In Whitman's Hand
The dalliance of the eagles
|In [full?] clear sight, high in the ample space|
|? I see The rushing contact amp amorous contact|
| of the eagles|
|(The twain—the male and female)|
|The interlocking claws, |Tthe spreading wings,
|The spiral cutting the air together|
|By locking talons held—one mass reliev'd against the sky|
|Swift ^Four wings, gigantic—two beaks— Downward gyrating—splendid ^swift loops—|
| over and over falling, rolling turning, an falling,|
| pausing swift revolving circling, falling|
|Over Abo Close to the river pausing—motionless ? a minute—balanced|
|Then Till tacitly unlocking on slow majest firm pinion, then, she hers, [he ?]|
| his, their separate flight pursuing|
- This manuscript was likely composed in the late 1870s or in 1880.
- Editorial note
- This manuscript is a draft of "The Dalliance of the Eagles," a poem first published in Cope's Tobacco Plant in November 1880.
- The verso of the manuscript leaf is blank.
- Papers of Walt Whitman (MSS 3829) | Clifton Waller Barrett Library of American Literature, Albert H. Small Special Collections Library, University of Virginia.
- Whitman Archive ID