My Preparations for Visits
Walt Whitman * Track #106 On Specimen Days
Download "My Preparations for Visits"
Album Specimen Days
- #1The Great Unrest of which We are Part
Walt Whitman
- #2Nature and Democracy—Morality
Walt Whitman
- #3Final Confessions—Literary Tests
Walt Whitman
- #4After Trying a Certain Book
Walt Whitman
- #5At Present Writing—Personal
Walt Whitman
- #6Death of Longfellow
Walt Whitman
- #7Starting Newspapers
Walt Whitman
- #8My Native Sand and Salt Once More
Walt Whitman
- #9An Ossianic Night—Dearest Friends
Walt Whitman
- #10A Visit, at the Last, to R. W. Emerson
Walt Whitman
- #11Only a New Ferry Boat
Walt Whitman
- #12A Discovery of Old Age
Walt Whitman
- #13Other Concord Notations
Walt Whitman
- #14Boston Common—More of Emerson
Walt Whitman
- #15Some Old Acquaintances—Memories
Walt Whitman
- #16Millet’s Pictures—Last Items
Walt Whitman
- #17Hot Weather New York
Walt Whitman
- #18Birds—and a Caution
Walt Whitman
- #19Ouster’s Last Rally
Walt Whitman
- #20Samples of my Common-Place Book
Walt Whitman
- #21The Boston of To-Day
Walt Whitman
- #22My Tribute to Four Poets
Walt Whitman
- #23A Couple of Old Friends—A Coleridge Bit
Walt Whitman
- #24A Week’s Visit to Boston
Walt Whitman
- #25Carlyle from American Points of View
Walt Whitman
- #26Death of Thomas Carlyle
Walt Whitman
- #27The Inhabitants—Good Living
Walt Whitman
- #28The St. Lawrence Line
Walt Whitman
- #29Chicoutimi, and Ha-ha Bay
Walt Whitman
- #30The Savage Saguenay
Walt Whitman
- #31Grand Native Growth
Walt Whitman
- #32Capes Eternity and Trinity
Walt Whitman
- #33A Zollverein between the U. S. and Canada
Walt Whitman
- #34Reminiscence of Elias Hicks
Walt Whitman
- #35Sunday with the Insane
Walt Whitman
- #36Edgar Poe’s Significance
Walt Whitman
- #37Jaunting to Canada
Walt Whitman
- #38Loafing in the Woods
Walt Whitman
- #39Seeing Niagara to Advantage
Walt Whitman
- #40A Contralto Voice
Walt Whitman
- #41Beethoven’s Septette
Walt Whitman
- #42A Hint of Wild Nature
Walt Whitman
- #43President Hayes’s Speeches
Walt Whitman
- #44Upon our Own Land
Walt Whitman
- #45An Interviewer’s Item
Walt Whitman
- #46Nights on the Mississippi
Walt Whitman
- #47St. Louis Memoranda
Walt Whitman
- #48The Silent General
Walt Whitman
- #49The Women of the West
Walt Whitman
- #50Prairie Analogies—the Tree Question
Walt Whitman
- #51Mature Summer Days and Night
Walt Whitman
- #52Exposition Building—New City Hall—River-Trip
Walt Whitman
- #53A Fine Afternoon, 4 to 6
Walt Whitman
- #54Swallows on the River
Walt Whitman
- #55Central Park Walks and Talks
Walt Whitman
- #56Two City Areas Certain Hours
Walt Whitman
- #57Hudson River Sights
Walt Whitman
- #58Walter Dumont and his Medal
Walt Whitman
- #59Up the Hudson to Ulster County
Walt Whitman
- #60An Ulster County Waterfall
Walt Whitman
- #61A Yankee Antique
Walt Whitman
- #62Inauguration Ball
Walt Whitman
- #63The Weather—Does it Sympathize with These Times?
