FEINBERG/WHITMAN LITERARY FILE Box 33 Folder 3 Prose "The Bawn, The East, Sunrise, The Moon" (May-Sept.1978). A.MS.draft Includes early drafts of "Hours for the Soul," Specimen Days. Also includes partial verso letters from unknown correspondents, May 10, 1878 July 23-Sept.17 The Dawn, The East, Sunrise, The Moon: notes for poems. (11p.various sizes) Written in pencil, with a few of the numerous corrections and changes in ink, on various scraps of paper: some removed from notebooks, some clipped from larger sheets, some with smaller pieces pasted on larger ones, one made by pasting four small pieces together, two on the backs of discarded letters. Words on each scrap vary from about 75 to more than 250 ineffably sweet & fresh & limpid, but more for the esthetic sense, utterly indescribable East! I have itemized the Night--but dare I attempt the perfect and cloudless Dawn?....What subtle tie is this between one's Soul and the East? Alike--yet No two days --no two nights--no two Eastern shows, or morning skies, alike! The East What a subject for a poem--indeed. What else more splendorous, varied & pregnant? What else more idealistic, real or more serious & delicate, more subtle. [*34A*] The Moon May 18 '78 - [ As I] I went to bed early last night, but found myself waked [a while after] shortly past midnight & after turning [in bed] a while sleepless and mentally feverish [a while], I rose [and] dress'd myself & [went] sallied forth, & walked down the lane. It was that silent time between 1 and 2 o'clock - the full moon some three or four hours up [its course in the sky] a sprinkle of light & less light clouds just easily moving--& Jupiter sparkling bright an hour high in the east - the great Dipper [high in the] westward, and here and there all over the heavens a random star appearing and disappearing, [so] pensively, [so] slowly. [O how] So, beautifully still, solemn, so veiled-clear, the air with [the] that delicate perfume of spring, --not at all damp or raw, --at times the round moon [slow] languidly emerging in richest slpendor for a few moments, and then partially enveloped again. Far-off a whip-poor- will plied his notes incessantly.....The nocturnal scene--how soon it sooth'd & pacified me!...Then the moon, --is there not something about it, some relation or reminding to the human spirit which no poem, no literature, has yet caught. (In a very old and primitive [*35*] The East (cont.) The East [the Cr] nothing so near us, to all, averaging all, all ages, all lands, peoples, [here now,] touching alike all senses, here, [now,] immediate, now--and yet so indescribably far off! Such [infinite] retrospect! and then such infinite vista ahead. The East --creation, history, fable--long stretches, retroceding,--so long [so infinitely long] so fading losing itself, but preserving [the] its dazzle, [even] in [all the] [i]utmost [fade] tapering utmost distances --[&] even magnifying itself in them. *2 /*2 The East the long procession-- the [gar] Orient, the gardens of Asia [(? extract from broadway pageant) p 244 L of G] --The East--the fresh Dawn, the moisture, & the scent of roses-- [the fourth issuing of r] tribes races [The East] --the womb of History and Art-- [far], far off, [as] forth-issuinh the strange, dim cavalcades. P 244 of L of G (? 245) And still the East--Old, how indescrabably old & weird, [&] [And] yet indeed the same here yet, ours, yet, [new ble] fresh as a rose, [warm as a dear clasp'd hand], imminent every morning, to every life--and always will/be [self][?] [*395 3*][?] [*36*] [*4*] The Moon (cont.) [Dawn: P. 2] ballads, [perhaps there are] I have come across, I have fancied asides or indirections that suggest something of it.) I gazed long & long. After a while, the clouds all clear'd, [off] & as the moon swam slowly [swam along] on, she [had] carried, [the most bea] shimmering & shifting, those delicate & indescribable color-effects of pellucid [blue] blue-green [va] and tawny vapor, [shimmering & shifting so delicate, so indeserible], beyond the proudest pomp of sun and day.' July 23 '78 The Dawn-The East--This morning between one & two hours before sunrise was-[a]--the miracle [silently] wrought [of] on the same background, [yet