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Italian Music in Dakota
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By Walt Whitman
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| small type ¶ ["The Seventeenth—the finest Regimental Band I ever heard."]
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[paper glued]
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| Through the soft evening air enwinding all, |
| Rocks, woods, fort, cannon, pacing sentries, ^
endless wil
[illegible]
e
s,
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Ray'd in the limpid, yellow slanting
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sundown,
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From
In
dulcet strains, in flutes' & cornets' notes, |
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Ray'd in the limpid, yellow, slanting sundown;
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| Electric, pensive, turbulent, artificial, |
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 [Leaf 1 verso]
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[Leaf 1 verso]
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(Yet ^
strangely fitting thee, O
n
N
ature, even here—mean- |
| ings unknown before, |
| Subtler than ever—more harmony—as if born |
| here—related here, |
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[cut away]
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[paper glued]
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| Not to the citys frescoed rooms—not to the |
| audience of the opera house, |
| Sounds, songs, trills, wandering strains, as |
| really home return'd
here at home;
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Sonnambula's innocent love—trios, with |
| Norma's anguish, |
And thy extatic c
[o?]
h
orus Poliuto;) |
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[paper glued]
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| Ray'd in the limpid, yellow slanting sundown, |
| Music—Italian music in Dakota. |
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[paper glued]
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blank line
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| While Nature, sovereign of this |
| gnarled realm, |
| Lurking in some
his
hidden, barbaric, grim |
| recesses,
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(Acknowledging rapport, however far‑removed, |
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(As some old root, or soil of earth, its |
| own
true
-born flower or fruit, |
| Listens, well-pleased, |
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[Leaf 1 verso]
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Date
- This manuscript was likely composed between 1879 and 1881, after Whitman took a trip to the West (though not the Dakota Territory) and before the poem was published.
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Editorial note
- "Italian Music in Dakota" was published first in the 1881-82 edition of Leaves of Grass.
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Leaf 1: Verso of manuscript leaf has a note, presumably in an archivist's hand, which reads "H.G. 194."
Leaf 2: Verso of manuscript leaf has a note, presumably in an archivist's hand, which reads "H.G. 194."
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Notes written on manuscript
- In right margin, in unknown hand: 534.
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Location
- Italian Music in Dakota | Yale Collection of American Literature, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library.
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Whitman Archive ID
- yal.00003
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