FEINBERG/WHITMAN LITERARY FILE Prose "Comment on Leaves of Grass" (undated) A. MS. draft Box 36 Folder 6 It is not that when [compared to] matched with other verse and tested [compared to other poems] by the ordinary intellectual or esthetic [? lo___asments] they compare favorably [those poems] with that verse - probably, [in those respects] by those tests,[? indeed] they do not equal the best [of them][it] poems. But [in] the impalpable atmosphere [that] which every page of Leaves of Grass has sprung from, and [been formed in and] which it exhales forever, makes [the] a spell, [the] a fascination to one [co] capable of appreciating it, that certainly belongs to no poet, and no poem, ever yet known. see notes Aug 7 1888 633 1888 7 August Comment on Leaves of Grass: A.MS. (1 p[. 112 1/2 x 20 1/2 cms.) Written in ink on a piece of stationery, torn off at the bottom, with Traubel's notation in the lower corner (see notes Aug 7 1888), 104 words: It is not that when [compared to] matched with other verse and tested [Compared to other poems] by the ordinary intellectual or esthetic [comparisons] lineaments(?), [they overtop these poems] they compare favorably with that verse: probably [in those] by those [respects] tests, indeed, they do not equal the best [of them][it] poems. But [in ]the impalpable atmosphere [that] which every page of [Leaves of Grass] has sprung from, and [been formed in, and] which it exhales forever, makes [the] a spell, [the] a fascina[te]tion to one [?so] capable of appreciating it, that certainly belongs to no poet, and no poem, ever yet known. Transcribed and reviewed by contributors participating in the By The People project at crowd.loc.gov.