Walt Whitman

(My first post.)

WALT WHITMAN

Great American poet, my favourite. A 5th grade teacher, Sister Marie Cordé, at St. Anthony's, had our class memorize a poem by him before Lincoln's birthday "O Captain! My Captain!" Walt Whitman wrote the poem after Abraham Lincoln's assassination. It was neither representative nor one of his best.

This cover from the North American Review, the oldest literary magazine in the US,postmarked New York City 23 October 1885 to Walt Whitman at his final residence 328 Mickle Street (now Boulevard) Camden, New Jersey. Walt was a frequent contributor to the magazine. The cover is franked with the 1 October 1883 2 cent red-brown Washington definitive issue Scott's 210.


Here's a short Poem by Walt:

A Noiseless Patient Spider

A noiseless patient spider,
I mark'd where on a little promontory it stood isolated,
Mark'd how to explore the vacant vast surrounding,
It launche'd forth filament, filament, filament, out of itself,
Ever unreeling them, ever tirelessly speeding them.
And you O my soul where you stand,
Surrounded, detached, in measureless oceans of space,
Ceaselessly musing, venturing, throwing, seeking the spheres to connect them,
Till the bridge you will need be form'd, till the ductle anchor hold,
Till the gossamer thread you fling catch somewhere, O my soul.

Welcome Michael Patrick. That cover makes Walt Whitman a real person, and not someone in the history and literature books.

Michael Patrick to SCF! Probably the best first post I have ever seen. Thank you and I look forward to seeing more of your collection and sharing information. -Jeff