entirely] yet of quite different beauty and meaning. The moon well up in the heavens & past her half [was] is shining perfectly. [Venus beams in the east (& well to the north) beams a great, white soft dazzling mass] The air and sky [were clear pure and lucid, had have] of that pure, [cool] cynical -clear, Minerva-like quality, irrgen-cool/,--[no] not the weight of sentiment, or the mystery, or opulence, or passion's extacy /over/ 36A indefinable/ [like] --not the Religious [Or] sense, the varied All, distill'd and sublimated into one, like the night just described, every star now clean-cut, showing for just what it is, there in the colorless ether. The [different] character of the morning/ [*[does this end here?]*] sermons, [poems of the] verses science of all lands and ages, old or new--filtering [its like its] soothing divine medicine, [indes] ? into my [sense] spirit [and soul] and sense. The Spirit's Hour--Religion's hour--the visible suggestion of the vastness and glory of God, in Time--now [The Spirit hour] once reveal'd, definitely indicated if -------. never again. With finger on lip--all silently--the Untried pounted at.-- [All] The heavens [and if] all paved with ? it [All silently!] * What a babble indeed scann'd [poems and] bibles--philosophies & churches [and to the] my Soul in its al /?/ to the?[lessons] these [suggestions] The Milky Way as if some superhuman Symphony, some [soundless] Ode of Time and Space disdaining syllable and sound, a flash, [silent] glance of Deity addressed to the [Soul Spirit] Soul, silently. The indescribable night and stars All silently Far-off and si- lently / Another Sept 17 '78 Just preceding Sunrise--middle of Sept--The clear gray sky, & the faint glow in the dull liver color in the east--the cool fresh odor, and the moisture--the cattle and the horses off there, quietly grazing in the fields--the Star Venus yet visible, high.-- For sounds, the chirping of the crickets in the grass, the clarion of chanticleer, & the caws of a distant crow. And now over the low dense fringe of cedars and pines, peeps the dazzling disk of red still, haughty, transparent flame, amid the few sheets of white vapor roll & roll into dissolution / *(indeed the suggested Soul Maternity and Love, up there) Preceded more than half an hour ahead, by an immense Star Venus, almost unearthly in her white effusion of splendor, with two or three long unequal spoke-rays of diamond radiance, dazzling pure up there in the mystical, clear night *shedding her limitless shine down through the odorless indescribable perfume of fresh morning air below--With /over/ 37A 7 [half] nearly an hour of all this, bathing lapsing the [fullest] sense in [a lesson realization of] fullest extasy [to] (as if a sample, at least once [in] for a lifetime)--and [and after this the] recurrence [and after this], the eternal miracle of the sunrise [in the east]-- [the internal miracle over the same, yet ever indescribably different]. / / ? /. [as heads of wheat in a field.] A large part of sky seemed just laid in great splashes of phosphorus; you could look deeper in, farther through, than usual. The orbs [seem'd] thick as heads of wheat in a field. Not that there was any special brilliance either--nothing near as sharp as I have seen of keen winter nights--but a curious general [irrudescence] luminousness throughout, to sight, sense & soul.* (take 2 below in Stars). (The latter had much to do with it. I am convinced there are hours of Nature, especially of the atmosphere, mornings and evenings, address'd to the Soul2*) (2* [How, to the Soul,] Is it how the Night transcends what the proudest Day can do?). Now indeed, if ne[?]ver before, to my whole identity and consciousness, the heavens [skies express'd told] declared the glory of God. It was, to the full, [the heavens] the sky of the Bible, of Arabia, of the prophets, and of the old poems. [In perfect] There [?rapt] in 38 stillness,[(]I had gone off by myself, to absorb the scene, [and] to have the spell unbroken[)] the [free vast arch, with its] indescribable copiousness, removedness, vitality [of starry of that starry] --th loose-clear-crowdedness of that [starry free], vast, free, stellar arch-realm