HARNED / WHITMAN Box 1 Folder 8 Manuscripts POETRY FILE "Thou Orb Aloft Full-Dazzling"  1881 (L.C. 29)*29 Rough draft of THOU ORB ALOFT FULL-DAZZLING 1881
2 p. on 2 1. (4 scraps pasted together to form 2 pieces).
23 x 19 cm. Holograph, in pencil on brown paper with corrections
and trial titles in pencil and ink.
First published in the seventh edition of Leaves of Grass
(1881).

From Noon to Starry
Thou orb aloft
[? Change to Dawn*] - Sun-up.   C
A. seashore Invocation [Noon]   ? in the
in October Su
Thou [Sun] orb aloft full = dazzling!
Thou hot [October noon] [Meridean] S. tempering
breeze - flooding + [gray beach sand] mostly [gray bunch sand, the] with sheeny light the gray bea
For [The with] siblant, near sea [the] [and] with vistas far,
[the] [and] foam, [and odors and] and the tawny
streaks and shades, and spreading blue;
Before I chant the rest a time
first first you O Sun

[*summer innoation*]

2 Hear me, Illustrious! 
Thy Cover me, [O noon day Sun] - for always I
have loved thee;
Even as basking babe - then happy boy, alone 
by some wood-edge - thy touching - distant 
beams enough;
Or man matured, or, young or old -- as now
to [thine] Thee I [bend] [?ch] my fires, ( -I raise my wish, my song: [my voice], invocek,

(Thou canst not with thy dumbness me deceive,
I know before the fitting Man all Nature melts ? yields
Though answering not in words, the skies, trees, f
his voice -- and - as thou O Sun
[*10*]Thou that impartially emboldest all - not only [globes] continents and seas,
[And] As for thy throes, thy perturbations, sudden breaks
& shafts of flame gigantic
I understand them all - I know those flames those
perturbations well)
[O Noon Day! Those]
[Hear me October noon]
[Hear me, October Noon! and with thy heat]
Thou that [would] with heat and splendid light
[Thy light oer all]
O'er cities with their streets - o'er myriad farms
O'er Mississippis endless course - o'er Texas [ample]
grassy plains, - Kanada's woods
O'er all the globe [that spinning in space,] that turns
its fase to thee; spinning in space.
[Touch specially this Book] -- Thou that to [wheat] grapes
Mellow these leaves and weeds and little wild flowers givst thyself thyself so liberally -- shed, shed thyself on me
and mine!
[Infuse thyself if] Fase thyself here -- with but a fleeting ray out of thy
Touch specially this Book, million millions, my chant These lines
Nor only launch thy subtle dazzle and thy [subtle]
strength for these.
Prepare the later afternoon [for] of me myself -- [??]
lengthening shadows.
Prepare my starry [nights?]



Thou that turns its false to thee; spring in space, thou that to [???] 
Willow and weeds and little wild flowers givist thyself s liberally.
these [?] leaves -- shed, shed thyself on me
[Infuse theyself] Fase thyself here -- with