In Whitman's Hand

Manuscripts

About this Item

Title: The dalliance of the eagles

Creator: Walt Whitman

Date: Late 1870s or 1880

Whitman Archive ID: uva.00092

Source: Papers of Walt Whitman (MSS 3829), Clifton Waller Barrett Library of American Literature, Albert H. Small Special Collections Library, University of Virginia. 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 "The Dalliance of the Eagles," a poem first published in Cope's Tobacco Plant in November 1880. The manuscript was likely written in the late 1870s or in 1880.

Contributors to digital file: Nicole Gray, Andy Jewell, Kenneth Price, Brett Barney, Nick Krauter, and Stephen Boykewich



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[Page image: https://whitmanarchive.org/manuscripts/figures/uva.00092.001.jpg]

The dalliance of the eagles

In [full?] clear sight, high in the ample space

? I see The rushing contact amp amorous contact
of the eagles

(The twain—the male and female)

The interlocking claws, Tthe spreading wings,

The spiral cutting the air together

By locking talons held—one mass reliev'd against the sky

Swift ^Four wings, gigantic—two beaks— Downward gyrating—splendid ^swift loops—
over and over falling, rolling turning, an falling,
pausing swift revolving circling, falling

Over Abo Close to the river pausing—motionless ? a minute—balanced
motionless

Then Till tacitly unlocking on slow majest firm pinion, then, she hers, [he?]
his, their separate flight pursuing


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[Page image: https://whitmanarchive.org/manuscripts/figures/uva_jc.00048.jpg]




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