FEINBERG/WHITMAN                         LITERARY FILE
Box 36     Folder 69

Prose "Twilight Whisperings" (undated).        A. Ms. draft.

911

Twilight Whisperings: Songs at Early Candle=Light: prose.

A.MS. (4p. 17 x 9½ (3), 16 x 13½ cm.)

Written in pencil, corrected in ink [*title and few changes in red ink,] last page and half entirely in ink, on three pages cut from a notebook or pad and fourth page pale tan sheet, all verses blank,    70, 84, 61, 58 words (=273):

?  Twilight Whisperings
Charity
? Songs at Early Candle=Light
The soft delicious [hour] time between sunset and dark--hours for the [spirit] Soul, for love, for gossip, for the perfect tete-a-tete (as now [*Reader dear] between You and Me.) How man things are [just right right] [*or sung said at this hour] full of [sw] sweet[est] [deepest] meaning and significance, yet [that] would be shallow, perhaps painful, at any other. /
(over)

912
* curiously [self] writes itself[,] from, & looks back on, its own 

Of late I have been [dwelling] making much [on] of this part of the past--day--
--the evening
-[this] hour 
fully alive yet so restful, so nutritious

At vacancy with Nature, Acceptive and at Ease
The active, splendid, vehement [day] stimulus of the sun  is past, and done.
Without fear, without the least unwillingness, the healthy Soul
(alas, why should that be so rare?) flouts upon purer ether--*confronts 
the unknown, the Afterwards /

[*Provenance: Thos. H. Harned, 
Cornelius Weygandt.*]
 
  If there has been any perturbation, or [blowing] noisy wind during the
day, it subsides and leaves the twilight calm still and quiet

  The sick are always apt to be [as] easier -- the fever, the racking
pain, the tense nerves, now lull and moderate.

  In the Secession War, in Washington, I got so that I often
went round at this hour through [in] /

the huge Army hospitals [at this time hour, t], --a strange, spiritual
[quite] indescribable experience [quite Quite] often --of late, [the] solitary evenings,
[my so] the same special events, [and persons] talks. glimpses, persons, of 
those occasions, [are] resume themselves to me, like the misty passing 
of Ossian's departing friends, or the sounds of his wind-struck harp. /



*Curiously self writes itself.
from, & looks back on
its own past - 
Of late I have been 
[Dwelling] Making much [on] of this
the very hour
Part of the day - fully
alive yet so restful,
so nutritious
At vacancy with Nature,
Acceptive and at ease
The active, splendid, vehement
[Day] stimulus of the sun is past. [and done.]
Without fear, without the
least unwillingness. the 
healthy Soul (alas, why should
this be so rare?) floats
how purer ether *confronts
the unknown the
Afterward


If there has been any
perturbation or [blowing] noisy
wind during the day. It sub-
sides and leaves the 
twilight calm still and quiet
The sick are always
apt to be [as]
easier - the fever
the racking pain
the tense nerves
lull and moderate.
In the Secession War, in Washington
I got so that
after I went round at this hour through

The huge Army Hospitals
[at this time, hour.] a strange,
spiritual, often indescribable 
experience, - & of late, [the]
solitary evenings, the 
special events, and [persons],
talks, glimpses, persons, of 
those occasions, resume
themselves to me, like the
misty passing of Ossian's
departed friends, or the sound of
his lover - struck harp.

? Twighlight Whisperings
? Songs at Early Candle Light

The soft delicious
hour between sunset
and dark - hours for
the [spirit] soul, for love, for
gossip, for the perfect
tete-a-tete (as now
between you and me.)
How many things 
said [or sung] at this hour are
[just right and] full of
[the] sweet[est] [deepest] meaning
and significance
[that] yet would be shallow,
perhaps painful, at any other.


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