FEINBERG/WHITMAN    LITERARY FILE   Prose "A Backward Glare O'er Travel'd Roads (June 1885) 
Box 34   Folder 3                                                                 A.MS.draft
Includes verso letter from George Weaver, June 13, 1885289

13 June 
1885 A Backward Glance o'er Travel'd Roads:  paragraph. A.MS.

(1p. 20 1/2 x 12 1/2 cm.)

Written in pencil, with a correction in ink, on the back of a 
discarded letter ('Albany June 13/85 Mr. Walt Whitman   Dear Sir:
Will you kindly favor me with your Autograph on card enclosed and 
greatly oblige   Very Truly Yours   Geo. Weaver') on lined stationery, 
about 100 words: 

   [I dare not] Let me not dare here or any where to attempt
any [statement or] definition of Poetry, [its -- or] nor [answering] 
answer the question What it is:--  Like Religion, Love, Nature, 
while [the] those terms are indispensable, and we all give a 
sufficiently definite meaning to them yet the same as in [there]
their cases, [probably perhaps as for them] no definition that has 
ever been made sufficiently encloses [them] the name Poetry nor
can any rule [possibly] made or convention ever so absolutely
obtain but some great exception may arise and [resistlessly break]
(???)290
and de   nate [?] overturn it disregard it 

Final paragraph on p. 47, 'A Backward Glance o'er Travel'd Roads'
Complete Works, Vol. 3, reads:

   Let me not dare, here or anywhere, for my own purposes, or 
any purposes, to attempt the definition of Poetry, nor answer
the question what it is. Like Religion, Love, Nature, while
those terms are indispensable, and we all give a sufficiently 
accurate meaning to them, in my opinion no definition that has
ever been made sufficiently enclosed the name Poetry; nor can
any rule of convention ever so absolutely obtain but some great
exception may arise and disregard and overturn it.Let me not dare
[I dare not]  here or anywhere to attempt
any [statement or] definition 
of Poetry, [its - or answering] nor answer
the question What it is.
Like Religion Love 
Nature, while [the] those terms
are indespensible and we all
give a sufficiently, definite
[meaning] to them yet the same as in their [there] cases
[probably] [perhaps as for there] no definition
that has ever been made
sufficiently encloses [them] the name Poetry 
nor can any rule [possibly]
[made] or contribution ever so
absolutely obtain but some, great 
exception may arise and [resistlessly]
[break through,] disregard and [dismantle]  overturn itAlbany June 13/85
Mr. Walt Whitman
Dear Sir
Will you kindly
favor me with your Autograph
on card enclosing and 
greatly oblige
Very Truly Yours
Geo. Weaver