Walt Whitman
- #64Wounds and Diseases
Walt Whitman
- #65Death of President Lincoln
Walt Whitman
- #66Female Nurses for Soldiers
Walt Whitman
- #67The Inauguration
Walt Whitman
- #68Attitude of Foreign Governments During the War
Walt Whitman
- #69The Capitol by Gas-Light
Walt Whitman
- #70Southern Escapees
Walt Whitman
- #71A Model Hospital
Walt Whitman
- #72Boys in the Army
Walt Whitman
- #73Burial of a Lady Nurse
Walt Whitman
- #74The Blue Everywhere
Walt Whitman
- #75Gifts—Money—Discrimination
Walt Whitman
- #76Death of a Hero
Walt Whitman
- #77Army Surgeons—Aid Deficiencies
Walt Whitman
- #78A Case from Second Bull Run
Walt Whitman
- #79Items from My Note Books
Walt Whitman
- #80Deserters
Walt Whitman
- #81A New Army Organization fit for America
Walt Whitman
- #82A Yankee Soldier
Walt Whitman
- #83Virginia
Walt Whitman
- #84Summer of 1864
Walt Whitman
- #85Rumors, Changes, Etc.
Walt Whitman
- #86Paying the Bounties
Walt Whitman
- #87Down at the Front II
Walt Whitman
- #88A Silent Night Ramble
Walt Whitman
- #89Spiritual Characters among the Soldiers
Walt Whitman
- #90Hospital Perplexity
Walt Whitman
- #91Soldiers and Talks
Walt Whitman
- #92Hospitals Ensemble
Walt Whitman
- #93Death of a Wisconsin Officer
Walt Whitman
- #94Cattle Droves about Washington
Walt Whitman
- #95Abraham Lincoln
Walt Whitman
- #96Ambulance Processions
Walt Whitman
- #97Heated Term
Walt Whitman
- #98A Cavalry Camp
Walt Whitman
- #99The Most Inspiriting of all War’s Shows
Walt Whitman
- #100Battle of Gettysburg
Walt Whitman
- #101Bad Wounds—the Young
Walt Whitman
- #102Home-Made Music
Walt Whitman
- #103A New York Soldier
Walt Whitman
- #104A Night Battle over a Week Since
Walt Whitman
- #105The Wounded from Chancellorsville
Walt Whitman
- #106My Preparations for Visits
Walt Whitman
- #107Unnamed Remains the Bravest Soldier
Walt Whitman
- #108Back to Washington
Walt Whitman
- #109Patent-Office Hospital
Walt Whitman
- #110An Army Hospital Ward
Walt Whitman
- #111Two Brooklyn Boys
Walt Whitman
- #112A Secesh Brave
Walt Whitman
- #113Sources of Character—Results—1860
Walt Whitman
- #114After First Fredericksburg
Walt Whitman
- #115The White House by Moonlight
Walt Whitman
- #116Fifty Hours Left Wounded on the Field
Walt Whitman
- #117Down at the Front
Walt Whitman
- #118The Stupor Passes—Something Else Begins
Walt Whitman
- #119Hospital Scenes and Persons
Walt Whitman
- #120A Connecticut Case
Walt Whitman
- #121Contemptuous Feeling
Walt Whitman
- #122Plays and Operas too
Walt Whitman
- #123National Uprising and Volunteering
Walt Whitman
- #124Through Eight Years
Walt Whitman
- #125Genealogy—Van Velsor and Whitman
Walt Whitman
- #126Broadway Sights
Walt Whitman
- #127Opening of the Secession War
Walt Whitman
- #128Omnibus Jaunts and Drivers
Walt Whitman
- #129Two Old Family Interiors
Walt Whitman
- #130The Old Whitman and Van Velsor Cemeteries
Walt Whitman
- #131Paumanok, and my Life on it as Child and Young Man
Walt Whitman
- #132Growth—Health—Work
Walt Whitman
- #133Printing Office—Old Brooklyn
Walt Whitman
- #134My First Reading—Lafayette
Walt Whitman
- #135My Passion for Ferries
Walt Whitman
- #136The Maternal Homestead
Walt Whitman
- #137Answer to an Insisting Friend
Walt Whitman
- #138A Happy Hour’s Command
Walt Whitman
- #139Three Years Summ’d Up
Walt Whitman
- #140The Million Dead, Too, Summ’d Up
Walt Whitman
- #141The Real War Will Never Get in the Books
Walt Whitman
- #142Some Specimen Cases
Walt Whitman
- #143Hospital Scenes—Incidents
Walt Whitman
- #144Two Brothers, One South, One North
Walt Whitman
- #145A Glimpse of War’s Hell Scenes
Walt Whitman
- #146Union Prisoners South
Walt Whitman
- #147Battle of Bull Run, July, 1861
Walt Whitman
- #148By Emerson’s Grave
Walt Whitman
- #149Mississippi Valley Literature
Walt Whitman
- #150Earth’s Most Important Stream
Walt Whitman
- #151America’s Characteristic Landscape
Walt Whitman
- #152The Spanish Peaks—Evening on the Plains
Walt Whitman
- #153The Prairies and Great Plains in Poetry
Walt Whitman
- #154A Silent Little Follower—the Coreopsis
Walt Whitman
- #155Unfulfill’d Wants—the Arkansas River
Walt Whitman
- #156I Turn South and then East Again
Walt Whitman
- #157Denver Impressions
Walt Whitman
- #158Art Features
Walt Whitman
- #159The Parks
Walt Whitman
- #160America’s Back-Bone
Walt Whitman
- #161Steam-Power, Telegraphs, Etc.
