Leaves of Grass: First and Death-Bed Editions
Page 2
THOUGHTS
MEDIUMS
WEAVE IN, MY HARDY LIFE
SPAIN, 1873-74
BY BROAD POTOMAC’S SHORE
FROM FAR DAKOTA’S CAÑONS
OLD WAR-DREAMS
THICK-SPRINKLED BUNTING
WHAT BEST I SEE IN THEE
SPIRIT THAT FORM’D THIS SCENE
AS I WALK THESE BROAD MAJESTIC DAYS
A CLEAR MIDNIGHT
SONGS OF PARTING
AS THE TIME DRAWS NIGH
YEARS OF THE MODERN
ASHES OF SOLDIERS
THOUGHTS
SONG AT SUNSET
AS AT THY PORTALS ALSO DEATH
MY LEGACY
PENSIVE ON HER DEAD GAZING
CAMPS OF GREEN
THE SOBBING OF THE BELLS
AS THEY DRAW TO A CLOSE
JOY, SHIPMATE, JOY!
THE UNTOLD WANT
PORTALS
THESE CAROLS
NOW FINALE TO THE SHORE
SO LONG!
FIRST ANNEX - SANDS AT SEVENTY
MANNAHATTA
PAUMANOK
FROM MONTAUK POINT
TO THOSE WHO’VE FAIL’D
A CAROL CLOSING SIXTY-NINE
THE BRAVEST SOLDIERS
A FONT OF TYPE
AS I SIT WRITING HERE
MY CANARY BIRD
QUERIES TO MY SEVENTIETH YEAR
THE WALLABOUT MARTYRS
THE FIRST DANDELION
AMERICA
MEMORIES
TO-DAY AND THEE
AFTER THE DAZZLE OF DAY
ABRAHAM LINCOLN, BORN FEB. 12, 1809
OUT OF MAY’S SHOWS SELECTED
HALCYON DAYS
FANCIES AT NAVESINK
ELECTION DAY, NOVEMBER, 1884
WITH HUSKY-HAUGHTY LIPS, O SEA!
DEATH OF GENERAL GRANT
RED JACKET (FROM ALOFT)
WASHINGTON’S MONUMENT, FEBRUARY, 1885
OF THAT BLITHE THROAT OF THINE
BROADWAY
TO GET THE FINAL LILT OF SONGS
OLD SALT KOSSABONE
THE DEAD TENOR
CONTINUITIES
YONNONDIO
LIFE
“GOING SOMEWHERE”
SMALL THE THEME OF MY CHANT
TRUE CONQUERORS
THE UNITED STATES TO OLD WORLD CRITICS
THE CALMING THOUGHT OF ALL
THANKS IN OLD AGE
LIFE AND DEATH
THE VOICE OF THE RAIN
SOON SHALL THE WINTER’S FOIL BE HERE
WHILE NOT THE PAST FORGETTING
THE DYING VETERAN
STRONGER LESSONS
A PRAIRIE SUNSET
TWENTY YEARS
ORANGE BUDS BY MAIL FROM FLORIDA
TWILIGHT
YOU LINGERING SPARSE LEAVES OF ME
NOT MEAGRE, LATENT BOUGHS ALONE
THE DEAD EMPEROR
AS THE GREEK’S SIGNAL FLAME
THE DISMANTLED SHIP
NOW PRECEDENT SONGS, FAREWELL
AN EVENING LULL
OLD AGE’S LAMBENT PEAKS
AFTER THE SUPPER AND TALK
SECOND ANNEX - GOOD-BYE MY FANCY
PREFACE NOTE TO 2D ANNEX, CONCLUDING L. OF G.—1891
SAIL OUT FOR GOOD, EIDOLON YACHT!
LINGERING LAST DROPS
GOOD-BYE MY FANCY
ON, ON THE SAME, YE JOCUND TWAIN!
