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Poetry Manuscripts

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I cross'd the Nevadas, I cross'd the

plateaus,

I ascended the towering rocks along the

Pacific, I sail'd out to sea,

I sail'd through the storm, I was re-

fresh'd by the storm,

I watch'd with joy the threatening maws

of the waves,

I mark'd the white combs where they

career'd so high curling over,

I heard the wind piping, I saw the

black clouds,

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Date: Whitman most likely wrote this manuscript in 1865, the year he published Drum-Taps and the year he met Byron Sutherland, a young soldier. Sutherland sent the poet a letter from Corry, Pennsylvania in September 1865.

Editorial note: The lines on this manuscript, apparently from either a late draft or a presentation copy, are from the poem "Rise O Days from Your Fathomless Deeps," first published in Drum-Taps (1865).

Location: I cross'd the Nevadas | Yale Collection of American Literature, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library.

The Walt Whitman Archive