The Subterranean

In the early 1840s, Whitman lived in New York and wrote for several newspapers, including the Subterranean, edited by Michael (Mike) Walsh, a self-educated journalist committed to the interests of the working classes. Walsh and Whitman probably met when they were both associated with the New York Aurora in 1842. Whitman admired the boisterous Walsh for what he called his “true blue American spirit” in an article in the Aurora on April 9, 1842. Whitman’s poem, “Lesson of the Two Symbols,” appeared on the first page of the first issue of Walsh’s newspaper on July 15, 1843. In October 1844, Walsh merged the Subterranean with the Working-Man’s Advocate but the newspaper lasted only a few issues. Copies of Walsh’s original Subterranean are extremely rare, and the Walt Whitman Archive currently has no transcription or page image for the poem that appeared in the newspaper.

Poems

"Lesson of the Two Symbols." Subterranean 15 July 1843: [1].

Bibliography

Blodgett, Harold W., and Sculley Bradley, eds. Leaves of Grass: Comprehensive Reader's Edition. New York: New York University Press, 1965.

Gross, Elliott B. "'Lesson of the Two Symbols': An Undiscovered Whitman Poem." Walt Whitman Review 12 (December 1966): 77-80.

Myerson, Joel. Walt Whitman: A Descriptive Bibliography. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1993.

Reynolds, David. Walt Whitman's America: A Cultural Biography. New York: Vintage, 1995.

Whitman, Walt. The Journalism. Eds. Herbert Bergman, Douglas A. Noverr, and Edward J. Recchia. Vol. 1: 1834-1846. The Collected Writings of Walt Whitman. New York: Peter Lang, 1998.