Leaves of Grass: First and Death-Bed Editions Read online

  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

  122 Fifth Avenue

  New York, NY 10011

  www.barnesandnoble.com/classics

  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.

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or

  transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including

  photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system,

  without the prior written permission of the publisher.

  Barnes & Noble Classics and the Barnes & Noble Classics

  colophon are trademarks of Barnes & Noble, Inc.

  Leaves of Grass

  ISBN-13: 978-1-59308-083-9

  ISBN-10: 1-59308-083-2

  eISBN : 978-1-411-43252-9

  LC Control Number 2004102191

  Produced and published in conjunction with

  Fine Creative Media, Inc.

  322 Eighth Avenue

  New York, NY 10001

  Michael J. Fine, President and Publisher

  Printed in the United States of America