, infinitesimals of parlors a shameless stuffer while others starve. Loser of all the bloom and odor of the earth, flowers, atmosphere, sea, and of the true taste of the women and men you pass or have to do with in youth or middle age. Receiver of the issuing sickness and revolt at the close of a life without elevation or naivete'. Chatterer of the ghastly chatter of a death without serenity or majesty.* 76 Will you have the walls of the world with the air and the fringed clouds ? The Poet says God and me. What do you want from us ? Ask and maybe we will give it you. The Soul addresses God as his equal — as one who knows his greatness — as a younger brother. • Cf. " Leaves of Grass," '55 edition, p. x . so Leaves of Grass — First Drafts 77 Ships sail upon the waters — some arriving, others depart. Ten thousand rich, learned, populous cities — they have grown or certainly to grow. The States spread amply — old States and new States — they front the two seas — they are edged or cleft by the Mississippi, Congress is in session in the Capitol, or will be in session the appointed time. See ! The President is menaced face to face by the common people for his derelictions. 78 Have I refreshed and elevated you ? Though I have uttered no word about your particular employ rrent, have you received from me new and valuable hints about your employment ? Have you gone aside after listening to me and created for yourself? Have I proved myself strong bj' provoking strength out of you ? 79 I subject all the teachings of the schools and all dicta and authority to the tests of myself And I encourage you to subject the same to the tests of yourself — and to subject me and my words to the strongest tests of any. Of recognition. 80 Come I will no more trouble myself about recognition, I will no longer look what thiugs are rated to be but what they really are to me. 81 To pass existence is so good, there is not chance for death . 82 What would it bring you to be elected and take your place in the Capitol ? I elect you to understand ; that is what all the offices in the Republic could not do. 83 And their voices, clearer than the valved cornet, — they cry hoot ! hoot ! to us all our lives till we seek where they hide and bring the sly ones forth !* Cf. " Leaves of Grass," '55 edition, p. 47, current edition, p. 68. Leaves of Grass— First Drafts 84 31 The power by which the carpenter plumbs his house is the same power that dashes his btains out if he fall from the roof. 85 I see who you are if nobody else sees nor you either, I see not so much that you are polite or white-faced' I see less a citizen of an old State or a citizen of a new State Alabamian, Canadian, British, French, or Malay or from Africa, or savage off- there m the woods, or fisheater in his lair of rocks and sand, or Chinese with his transverse eyes, a wandering nomad, or tabounshick at the head of his drove, Man and woman and child indoors and outdoors I see... and all else behind them or through them, I see the wife and she is not one jot less than the husband I see the mother and she is every bit as much as the father I see you engineer, laboring person, minister, editor, immigrant I see you sailors, man-of-wars man, and merchantman and coastman I see you and stand before you driver of horses, ' Son, progenitor * 86 Now for a legend not old, but as new as the newest On the spreading land 87 You lusty and graceful youth ! You are great ; You are not exclusively great in youth • ^"""stl^ifgth ^^^ '^'^^ ^' ^''^^ ''''^ amplitude and steadiness and fullblooded ^"""and^ove '^^^^ ^' '^""^"^ ^''^' ^''^ ""^^'"''^ ^^^ ^^°""^ "^^^ fascination 88 Are the prostitutes nothing? Are the mockers of religion nothing? Does the light or heat pick out ? Does the attraction of gravity pick out Pf •Cf. "Leaves of Grass," '55 edition, p. 58, current edition p. ,70. + Cf. "Leaves of Grass," '55 edition, p. 68, and current edition, p. 336. 32 Leaves of Grass — First Drafts. 89 Priests ! until you can explain a paving stone do not try to explain God ; Until your creeds can do as much as apples and hen's eggs let down your eyebrows a little ; Until your Bibles and Prayer-books are able to walk like me, And until your brick and mortar can procreate as I can, I beg you, sirs, do not presume to put them above me.* 90 I have all lives, all eifects, all causes, all gerunds, invisibly hidden in myself, This is the earth's word — the round and compact earth's, I and the truth are one, we are curiously welded.f After Death. 91 Now when I am looked back upon I hold levee, I lean on my left elbow — I take ten thousand lovers, one after another, by my right hand. 92 There are the caravan of the desert — the close of the day — the encampment and the camels. 93 I do not expect to see myself in present magazines, reviews, schools, pulpits and legislatures — but presently I expect to see myself in magazines, schools and legislatures— or that my friends after me will see me there. ! 1 94 To the new continent comes the offspring of the rest of the continents to bear offspring, And these poems are both offspring and parents of superior offspring. 