The Walt Whitman Archive
In Whitman's Hand
Manuscripts
About this Item
Title: To the year 1889
Creator: Walt Whitman
Date: Late 1888 or very early 1889
Whitman Archive ID: yal.00007
Source: Yale Collection of American Literature, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library. 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: "To the Year 1889" was published first on January 5, 1889, in the Critic. The poem was later retitled "To the Pending Year." This manuscript was probably written near the end of 1888 or in the first few days of 1889, shortly before the poem was published.
Contributors to digital file: Nicole Gray, Nick Krauter, Lisa Renfro, Andy Jewell, Zane Zimbelman, Kenneth Price, and Brett Barney
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To the year 1889.
Have I no ^weapon‑word for thee—some message
brief
and fierce?
Have I fought out ^and
done indeed the battle? wholly?
is
there no shot left,
For all thy affectations, lisps, scorns, ^manifold silliness?
Nor for myself—my own rebellious self [illegible] in thee?
# two leadsDown, down, proud gorge—tho' choking thee,
Thy bearded throat and high-borne forehead to the
gutter,
Crouch low thy neck to eleemosynary gifts.
Walt Whitman
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![[Page image: https://whitmanarchive.org/manuscripts/figures/yal.00007.002.jpg]](https://whitmanarchive.org/manuscripts/figures/yal.00007.002.jpg)