A terrible day & night | Whitman Archive

Whitman Archive Title: A terrible day & night
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00097
Repository: Catalog of the Walt Whitman Literary Manuscripts in the George S. Hellman Collection, The Library of Congress
Date: 1869–1876
Genre: prose, poetry
Physical Description: 1 leaf, handwritten; printed
View Images: 1 | 2
Content: Comprised of a clipping featuring text reprinted from the chapter "Triumph of the Wing. The Frigate Bird" in Jules Michelet's The Bird and a printed copy of Whitman's "To the Man-of-War-Bird," both of which have been pasted to the back of a letter fragment that Whitman received from T. W. H. Rolleston. This manuscript includes prose notes in Whitman's hand. These notes describe the basic narrative structure of "The Man-of-War-Bird," a poem published in the London Anthenæum (1 April 1876). Reprinted as "Thou Who Hast Slept All Night Upon the Storm" in the Philadelphia Progress (16 November 1878) and as "To the Man-of-War-Bird" in Leaves of Grass (1881–1882 and 1891–1892). As Whitman acknowledged when it appeared in the Progress , the poem owes much to Michelet's work, particularly to the English translation of The Bird, first published in 1868.