FEINBERG/WHITMAN   LITERARY FILE   Prose "The First frost--Mems (Oct 6, 1877) Specimen Days. A MS. draft.
Box 32  Folder 47

                                                                                                                                                                                                          1801
1877 6 October  The First Frost: Prose. A. MS. (3p. 14.5 x 9.25 cm.)

Written in pencil on three pages but from a small notebook, first rough draft of 'The First Frost__Mems, ' published in Specimen Days, p.106, 200 words.

[Material in Specimen Days not transcribed.]

[The] A short lane leads down
from the barn,

        The first Frost
Where I was stopping
in the country I [noticed] saw
the first decided & palpable frost
[Came night]  on [the walk]
[at] my sunrise walk Oct.
6. [The grass] All over the yet green,
[& thrifty was] [the] thrifty spread the moist
[veil of] blue-gray veil, giving
a new [pr] show to the
[whole] landscape. I had [to] but
little time to notice it
for the sun rose cloudless
and mellow-warm, & as I

return'd along the lane,
it had turned to great
patches of glistening, wet

The bright yellow of
the hickory
color The cedar [look]
in their clear emerald
green, more beautiful
than ever    the great
cabbage fields of malachite
green.
The bursting pods of the wild
cotton  ( [as] India hemp [as]
the folks call it here)
with their flossy-silky
contents & dark red brown seed --

3

- the fields yielding their
grains, roots, fruits-
-the [?] loaded market wagon
on the road to town-
the change in the tulip tone
(wild flowers)
a startled rabbit
-[the]
[the] I pull a handful
of the balsamic, fragrant
"life everlasting" & stuff
it down in one of my
pockets, for scent.

4

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