MY 71ST YEAR
APPARITIONS
THE PALLID WREATH
AN ENDED DAY
OLD AGE’S SHIP & CRAFTY DEATH’S
TO THE PENDING YEAR
SHAKSPERE-BACON’S CIPHER
LONG, LONG HENCE
BRAVO, PARIS EXPOSITION!
INTERPOLATION SOUNDS
TO THE SUN-SET BREEZE
OLD CHANTS
A CHRISTMAS GREETING
SOUNDS OF THE WINTER
A TWILIGHT SONG
WHEN THE FULL-GROWN POET CAME
OSCEOLA
A VOICE FROM DEATH
A PERSIAN LESSON
THE COMMONPLACE
“THE ROUNDED CATALOGUE DIVINE COMPLETE”
MIRAGES
L. OF G.’S PURPORT
THE UNEXPRESS’D
GRAND IS THE SEEN
UNSEEN BUDS
GOOD-BYE MY FANCY!
A BACKWARD GLANCE O‘ER TRAVEL’D ROADS
ADDITIONAL POEMS
INTRODUCTION TO ADDITIONAL POEMS
POEMS WRITTEN BEFORE 1855
POEMS EXCLUDED FROM THE “DEATH-BED” EDITION (1891-1892)
OLD AGE ECHOES (1897)
POEMS WRITTEN BEFORE 1855
OUR FUTURE LOT
FAME’S VANITY
MY DEPARTURE
YOUNG GRIMES
THE INCA’S DAUGHTER
THE LOVE THAT IS HEREAFTER
WE ALL SHALL REST AT LAST
THE SPANISH LADY
THE END OF ALL
THE COLUMBIAN’S SONG
THE PUNISHMENT OF PRIDE
AMBITION
THE DEATH AND BURIAL OF McDONALD CLARKE
TIME TO COME
A SKETCH
DEATH OF THE NATURE-LOVER
THE PLAY-GROUND
ODE
THE MISSISSIPPI AT MIDNIGHT
SONG FOR CERTAIN CONGRESSMEN
BLOOD-MONEY
THE HOUSE OF FRIENDS
RESURGEMUS
POEMS EXCLUDED FROM THE “DEATH-BED” EDITION (1891-1892)
GREAT ARE THE MYTHS
CHANTS DEMOCRATIC. 6
THINK OF THE SOUL
RESPONDEZ!
ENFANS D‘ADAM. 11
CALAMUS. 16
CALAMUS. 8
CALAMUS. 9
LEAVES OF GRASS. 20
THOUGHTS. 1
THOUGHT
SAYS
APOSTROPH
O SUN OF REAL PEACE
PRIMEVAL MY LOVE FOR THE WOMAN I LOVE
TO YOU
NOW LIFT ME CLOSE
TO THE READER AT PARTING
DEBRIS
LEAFLETS
DESPAIRING CRIES
CALAMUS. 5
THOUGHTS. 2
THOUGHTS. 4
BATHED IN WAR’S PERFUME
SOLID, IRONICAL, ROLLING ORB
NOT MY ENEMIES EVER INVADE ME
THIS DAY, O SOUL
LESSONS
ASHES OF SOLDIERS: EPIGRAPH
THE BEAUTY OF THE SHIP
AFTER AN INTERVAL
TWO RIVULETS
OR FROM THAT SEA OF TIME
FROM MY LAST YEARS
IN FORMER SONGS
AS IN A SWOON
[LAST DROPLETS]
SHIP AHOY!
