|
To th[deletion, illegible]
2
Last of the ebb, and daylight
waning
|
| 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.
-
Notes written on manuscript
- In top margin, in unknown hand: 9.
-
Location
- Last of ebb, and daylight waning (bound with "Fancies at Navesink") | Yale Collection of American Literature, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library.
-
Whitman Archive ID
- yal.00044
|
