FEINBERG/WHITMAN   LITERARY FILE   POETRY FILE   "A Kiss to the Bride" (May21, 1874?). Printed copy.
Box 27 Folder 27

Includes A.MS.notation.224

1874 21 May? A Kiss to the Bride: poem, with marginalia. A.MS.
(1p. 12½ x 10 cm.)

Written in ink on a sheet of paper torn from a larger sheet, to
which has been pasted a clipping of the poem 'A Kiss to the
Bride,' by Walt Whitman (magazine or newspaper from which poem
is clipped is unknown; poem published in Old Age Echoes, 1897);
title and line 10 have asterisks ('For the New World[s], through me
the old, old wedding greeting'), 12 words:

Marriage of Nelly Grant, (Mrs. Sartoris,) the President's daughter,
May 21, 1874.

Pub. in CW, III, 32.
[*Poem on back of this*]225

A KISS TO THE BRIDE.
------
Sacred, blithesome, undenied,
With benisons from East and West,
And salutations North and South,
Through me indeed to-day a million hearts and hands,
Wafting a million loves, a million soul-felt prayers;
—Tender and true remain the arm that shields thee!
Fair winds always fill the ship's sails that sail thee!
Clear sun by day, and bright stars at night, beam on thee!
Dear girl—through me the ancient privilege too,
For the New World, through me, the old, old wedding greeting;
O youth an health! O sweet Missouri rose! O bonny bride!
Yield thy red cheeks, thy lips, to-day,
Unto a Nation's loving kiss.
                                                  WALT WHITMAN. [*caps and small caps*]A KISS TO THE BRIDE.*
------
Sacred, blithesome, undenied,
With benisons from East and West,
And salutations North and South,
Through me indeed to-day a million hearts and hands,
Wafting a million loves, a million soul-felt prayers;
—Tender and true remain the arm that shields thee!
Fair winds always fill the ship's sails that sail thee!
Clear sun by day, and bright stars at night, beam on thee!
Dear girl—through me the ancient privilege too,
For the New World, through me, the old, old wedding greeting;*
O youth and health! O sweet Missouri rose! O bonny bride!
Yield thy red cheeks, thy lips, to-day,
Unto a Nation's loving kiss.
                                                  WALT WHITMAN.

*Marriage of Nelly Grant,
(Mrs. Sartoris,) the Presidents
Daughter, May 21, 1874.