"Once I pass'd through a Populous City" (p. 104). This poem, often cited in support of the theory that Whitman had a love-affair in New Orleans, is shown in the original manuscript (U.P.P., II, p. 102) to have been addressed to a man. Mr. H. B. Binns mentions Whitman's "express desire that the poem be regarded merely in its universal application" (A Life of Walt Whitman, p. 51); since it was not published until 1860, it is possible to argue that, in his desire to celebrate the permanence of human affection as contrasted with other experiences, Whitman chose from his own memories, first, his memory of a "Calamus" relationship, and substituted later a reminiscence of some "Children of Adam" experience, both being equally suitable as illustrations, but the latter more likely to prove poetically effective. As bearing upon this interpretation, compare "Fast-Anchor'd Eternal O Love", published in the same edition as this poem (1860); it contained, until they were dropped from the 1881 edition, two lines whose phraseology is so similar to that of "Once I Pass'd through a Populous City" as to suggest the possibility of a common origin in Whitman's experience:

"Singing what, to the Soul, entirely redeemed her, the faithful one, the prostitute, who detained me when I went to the city;

Singing the song of prostitutes."

"I Heard You Solemn-Sweet Pipes of the Organ" (p. 104). I am indebted to Mr. Ralph Adimari for information concerning the first publication of this poem. Apparently it does not refer, as did "Out of the Rolling Ocean the Crowd", to Whitman's Washington inamorata, for it was first published in the New York Leader, October 12, 1861, as follows:

"Calamus" (pp. 106-125). Cf. Letter LI (p. 964), Letter CLVII (p. 1052), and Letter CLXI, n. (p. 1054). This group of poems has long been the subject of conflicting interpretation, which Whitman's own comments have not always helped to clarify. Some writers see in them plain evidence that Whitman was simply a Uranian. (See Eduard Bertz, Walt Whitman Ein Charakterbild and other writings; W. W. Rivers, Walt Whitman's Anomaly; Ludwig Lewisohn, Expression in America; and Edgar Lee Masters, Whitman.) Others, like George Rice Carpenter (Walt Whitman), and Leon Bazalgette (Walt Whitman) interpret these poems of comradeship purely in their spiritual sense. No evidence has ever been made public which would convict Whitman of homosexual practices, and to classify him psychologically as a simple Uranian raises difficulties in the interpretation of the "Children of Adam" poems, their counterpart, which are as outspoken on the subject of the attraction between man and woman. Havelock Ellis indicates his view, always worthy of respect, by including Whitman in his Intermediate Sex. Jean Catel (Walt Whitman, La Naissance du Poète) seeks to reconcile the two expressions given to the affectionate nature of Whitman by a theory of autoeroticism, a kind of narcissism which employed others, of either sex, as mirrors in whom he could admire himself. The poems which follow certainly contain some esoteric elements, but this is not the place to analyse them. Suffice it to say that it is difficult to believe that any very simple explanation can fit all the facts.

"In Paths Untrodden" (p. 106). A part of an early manuscript of this poem is to be found in the Camden Edition of Whitman's Complete Writings, III, p. 137.

"These I Singing in Spring" (p. 111, l. 11): "a live-oak". Cf. "I Saw in Louisiana a Live-Oak Growing" (p. 118).