Poetry Manuscripts

[Leaf 1 recto]

To th[deletion, illegible]

Last of _^ of the poured-out ebb, and daylight waning,

s S cented sea‑breaths landward shoreward making—

smells of sedge and salt incoming,

With many a half‑caught voice sent

up from by from the whirls and eddies,

Many a muffled confession—many a

sob and whisper'd word,

As f From As of speakars far or hid.

How they sweep down and out! how they mutter!

Heroes Poets unnamed _^ and lost designs— —poets and artists greatest of any with all their lost designs,

—pride of

Pride of manhood—tones of the dying

Tones of the dying— Love unreturned— a chorus of age's complaints—

—love unreturn'd— tones of the dying— —hope's last words,

Some suicide's despair 's ing beguiling cry, Away

to the boundless waste, and never

again return.

On to oblivion! then! on—quicker, quicker yet!

on—on, and do your part, ye [deletion, illegible] shrouding _^ burying waters!

On, for your time, ye furious debouché!

Date: Whitman probably composed this manuscript shortly before its publication in 1885.

Editorial note: This manuscript is a draft of the poem "Last of Ebb, and Daylight Waning," first published in the "Fancies at Navesink" sequence of poems in the August 1885 issue of Nineteenth Century.; The verso of the manuscript leaf is blank.

Location: Last of ebb, and daylight waning (bound with "Fancies at Navesink") | Yale Collection of American Literature, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library.

The Walt Whitman Archive