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[Leaf 1 recto]

In [full?] clear sight, high in the ample space

? I see The rushing contact amp amorous contact

of the eagles

(The twain—the male and female)

The interlocking claws, T t he spreading wings,

The spiral cutting the air together

By locking talons held—one mass reliev'd against the sky

Swift _^ Four wings, gigantic—two beaks— Downward gyrating—splendid _^ swift loops—

over and over falling, rolling turning , an falling,

pausing swift revolving circling, falling

Over Abo Close to the river pausing—motionless ^?a minute—balanced

motionless

Then Till tacitly unlocking on slow majest firm pinion, then, she hers, [he ?]

his, their separate flight pursuing

Editorial note: This manuscript is a draft of "The Dalliance of the Eagles," a poem first published in Cope's Tobacco Plant in November 1880.; The verso of the manuscript leaf is blank.

Location: Papers of Walt Whitman (MSS 3829) | Clifton Waller Barrett Library of American Literature, Albert H. Small Special Collections Library, University of Virginia.

The Walt Whitman Archive