spreads over me--softly absorbed in [me] rising so high, based, equi-distant, --east, west, north, south, and I [below es it were] but [the] a point in the centre below--[sunk as if] as if for the first time it thoroughly, noiselessly sank its [its] [int] placid untallable (?) lesson beyond, [all] I (?) so infinitely beyond the art, books (?) / & also that goes to make [that] those haughtiest silent miracle [of all, The Night] hours after sunset. (Let me begin with that theme--[As] as out of the [impenetrable] limitless [vast of] vastness and mysterious [of Night] preceding the Light, emerge all [Lives] life- expressions, however large, however little. [Let me begin with that theme]. And there, as [the same] we [all] dissolve and disappear in the same dim Realm, very likely I shall end my sketches with it.) ( ? ) so very common, but the only action (?) that makes perfect nights are [rare events] exceptionally few, even in a life time. We have one of those [rare] perfections however to-night. Sunset /over/ 38A 9 left things pretty clear; the larger stars were visible enough soon as the shades allow'd. [Between 8 and 9] A while after 8 [large] three or four great black clouds suddenly rose, see[i]min[i]gly from different points, and [r[?]ffishly] sweeping, with a few [blind] swirls of wind, [[r?ffishly] sweeping], but no thunder and underspread the orbs(?)[(]ev[a]ery[)] where, indicated a general & violent heat-storm. But without [black] angry stomp clouds [of with] blackness & all. ( ?) & vanished with ---?---sudden speed --- as it had risen, & from a little (?) until ll--?--heavens, the atmosphere and the stars were in that state of exceptional [night]-clearness & glory just alluded to. ?(2* [What is the tie between man's spirit and the starlight roof fo the night? Has the night transcended what the proudest day [??n] do?]). In the northwest turned the [Big] Great Dipper, --?-- [the] its Pointers, round the Polestar. A little south of east, the Scorpian[?] [grandest of constellations] seems fully up with red Antares on its neck. [Clearest] while Dominating all majestically( ? . (No moon till ' / *2 The East the long process - in - the Orient, the gardens of Asia [(? extract from Broadway pageant) p 244 L of G] - The East - the fresh dawn, the moisture & the scent of roses - - [the forth issuing of a] tribe races [The East] - the womb of History and Art - [far] far off, [as] forth-issuing the strange dim Cavalcades; - p 244 L of G (?245) And still the East - Old how indescribably old and wierd [of] - And yet indeed & the same yet, here yet, ours, yet [?] fresh as a rose, [warm as a dear-clasp of hand], imminent every [?], to every life - and always will be: The east What a subject for a poem - indeed what else [grander] more [delicate or] splendidly varied & pregnant? What else more idealistic [realistic & idealistic]? more subtle [or delicate] far more sensuous & delicate? The East - [the Cr] nothing so near us, to all, averaging all, all ages, all lands, peoples, [here now] touching alike all senses, here, [now,] immediate, now - and yet so indescribably far off such [infinite] retrospect! and then such infinite vista ahead. The East - Creation history, fable - long stretches, retroceding, - so long - [so infinitely long] - so fading losing itself, but preserving [the] its dazzle in [even all the fade] utmost tapering utmost distances - [&] even magnifying itself in them. *2 >>>LEFT COLUMN<<< [?] night are [rare even] exceptionly few even in a life time. We have one thing of perfection however, to=night. * Sunset left things pretty clear; the larger stars were visible enough soon as the shades allow). [Between 8 and 9] A while after 8 three or four great [large] black clouds suddenly rose seeming from different point and [rapidly] sweeping with a few [black] swirls of wind [rapidly sweeping] but no thunder underspread the one [?] where indicated a [severe] violent heat-storm. But without [But] any storm clouds [with] blackness & all swept off & vanished with [greater] as [great] sudden speed [?] as [?] had risen; & from a [?] [?] of heavens, the atmosphere in the stars were in that state of exceptional [?night-] clearness & glory just alluded to ?