FOR QUEEN VICTORIA’S BIRTHDAY
L OF G
AFTER THE ARGUMENT
FOR US TWO, READER DEAR
OLD AGE ECHOES
TO SOAR IN FREEDOM AND IN FULLNESS OF POWER
THEN SHALL PERCEIVE
THE FEW DROPS KNOWN
ONE THOUGHT EVER AT THE FORE
WHILE BEHIND ALL FIRM AND ERECT
A KISS TO THE BRIDE
NAY, TELL ME NOT TO-DAY THE PUBLISH’D SHAME
SUPPLEMENT HOURS
OF MANY A SMUTCH’D DEED REMINISCENT
TO BE AT ALL
DEATH’S VALLEY
ON THE SAME PICTURE
A THOUGHT OF COLUMBUS
ENDNOTES
PUBLICATION INFORMATION
INSPIRED BY LEAVES OF GRASS
COMMENTS & QUESTIONS
FOR FURTHER READING
INDEX OF TITLES AND FIRST LINES
FROM THE PAGES OF LEAVES OF GRASS
I am the poet of the body,
And I am the poet of the soul.
(FROM “SONG OF MYSELF,” 1855, PAGE 48)
Walt Whitman, an American, one of the roughs, a kosmos,
Disorderly fleshy and sensual .... eating drinking and breedi
ng,
No sentimentalist .... no stander above men and women or apart
from them .... no more modest than immodest.
Unscrew the locks from the doors!
Unscrew the doors themselves from their jambs!
(FROM “SONG OF MYSELF,” 1855, PAGE 52)
I have perceived that to be with those I like is enough,
To stop in company with the rest at evening is enough,
To be surrounded by beautiful curious breathing laughing flesh
is enough,
To pass among them ... to touch any one .... to rest my arm ever
so lightly round his or her neck for a moment .... what is this
then?
I do not ask any more delight .... I swim in it as in a sea.
(FROM “I SING THE BODY ELECTRIC,” 1855, PAGE 121)
To the States or any one of them, or any city of the States,
Resist much, obey little.
(FROM “TO THE STATES,” PAGE 173)
Shut not your doors to me proud libraries,
For that which was lacking on all your well-fill’d shelves, yet
needed most, I bring,
Forth from the war emerging, a book I have made,
The words of my book nothing, the drift of it every thing.
(FROM “SHUT NOT YOUR DOORS,” PAGE 176)
[These women] are not one jot less than I am,
They are tann’d in the face by shining suns and blowing winds,
Their flesh has the old divine suppleness and strength,
They know how to swim, row, ride, wrestle, shoot, run, strike,
retreat, advance, resist, defend themselves,
They are ultimate in their own right—they are calm, clear,
well-possess’d of themselves.
(FROM “A WOMAN WAITS FOR ME,” PAGES 263-264)
City of the world! (for all races are here,
All the lands of the earth make contributions here;)
City of the sea! city of hurried and glittering tides!
City whose gleeful tides continually rush or recede, whirling in
and out with eddies and foam!
City of wharves and stores—city of tall façades of marble and iron!
Proud and passionate city—mettlesome, mad, extravagant city!
(FROM “CITY OF SHIPS,” PAGE 444)
O Captain! my Captain! our fearful trip is done,
The ship has weather’d every rack, the prize we sought is won,
The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting,
While follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel grim and daring;
But O heart! heart! heart!
O the bleeding drops of red,
Where on the deck my Captain lies,
Fallen cold and dead.
(FROM “O CAPTAIN! MY CAPTAIN!” PAGE 484)
Published by Barnes & Noble Books
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Leaves of Grass was published anonymously in 1855.
Throughout his life, Whitman revised Leaves of Grass and regularly issued
new editions. The final authorized ninth, or “Death-bed,”
edition was published in 1891-1892.
Published by Barnes & Noble Classics in 2004 with new Introduction,
Notes, Biography, Chronology, Publication Information, Inspired By,
Comments & Questions, For Further Reading, and Index.
Introduction, Notes, Publishing Information, and For Further Reading
Copyright © 2004 by Karen Karbiener.
Note on Walt Whitman, The World of Walt Whitman and Leaves of Grass,
Inspired by Leaves of Grass, Comments & Questions, and Index
Copyright © 2004 by Barnes & Noble, Inc.
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Leaves of Grass
ISBN-13: 978-1-59308-083-9
ISBN-10: 1-59308-083-2
eISBN : 978-1-411-43252-9
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