95 To this continent comes the offspring of the other continents. And these poems are both offspring and fathers of superior offspring. And from these poems launches the same spirit that launched those ships, cities, Congress and the menaces that confront the President, And these are for the lands. * Cf. "Leaves of Grass," '55 edition, p. 64, and current edition, p. 175. t Cf. ''Leaves of Grass," '56 edition, p. 323, and current edition, p. 176. Leaves of Grass — First Drafts. 33 96 Points in Proem. That only when sex is properly treated, talked, avowed, accepted, will the woman be equal with the man, and pass where the man passes, and meet his words with her words, and his rights with her rights, and 97 Broadaxe — First as coming in the n^ugh ore, out of the earth — Then as being smelted and made into usable shape for working — then into some of the earlier weapons of the axe kind — bittleaxe — headsm ui's axe — carpenter's broadaxe — (process of making, tempering and finishing the axe.) inquire fully. USES OF THE HKOADAXE. In cutting away masts when the ship is on her beam-ends In hewing the great timbers for the old-fashioned houses and barns Passage describing the putting up of a good styled log cabin in the western woods — the whole process- joining the logs — the company- the fun — the axe. The sylvan woodman or woodboy The cutting down of an unusually large and majestic tree — live oak or other — for some kelson to a frigate or first-class steamship. — (what wood is the kelson generally ?) Procession of portraits of the different users of the axe — the raftsman, the lumber- man, the antique warrior, the headsman, the butcher, the framer of houses, the squatter of the west — the pioneer. Founding of cities. Make it the American emblem preferent to the eagle In ship building. In cutting a passage through the ice. The butcher in his slaughter house. Full Picture. The antique warrior always with his great axe — the brawny swinging arm — the clatter and crash on the hi^lmeted head — the death howl and the quick tumbli- g body and rush of friend and foe thither — the summons to surrender — the battering of castle-gates and city-gates. Building wharves and piers. Picture full of the pioneer. The Roman lictors preceding the consuls. The sacrificial priest, Grecian, Roman and Jewish. What in Scandinavia ? All through the framing of a house — all through — the hewing of timbers — the knocking of beams in their places — laying them regular. The framers wielding the axe — their attitudes standing, bending — astride the beams driving in pins — as the frame is being raised they on the posts or braces — holding on — their limbs — the [one arm] hooked around the plate, the other arm wielding the axe. 34 Leaves of Grass — First Drafts. Episodic in the cutting down of the tree — about what the wood is for — for a saloon, for a ceiling, or floor, for a cofifin, for a workbox, a sailor's chest, a musical in- strument, for firewood — for rich casings or frames. In a terrible fire the use of the axe to cut down connecting woodwork to stop the fire — the excitement — the firemen — the glare— the hoarse shouts — the flames — the red faces and dense shadows.* 98 The irregular tapping of rain off my house-eaves at night after the storm has lulled, Gray-blue sprout so hardened grown Head from the mother's bowels drawn Body shapely naked and wan Fibre produced from a little seed sown.* 99 Poem illustrative of the woman under the " new dispensation." Collect all illustra- tive characters — from history — Molly Pitcher — the best mothers — the bta'tiiiest women — the most loving women. A woman is to be able to ride, swim, run, resist, advance, refuse, shoot, defend her- self, sail a boat, hunt, rebel, just as much as a man. If the woman have not the grand attributes in herself, the man cannot have them afterwards, The woman is to be athletic also. 100 I heat the hot cores within and fix the central point of the cores And I carry straight threads thence to the sun and to distant unseen suns. 101 As nature, inexorable, onward, resistless, impassive, amid the screams and din of disputants, so America. 102 Yet I strike and dart through I think I could dash the girder of the earth away If it lay between me and whatever I wanted. • Cf. "Leaves of Grass," '56 edition, p. 140; current edition, p. 148. Leaves of Grass— Fii st Ora "ts. Surely I am out of my head ! I am lost to mysdf-and nature in another form has laid down in .ny pfe.,^, I am a creased and cut sea ; the furious wind 35 103 I am become the poet of babes and little things I descend many steps- 1 go backward primeval' I retrace steps oceanic— I pass I see. is around not merely my own kind, but all the objects 104 Pure water I will henceforth drink Sunshine, space unclosed,. . . . I stide in the confinement of rooms, The flesh of animals, wheat, rye, corn, rice ^Zl ."\^ '^'''' ^ ^''''^ '•' ''^^'"' ^^"^^' r^sl.ikss body to myself. Give me . . I must have I last winter observed the 105 And it '. ""T ''' '"'^ "" '^^ ^P'-^^ ^'^h the north-west wind • And .t put me out of conceit of fences and in^iginarv line. 106 The dry leaf whirling its spiral whirl and falling ng content to the ground. 107 I shall venerate hours and days and think them immeasurable hereafter • I am findmg how much I can pass through in a few minutes. ' I was a good friend to all things before But now what I was seems to me limpsey and litde. 