Title: I cross'd the Nevadas
Creator: Walt Whitman
Date: About 1865
Whitman Archive ID: yal.00009
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: The lines on this manuscript, apparently from either a late draft or a presentation copy, are from the poem "Rise O Days from Your Fathomless Deeps," first published in Drum-Taps. Whitman most likely wrote this manuscript in 1865, the year he published Drum-Taps and the year he met Byron Sutherland, a young soldier, whose name is written on the back of the leaf. Sutherland sent the poet a letter from Corry, Pennsylvania in September 1865.
Related item: On the back of this leaf Whitman wrote the names and addresses of Byron Sutherland and Mrs. Annie Stowe.
Contributors to digital file: Nicole Gray, Nick Krauter, Lisa Renfro, Andy Jewell, Kenneth Price, Brett Barney, and Stephen Boykewich
I cross'd the Nevadas, I cross'd the
plateaus,
I ascended the towering rocks along the
Pacific, I sail'd out to sea,
I sail'd through the storm, I was
re-
fresh'd
by the storm,
I watch'd with joy the threatening maws
of the waves,
I mark'd the white combs where they
career'd so high curling over,
I heard the wind piping, I saw the
black clouds,