FEINBERG/WHITMAN    LITERARY FILE    POETRY FILE    "America to Old World Bards" (1891).  A. MS. drafts.
 Box 26  Folder 15

Published as "Old Chants"
Includes verso letter from J. Harry Schuller, Jr.,
Oct. 27, 1890.

America to Old-World Bards
A reminiscence from reading Walter Scott


Price, 25 Cents.
LIPPINCOTT'S
MONTHLY MAGAZINE,
PHILADELPHIA.

Walt Whitman
Camden
N. J.


The [A?] ancient ballad reciting, ending
[Th qu]
Once [America gazing] [I] gazing toward thee, 
Musing seeking as ever the themes of Mother of all, thee
Thank [we'll] for me, thou saidst, before thou goest
Speak [Name out the bard] the old bards for me [acknowledging] each [ancient] past gone singer.
[I too receive them with perfect hospitality.]
Well-pleased, accepting all, curiously prepared for.

83 Worth Ct., 
N.Y. City Oct. 27/90

[Mr. Walt Whitman.
   Phila. Penna. 

Dear Sir: 
   If convenient will you kindly do me the honor of sending me your signature. 
   Very respectfully yours,
      J. Harry Schuller Jr.]

(Of many Debts incalculable 
Haply the New World's chiefest [Debts] Debt
 is to past [poets] poems.)

If not called for in 5 days, please return to
W. H. CROSSMAN & BRO.,
  77 AND 79 BROAD ST.,
      NEW YORK.
 
Registered
Mr. Walt Whitman [*11236*]
328 Miekle St.
Camden
New Jersey [*54259*]

REGISTERED
OCT 16 1890
BRANCH P.O.
STATION
NEW YORK P.O.

(NEW YORK,N.Y. 
10-16 1
890 
REG'Y DIV.)

Far back, preluding thee, [in America] America,
[Unwittingly for thee]
First [Egypt] chants, Egyptian priests, and those of Ethiopia,
The Hindu epics, the Grecian, [the] Chinese, [and the] Persian,
The Biblic books and prophets, the [beauteous] deep idylls of the Nazarene,
The Iliad, Odyssey, plots, doings, wanderings of Eneas,
Hesiod, Eschylus, Sophocles, Merlin, Arthur,

(CHELSEA STA SEP 25 8PM 90)

Walt Whitman 
Camden 
New Jersey

(CAMDEN,N.J. SEP 25 12 M)

The Cid, Roland at Roncesvalles, the Nibelungen,
the troubadours the minstrels, minnesingers, skalds
Chaucer, Dante, the flocks of singing birds.
The Border Minstrelsy, all [the old] bye-gone ballads, [all plays and tales], poetic tales, [and] essays, [and] plays, 
Shakspere, Schiller, Walter Scott, Tennyson, [Emerson] 
As some vast [beauteous] wondrous [dreams and lesson] dream-presences
[Leading to thee America.]

[NEW YORK
SEP 25
6 PM
90)

Walt Whitman
328 Miekle Street
Camden N.J.

(CAMDEN,N.J.
SEP
26
6 AM)

92
1890 October America to Old-World Bards: poem. A.MS. (lp. 21½ x 19 cm.)

Written in ink (with one correction in purple pencil) on a sheet 
made by pasting together the inside of three discarded envelopes 
(all sent to Whitman in September and October 1890), about 75 words,
Complete poem published as 'Old Chants' in Good-Bye My Fancy.

As some great shadowy [great]
[These as a mighty] group, gathering around
[Launching] Darting, long-darting, [in a] their mighty
   [Many] [crowdy] masterful eyes forward at thee
[Thee] Thou with as now [thy ben] [thy] thy bending [head as]
   neck and head, with courteous hand & word work
   [po?] [pausing]
[Thee] Thou, as pausing [?] drop'st thine eyes [for] a moment, 
   [observing] them, over the past [enterest] entering at thy entrance porch.
[Preluding thee America]

(PHILADELPHIA,P.A.)
(RECEIVED
OCT 16
2 PM
1890)

Walt Whitman
328 Miekle Street
Camden 
New Jersey
U.S. America

(NEW YORK
OCT16
8AM
K)
90

Whitman
[delphia]
Pa.


93
1890 October America to Old-World Bards: poem. A.MS. (5p. various
         sizes.)
                                                   4 
Written in ink on the inside of discarded enevlopes and 1 letter
(all addressed to Whitman, Camden, the letter: 83 Worth St., N.Y.
City Oct. 27 / 90 Mr Walt Whitman. Phila. Penna. Dear Sir: If convenient 
will you kindly do me the honor of sending me your signature. 
Very respectfully yours, J. Harry Schuller Jr.), about 135
words, entitled, 'America to Old-World Bards: A reminiscence from
reading Walter Scott', published as 'Old Chants' in Good-Bye My Fancy.

Transcribed and reviewed by contributors participating in the By The People project at crowd.loc.gov.