"Prayer of Columbus" (p. 381). First published in Harper's Magazine, March 1874, where it was accompanied by the following explanatory note:

"It was near the close of his indomitable and pious life — on his last voyage when nearly 70 years of age — that Columbus, to save his two remaining ships from foundering in the Caribbean Sea in a terrible storm, had to run them ashore on the Island of Jamaica where, laid up for a long and miserable year — 1503 — he was taken very sick, had several relapses, his men revolted, and death seem'd daily imminent; though he was eventually rescued, and sent home to Spain to die, unrecognized, neglected and in want. . . . It is only ask'd, as preparation and atmosphere for the following lines, that the bare authentic facts be recall'd and realized, and nothing contributed by the fancy. See, the Antillean Island, with its florid skies and rich foliage and scenery, the waves beating the solitary sands, and the hulls of the ships in the distance. See, the figure of the great Admiral, walking the beach, as a stage, in this sublimest tragedy — for what tragedy, what poem, so piteous and majestic as the real scene? — and hear him uttering — as his mystical and religious soul surely utter'd, the ideas following — perhaps, in their equivalents, the very words." (Inclusive Edition, Leaves, p.682.)

Whitman wrote to Pete Doyle concerning this poem: "I am told that I have colored it with thoughts of myself — very likely." (Calamus, p. 145.)

"The Sleepers" (p. 383). Though on the surface this poem is an attempt to picture the mind in sleep (see Bucke, p. 171), it serves also as a key to Whitman's poetic method (see Holloway, pp. 123 ff.).

p. 384, l. 9: "He with his palm . . . of the husband". These phrases were on the Osgood list of expurgations.

p. 387, §4: The reference here is to the Mexico, wrecked off Hempstead, Long Island, in 1840. (See "Paumanok, and my Life on it as Child and Young Man." (p.538).

p. 390, ll. 21-22: "Perfect and clean . . . and plumb". These lines were on the Osgood list of expurgations.

"Transpositions" (p. 392). Part of the much longer poem "Respondez!" from the 1856 edition (p. 511).

"To think of Time" (p. 392). Cf. "Crossing Brooklyn Ferry" (p. 147).

"Darest Thou Now O Soul" (p. 399). First published in the Broadway Magazine (London), October 1868. This poem has been set to music by Rutland Boughton, G.W.Chadwick, Harper Seed and Eva Ruth Spalding.

"Whispers of Heavenly Death" (p. 399). First published in Broadway Magazine (London), October 1868.

"Chanting the Square Deific" (p. 400). To Daniel G. Brinton, Whitman commented on this poem as follows: "It would be hard to give the idea mathematical expression: the idea of spiritual equity — of spiritual substance: the four-square entity — the north, south, east, west of the constituted universe (even the soul universe) — the four sides as sustaining the universe (the superntural something): this is not the poem, but the idea back of the poem or below the poem. I am lame enough trying to explain it in other words — the idea seems to fit its own words better than mine. You see, at the time the poem wrote itself: now I am trying to write it." (Traubel, I, p. 156.) See also Leon Howard, "A Critique of Whitman's Transcendentalism" (Modern Language Notes, January 1931).

"That Music Always Round Me" (p. 405). Cf. "The Mystic Trumpeter" (p. 421), and "Proud Music of the Storm" (p. 366).

"Quicksand Years" (p. 404). For manuscript versions of this poem differing from the text, see Glicksberg, pp. 125-126.

"A Noiseless Patient Spider" (p. 406). First published in Broadway Magazine (London), October 1868. For an early manuscript of this poem, see U.P.P., II, p.93.