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[Leaf 1 recto]

By thine own lips, O Sea,

By As where day and night I wander on here on the beach

To get [Counting?] the tally of the surf‑suggestions wordless utterance of these liquid wordless tongues

And To pass within my soul, which loves the

grim, mysterious, wordless story,

That This haughty‑husky utterance of the sea—

—that this unsubduedness,

That Th is y cosmic, ever‑latent voice of power, refusal

With The lengthened swell, and The irrepressible rage, and the _^ these emblems

many tears ; — these emblems,

Some vast heart, like a planet's, chained

and chafing there here,

Some primitive right withheld—some freedom‑lover

pent—some tyranny;

Within, within and deep, _^ by [thee?] by day and night, _^ by thine own tongue lips O Sea O Sea!

Surely some This chanted tale of elemental passion,

With undertone of muffled lion roar,

And skreel of whistling wind, and hiss of spray,

Th is y Thy A The chanted chanted tale of elemental passion,

—th is y haughty husky utterance

Th is y tale of subterranean toil and wrongs

Unf For once _{Seems here} C c onfided to me

*To pass within my soul the

wordless lesson

Of all that power means

Of freedom, action, in husky-haughty

Date: Whitman visited Ocean Grove, New Jersey, with John Burroughs for a week in late September and early October 1883. This draft appears to be one of the later versions of several manuscript drafts and was probably composed at the time of the visit or shortly thereafter.

Editorial note: The verso of the manuscript leaf is letterhead containing an illustration of the Sheldon House, Ocean Grove, New Jersey.

Location: By Thine Own Lips, O Sea | Yale Collection of American Literature,Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library.

The Walt Whitman Archive