Title: Asia
Creator: Walt Whitman
Date: About 1855 or 1856
Whitman Archive ID: duk.00886
Source: Trent Collection of Whitmaniana, David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Duke 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 features notes and draft lines that are related to a poem published first as "Poem of Salutation" in the 1856 edition of Leaves of Grass and later as "Salut Au Monde!" Whitman's use of the word "tabounshic" is unusual. He used it (spelled "tabounschik") only in the 1855 and 1856 editions of Leaves of Grass in the poem eventually titled "A Song for Occupations." In other respects, however, that poem does not appear to be related to these notes. At one point, this manuscript likely formed part of Whitman's cultural geography scrapbook.
Related item: Another series of draft lines on the back of this leaf were published as part of "Poem of Many in One" in the 1856 edition of Leaves of Grass. See duk.00030.
Contributors to digital file: Andrew Jewell, Kenneth Price, Brett Barney, Zane Zimbelman, Lisa Renfro, Nick Krauter, Nicole Gray, and Kevin McMullen
Asia
The I am a Russ, An arctic sailor traversing I traverse the sea of Kara
A Kamskatkan [drawn?] [on my?] slight‑built sledge, drawn by dogs
The ancient
Hindostanee
with his deeities—
The great old empires of India and
Persia,—their That of Persia and
its
expeditions and
conquests.—
The Sanskrit—the ancient poems
and laws
The idea of gods
incarnated by their avatars
in men and women
The huge falling of the waters of
the Ganges over the
peaks high rim
of
Sankara
The poems descended safely to this day
from poets of three thousand
years ago.
It is indeed a strange voice!—