(+2[What is the tie between man's spirit and the star lit roof of the night? Has the night [?] what the proudest day can do?]) [The] In the north-west turned the [Big] Great Dipper, [?] [the] its Pointers round the Pole star. A little south of east the Scorpion, [grandest of constellations,] was fully up, with red solitares in its neck. [?] [?] >>>RIGHT COLUMN<<< & all that goes to make [that them] those haughtiest silent miracle [of] hours [all. The Night] after sunset. (Let me begin with that theme - [As] as out of the [impenetrable] limitless [vast of] vastness and mysteries [of the Night] preceding the Light, emerge all life=expressions, however large, however little. [Let me begin with that theme or Then.] And as [the same] we [all] dissolve and disappear in the same dim Realm, very likely I shall end my sketches with it.) P.J. Would you be kind enough to state the name and address of your last photographer? My collection of the Cabinet photographs of the American [port?] seems difficult to make by simply ordering from the [Mora's, Jaroney's and Gutenemts?] of that profession, so am obliged to trouble [? mark to you - Now of which were a falcon] A large part of any seemed just laid in great splashes of phosphorus; you could look deeper in, farther through than usual. The orbs [seemed] thick as heads of wheat in a field. Not that there was any special brilliancy either - nothing near as sharp as I have seen of keen winter nights - but a curious general [iridescence] luminousness throughout, to sight, sense & soul.* 2 below take * in Stars ( The latter had much to do with it. I am convinced there are hours of Nature, especially of the atmosphere, mornings and evenings address'd to the Soul. 2* 2* [How to the soul] To it from The Night transcends what the proudest Day can do! Now indeed if never before to my whole identity and consciousness the heavens [express'd told] declared the glory of God. It was [the heavens] to the full, the sky of the Bible, of Arabia, of the prophets and of the old poems. [In perfect] There [exist] in stillness (I had gone off by myself, to absorb the scene [and] to have the spell unbroken) The [free] [vast arch, with its] indescribable copiousness, removedness, vitality [of starry of that starry] - the loose-clear-crowdedness of that starry [free] vast, free, stellar arch-realism softly absorbed into spreads over me - rising so high based equi-distant. in east, west, north, south and of [below as it were] but [the] a point in the centre below - [Quinch as if] as if for the first time it thoroughly, noiselessly saute it [its all] placid untellable lesson beyond, [all] O so infinitely beyond the best, books Boston, 1878. 19 Temple St. Dear Sir, Will you please favor a young collector of autographs with yours, and by so doing you will be conferring a great favor on a small boy, by * (indeed [like some realized] the suggested Soul of Maternity and Love, up there) Preceded [nearly up] more than half an hour ahead, by [Venus half an hour] an immense star [when] - Venus, almost unearthly in her [her] effusion of white splendor, with [her] two or three long unequal spoke-rays [of long] [pure] diamond radiance pure dazzling up [there] there in the mystical clear night * [shedding shining down] shedding [her] limitless [soul] shine down through [there in the in] the odorless indescribable perfume of [the] fresh morning air below - with nearly [half] an hour of all this bathing lapsing the [fullest] sense in [a lesson realization of] fullest extasy [to] (as if a sample at least once [in] our a lifetime) - and [and after] this [the and] - recurrence [after this,] the eternal miracle of the sun rise [in the east the eternal miracle ever the same yet ever indescribably different.] [*Another*] Sept 17 '78 Just preceding Sunrise - middle of Sept - The clear gray sky & faint glow in the dull liver color in the east - the cool fresh odor, and the moisture - the cattle and horses off there, quietly grazing in the fields - the Star Venus yet visible two hours high, - [the only] for sounds, the chirping of the crickets in the grass, the clarion of chanticleer; & the cawing of a distant crow. And now over the low dense fringe of cedars