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- duk.ead01_duk.00003
The most immense part of
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Whitman Archive Title: The most immense part of
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Whitman Archive ID: duk.00003
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Repository ID: MS q 1
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Repository: Catalog of the Walt Whitman Literary Manuscripts in the Trent Collection of Whitmaniana, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina
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Date: Between 1855 and 1860
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Genre: poetry, prose
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Physical Description: 5 leaves, handwritten
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Content:
These manuscript leaves, one of which is held at the University of Texas, contain fragments of an unpublished prose piece that appears to represent an early draft of "Unnamed Lands," a poem published first in the 1860 edition of
Leaves of Grass.
The material on the second leaf shares with that poem not only a close thematic similarity but also several of the same phrases. On the reverse of the manuscript leaves (see duk.00006, duk.00008, and tex.00002) are drafts of lines for the opening poem of the 1855 edition of
Leaves of Grass,
ultimately titled "Song of Myself," sections six and seven. The poem was first titled, "Poem of Walt Whitman, an American," in the 1856 edition, and Whitman shortened the title to "Walt Whitman" in 1860–1861. The final title, "Song of Myself," was not introduced until the 1881–1882 edition of
Leaves
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