Published Works Manuscripts Biography & Correspondence Criticism Resources Pictures & Sound About the Archive

Poetry Manuscripts

Table of Contents

[Leaf 1 recto]

A procession without rest or halt,

Apparent at times and hid at times,

Rising the rising grounds, in relief

against the clear sky, lost

in the [g?] hollows, stretched

interminably over the plains,

No eye so far‑reaching as to

see where the last first

No eye that ever saw the starting—

no eye that ever shall need

wait for the ending

Where [deletion, illegible] any one passes views goes , however ahead,

the rest only coming, however

far behind,

Marches the a marching procession

Date: The date is unknown. However, the lines were probably composed between 1861 and 1870, when Whitman had most reason to employ imagery of marching.

Editorial note: This is a draft of a poem unpublished in Whitman's lifetime. Whitman used the image of a procession many times in his poetry, including in section 38 of "Song of Myself" and in section 6 of "Return of the Heroes" (in the final versions of those poems). However, this manuscript is most likely a draft toward a different poem altogether.; The verso of the manuscript leaf is blank.

Location: [A procession without halt] | The Bayley-Whitman Collection, Ohio Wesleyan University, Delaware OH.

The Walt Whitman Archive