and pines peeps, the dazzling disk [of] red [sleep] still haughty transparent flame, and the [let] few sheets of white vapor roll & roll into & resolution sermons, [poems, of the] verses science [of] all lands and ages old or new -- [like] its filtering soothing divine medicine, [indesc] ? into my [sense] spirit [and soul] and sense. Religion's hour The Spirit's Hour * -- the visible suggestion of the vastness and glory of God in Time -- now [The Spirit's hour] -- once reveal'd, Definitely indicated if [nowhere] never again. With Finger on lip -- all silently -- the Untried pointed at. [All] The heavens [as if] all paved with ? it [All silently!] * What a babble indeed + seem'd [our poems and] bibles philosophies + churches [and to the] my Soul in its [almost ?] to the ? les[sose] - these [suggestions] were. The Milky Way as if some superhuman Symphony, some [soulless] Ode of Time and Space disdaining syllable and sound a flash [silent] glance of Deity addressed to the [Soul Spirit] soul, silently. * The indescribable night and stars All silently Far-off and silently * BALANCE S LEDGER FOLIO. SERVICE. July 23 '78 -- The Dawn -- The East --This morning between one & two hours before sunrise -- [was a] the miracle [silently] wrought on [of] the [back]ground: same, [yet entire]; yet of quite different beauty & meaning. The moon well up in the heavens & past her half [was] is shining perfectly. [Venus beams in the east (& well to [the] north) [beams], a [great] white soft-dazzling mass. The air and sky [were clear] of [pure and lucid had have that] pure, [cool] cynical-clear, Minerva-like quality, virgin-cool -- [no] not the weight of sentiment or mystery, or opulence, or passion's ecstasy, indefinable [, like] -- not the Religious [Or] sense, the varied "All distill'd" and sublimated unto one, like the night just described. Every star now clean-cut, showing for just what it is there in the colorless ether. The [different] character of the morning (In very old and primitive ballads, [perhaps there are] I have come across, I have fancied asides or indirections that suggest something of it) The Moon. May 18 '78 [As I] I went to bed early last night, but found myself waked [a] [while after] shortly past midnight & after turning [in bed] a while sleepless and mentally feverish [a while,] I rose [and went] dressed myself sallied forth & walked down the lane that silentest time. It was between 1 and 2 o'clock -- the full moon some three or four hours up [its course] [in the sky] -- a sprinkling of light & less light clouds just easily moves -- Jupiter sparkling bright an hour high in the east -- The great Dipper [high in the] and here and there all over the westward heavens, a random star appearing and [expansively, so slowly] disappearing, so veiled, so clear! [O how] beautifully still, solemn; the air with [the] that delicate perfume of spring -- not at all damp or raw -- at times the round moon [slow] languidly [not] ineffably sweet & fresh & [clear] limpid, but more for the esthetic sense, [all for the emotions] and for [love &] purity, without passion or sentiment. The utterly indescribable East! The morning sky! I have itemized the Night -- but dare I attempt the perfect and cloudless Dawn? .... What subtle tie is this between [the my] one's Soul and the East? Alike -- yet No two days -- no two nights -- no two Eastern shows, or morning skies, alike! emerging in richest esplendor for a few moments, and then partially enveloped again. Far-off a whip-poor =will plied his notes incessantly..... The nocturnal scene - how soon it sooth'd & pacified me!... Then the moon, - is there not something about it, some relation or reminding to the human spirit which no poem, no literature, has yet caught. I gazed long & long. After a while the clouds all clear'd [off,] & as the moon swam slowly [swam along] on she [had] carried, [the most bea] shimmering & shifting those delicate indescribable color-effects of pellucid [blue] blue-green [va] and tawny vapor [shimmering & shifting so delicate, so indescribable], beyond the proudest pomp of sun and day. [*ine 10 '78*] Transcribed and reviewed by contributors participating in the By The People project at crowd.loc.gov.