Thou Mother with Thy Equal Brood

Whitman Archive Title: Thou Mother with Thy Equal Brood
Whitman Archive ID: wau.00001
Repository: Catalog of the Walt Whitman Poetry Manuscripts in the George N. Meissner Collection, Department of Special Collections, Washington University Libraries, Washington University
Date: 1880–1882
Genre: poetry
Physical Description: 8 leaves, handwritten; printed
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Content: This is a printed proof with heavy corrections in Whitman's hand of the poem, "Thou Mother with Thy Equal Brood," which was first published in the New York Herald (26 June 1872), under the title, "As a Strong Bird on Pinions Free." On that same date, Whitman delivered the poem at the Dartmouth College commencement. Whitman published it later that year as the title poem in a small book, As a Strong Bird on Pinions Free: and Other Poems (1872). The title was later revised to "Thou Mother with Thy Equal Brood" when the poem was included in Leaves of Grass in 1881–1882.