FEINBERG/WHITMAN   LITERARY FILE   POETRY FILE   "The Trail" (1872). A.MS. draft & notes. (DCN41)
Box 30 Folder 121872 THE TRAIL; notes for a poem. A.MS. (3p. 25 x 20 cm.)

The notes were obviously taken by Whitman while reading "The Oregon
Trail, by Francis Parkman, 12 mo, Little Brown & Co., Boston, 1872," a
statement which heads the first page. Catchwords written in red ink, e.g.:
"The Trail? name for the poem" and "The Emigration to California 1846 '7
&c &c Oregon." The poem was probably never completed.  {41}

13

Mich. Type No. 8046--MT-5--1-31-55

[*+ 1st
Edn of
book*]"Oregon[?] Trail"  12 mo. Little, Brown & Co
 by Francis Parkman   Boston, 1872

[*for California ? "California trail[?]*]

the bois de vache,         dry buffalo dung "buffalo chips"
                                      used for fuel, wood being scarce
the great heavy lumbering wagons
  [covered] with canvas tops
the oxen & mules
the long emigrant trains of '46, '48, '50,
  bound for Oregon or California
the tall, gaunt, [so bear] men, sinewy &
                                                           bearded,
  the "buttes" — the antelope 
the Indian village
the graves one meets on the road
the slow progress (people sicken and die—
                             children are born—the detention
                             is slight—the great bulk of
                             the train steadily moves on)
the prairies—the [reports crack] sound of hunters' rifles
the vast herd of buffalo—or
the procession of them, walking with gravity,
  in single file.                 the heads all breasts
the grim old bulls           all shaggy hair, the
the cows, smaller sired   twinkle of eyes just seen
the wolves, the calves the prairie dogs, 
("bourgeois," i.e, "boss," of the place, the [j] hired[?] man,
or
the Platte glistening in the midst of its desert valleys
the Trail)                          [*The Trail
                                        ? name for poem*]
the sun scorched plains
the towering mountains—the pure
    atmosphereThe Dakota same as Sioux warrior the Indian head men—the [warriors]
  & council of chiefs—the group of old men
   grave & [slo] taciturn, each in his
  [ample] white buffalo robe—the squaws
  [the Dakota wa]
  the pipe & tobacco-pouch
[The [L] Laramie] The [f] old forts
  —the Missions—the traders' houses—
  —the old [Sioux] Chief, like some
  gnarled and [y] Knotty oak
  full grown, invulnerable
—the parks

the mournful falling the sounds of night birds & innumerable insects, & darkness [night], [the] howling of wolves

the elk, the deer, the mountain-sheep.
(—the hunter's, trapper's life—
  the scout, the half-breed.)

the cañon, [&] ravine—the cascade, 
the Indian lance, shield, [&] bow, & quiver of arrows
—the tents, utensils, buffalo robes
  —the poneys, dogs, dried meat, 
  —the strange legends & traditions
the scene at cutting up a buffalo carcass, after
  a huntthe Rocky Mountains

the rocky hills, [half-rocks]—[the] with deep and gloomy 
gorges, choked with trees—the slender
silvery threads of water, flowing down, with
occasional full & murmur.

—the Indian emblems,—the eagle, serpent,
bear, wolf, fox[?],
 the Pueblo. [*?*]

The emigration to California
1846;7 &c [&] Oregon &c

The great western movement across the plains
the exodus from Missouri, Arkansas
  & Indiana, [co]
The wagons & outfits for [*?*] Santa Fe
The crowded steamboats leaving St. Louis, going
  up.
The rushing up flood of Missouri in spring—
  the Kansas