108 Th'at butcttV"'""'' "'"'' ^° '"'' ^^"^^ ^^-'^ ^^^'- ? 1 hat butcher boy is just as great a hero He does not know what fear is. 36 Leaves of Grass — First Drafts. 109 The spotted hawk salutes the approaching night ; He sweeps by me and rebukes nie hoarsely w ith his invitation ; He complains with sarcastic voice of my lagging. I feel apt to clip it and go ; 1 am not half tamed yet.* 1 10 I am a student free of a library, it is limitless and eterneilly open to me ; The books are written in numberless tongues, always perfect and alive. They d(j not own the library who buy the books and sell them again, 1 am the owner of the library for I read every page and enjoy the meaning of the same. 1 1 1 •/ I am your voice -It was tied in you — In me it begins to talk. I celebrate myself to celebrate every man and woman alive ; I loosen the tongue that was tied in them. It begins to talk out of my mouth. f 112 I celebrate myself to celebrate you ; I say the same w )rd for every man and woman alive. And I say that the soul is not greater than the body. And I .say that the body is not greater than the soul J 113 Thought never to be forgotten in lectures. That we, this age, pass through (now) the terrible transitions to the new age — ages. We are now going through the patuntion. America is an illustrat on of it. Few see the result — f^ w have any faith in it. Many desperately clinj; to the old age, Yet contin les the divine whirl, the conflict. * Cf. "Leaves of Grass," '55 edition, p. 55, current edition p. 78. fCf. "Leaves of Grass," '55 edition, p. 13, and current edition, p. 29. '<' Cf. "Leaves of Grass," '55 edition, pp. 13 and 53, and current edition, pp. 29 and 76. Leaves of Grass — First Drafts. 2>7 No? 114 Have you supplied the door of the house where need was. the old one decayed away, And do y. (U not see that you also want your found ition and the roof? Have you put only doors and windows to the house wliere thity were crunihled ? Do you not see that the old foundation beams of the floor have rotted under your fpel lid who knows when they may break ? Do you not see that the roof is also crumbled and this day, this night, may fall in ruin about your heads ? •'5 Aspirations. " Keep the secret — keep it close." A cluster of poemetta. To my Soul. To friends. Did you think then you knew me ? Did you think that talking and the laughter of me, represented me ? 116 Can ? make me so exuberant yet so faintish ? The rage of an unconquerable fierceness is conquered by the touch [of the] t'-nderest hand. I cannot be awake for nothing looks to me as it did before. Or else I am awake for the first time and all before has been a mean sleep. 117 This mouth is pulled by some sexton for his disnialest fee, The death bell tolls there. I his face matches banners and champing horses.* 118 The Body. Why what do you suppose is the Body ? Do you suppose this that has always existed — this meat, bread, fruit that is eaten, is the body ? *Cf. "Leaves of Grass," '55 edition, pp. 83 and 84, current edition, p. 354. 38 Leaves of Grass — First Drafts No, those are visible parts of the body, materials that have existed in some way for billi(ms of years not entering into the form of the body, But there is the real body too, not visible. (Make tnis more rythmic.) 119 Divine is the body — it is all — it is the soul also. How can there be immortality except through mortality ? How can the ultimate reality of visible things be visible .'' How can the real body ever die .'' 120 Downward, buoyant, swifi on turbid waters a coffin floating. 121 The suicide went to a lonesome place with a pistol and killed himself, I came that way and stumbled upon him.* 122 dirt, you corpse, I reckon you are good manure — but that I do not smell — 1 smell your beautiful white 'oses — I kiss your leafy lips — I slide my hands for the brown melons of your breasts.f 123 My hand will not hurt what it holds and yet will devour it. It must remain perfect before me though I enclose and divide it. Only one minute, only two or three sheathed touches. Yet they gather all of me and my spirit into a knot. They hold us long enough there to show us what we can be. And that our flesh, and even a part of our flesh, seems more than senses and life. What has become of my senses ? Touch has jolted down all of them but feeling ; He pleases the rest so every one would swap off and go with him. Or else she will abdicate and nibble at the edges of me.J * Cf. " Leaves of Grass," '55 edition, p. 17, and current edition, p. 35. t Cf. " Leaves of Grass," '55 edition, p. 54, current edition, p. 77. $Cf. "Leaves of Grass," '55 edition, p. 33; current edition, p. 52. Leaves of Grass — First Drafts. 39 124 O I must not forget ! To you I reach friendlily — I must not forget, To you I adhere. 1 do not flatter, I am not polite, but I adhere to you Baffled, exiled, ragged, gaunt. 125 You are English, Irish, Scotch, Welsh, To-morrow the m.st powerful Oueen that ever reigned over earth sends her eldest son to you, ^'uc^i Germany contributes to you - Italy to you. You are Spanish .dso, and French also-adopter for good, or as noble guests. You, O Libertad. do not refuse them, y