The Walt Whitman Archive
In Whitman's Hand
Manuscripts
About this Item
Title: Sail out for good? for aye, O mystic yacht!
Creator: Walt Whitman
Date: 1890 or 1891
Whitman Archive ID: bos.00003
Source: From the The Alice and Rollo G. Silver Collection in the Special Collections at Boston University. Transcribed from digital images of the original. For a description of the editorial rationale behind our treatment of manuscripts, see our statement of editorial policy.
Editorial note: This manuscript is a draft of "Sail Out for Good, Eidólon Yacht!," which was published first in Lippincott's Magazine in March, 1891, with "Sounds of the Winter," "The Unexpress'd," and "After the Argument" under the general title of "Old-Age Echoes." Whitman probably composed this manuscript shortly before the poem's publication.
Related item: The back of the manuscript leaf is an opened envelope, postmarked June 1890, glued to another scrap.
Notes written on manuscript: On leaf 1 verso, in unknown hand: "Good bye My Fancy | Sail out for Good Etc | Page 7—Good Bye My Fancy"
Contributors to digital file: Nick Krauter, Lisa Renfro, Ashley Price, Nicole Gray, Andy Jewell, Kenneth Price, Brett Barney, and Kirsten Clawson
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![[Page image: https://whitmanarchive.org/manuscripts/figures/bos.00003.001.jpg]](https://whitmanarchive.org/manuscripts/figures/bos.00003.001.jpg)
Sail forth out for good ? for aye, ? O mystic yacht! of me
Heave the anchor short,
Raise main-sail and jib—steer out forth, ? for aye
O little white-hull'd sloop,—now for the truly to ? speed take me truly really
on to deep waters
Now, now to thy divinest venture
(I will not call it my our concluding voyage,
[illegible][paper glued]
But outset and sure entrance to the truest,
best, maturest,)
In perfect faith—Depart ^ for good! ! ^depart ^from ? solid earth——no more returning
to these shores,
Now, ^henceforth starting on now, for good, upon thy our great divinest ? infinite
venture sail! sailing, starting,
Spurning all yet known ports, seas,
grav-
itation
Sail forth out, in perfect faith ^for good for aye O mystic yacht of me.
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![[Page image: https://whitmanarchive.org/manuscripts/figures/bos.00003.002.jpg]](https://whitmanarchive.org/manuscripts/figures/bos.00003.002.jpg)