The Walt Whitman Archive
In Whitman's Hand
Manuscripts
About this Item
Title: Proudly the flood comes in
Creator: Walt Whitman
Date: About 1885
Whitman Archive ID: yal.00052
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: This manuscript is a draft of "Proudly the Flood Comes In," first published as part of "Fancies at Navesink" in Nineteenth Century in August 1885. It was probably composed in 1885, shortly before the poem's publication. On the back of the leaf is a printed advertisement with the table of contents for Whitman's book Drum Taps. The contents listed include some poetry titles that Whitman never included in the published volume or any of the editions of Leaves of Grass.
Contributors to digital file: Nicole Gray, Kenneth Price, Brett Barney, Nick Krauter, Lisa Renfro, Stacey Berry, and Ashley Price
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![[Page image: https://whitmanarchive.org/manuscripts/figures/yal.00052.001.jpg]](https://whitmanarchive.org/manuscripts/figures/yal.00052.001.jpg)
Proudly the flood comes in
3
Proudly the flood comes in,
shouting, foaming, advancing
Long it ? holds at the high,
with
bosom broad outswelling;
All throbs, dilates—the farms,
woods, the streets of cities,
the
^—the
workmen at their
work.
Mainsails, and topsails, and jibs
appear in the offing—steamers
with pennants of smoke—
and under the
noonday
forenoon
sun
Where my gaze as now sweeps ocean river and bay
? Freighted with human lives,
gaily
the outward bound, gaily the
inward bound
Where my gaze as now sweeps ocean river and bay
Flaunting from many a spar
the flag I love.
Where my gaze ^
as now sweeps oceanriver and bay.
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![[Page image: https://whitmanarchive.org/manuscripts/figures/yal.00052.002.jpg]](https://whitmanarchive.org/manuscripts/figures/yal.00052.002.jpg)