Walt Whitman
- #162New Scenes—New Joys
Walt Whitman
- #163An Egotistical “Find”
Walt Whitman
- #164An Hour on Kenosha Summit
Walt Whitman
- #165On to Denver—A Frontier Incident
Walt Whitman
- #166Lawrence and Topeka, Kansas
Walt Whitman
- #167Missouri State
Walt Whitman
- #168In the Sleeper
Walt Whitman
- #169Begin a Long Jaunt West
Walt Whitman
- #170Two Hours on the Minnesota
Walt Whitman
- #171Departing of the Big Steamers
Walt Whitman
- #172Thoughts Under an Oak—A Dream
Walt Whitman
- #173A Quintette
Walt Whitman
- #174The Oaks and I
Walt Whitman
- #175A Sun-Bath—Nakedness
Walt Whitman
- #176Distant Sounds
Walt Whitman
- #177Mulleins and Mulleins
Walt Whitman
- #178Full-Starr’d Nights
Walt Whitman
- #179Days at J.B.’s—Turf Fires—Spring Songs
Walt Whitman
- #180The First Spring Day on Chestnut Street
Walt Whitman
- #181Meeting a Hermit
Walt Whitman
- #182Scenes on Ferry and River—Last Winter’s Nights
Walt Whitman
- #183Delaware River—Days and Nights
Walt Whitman
- #184A Civility Too Long Neglected
Walt Whitman
- #185Hours for the Soul
Walt Whitman
- #186Straw-Color’d and other Psyches
Walt Whitman
- #187Wild Flowers
Walt Whitman
- #188A Night Remembrance
Walt Whitman
- #189A Specimen Tramp Family
Walt Whitman
- #190Manhattan from the Bay
Walt Whitman
- #191Human and Heroic New York
Walt Whitman
- #192Happiness and Raspberries
Walt Whitman
- #193Horse-Mint
Walt Whitman
- #194Jaunt up the Hudson
Walt Whitman
- #195Death of William Cullen Bryant
Walt Whitman
- #196Three of Us
Walt Whitman
- #197Bird Whistling
Walt Whitman
- #198The First Frost—Mems
Walt Whitman
- #199Clover and Hay Perfume
Walt Whitman
- #200An Unknown
Walt Whitman
- #201February Days
Walt Whitman
- #202Sundown Lights
Walt Whitman
- #203Three Young Men’s Deaths
Walt Whitman
- #204A Meadow Lark
Walt Whitman
- #205The Common Earth, the Soil
Walt Whitman
- #206An Afternoon Scene
Walt Whitman
- #207Birds and Birds and Birds
Walt Whitman
- #208One of the Human Kinks
Walt Whitman
- #209The Gates Opening
Walt Whitman
- #210A Winter-Day on the Sea-Beach
Walt Whitman
- #211Spring Overtures—Recreations
Walt Whitman
- #212Sea-Shore Fancies
Walt Whitman
- #213In Memory of Thomas Paine
Walt Whitman
- #214Autumn Side-Bits
Walt Whitman
- #215A Two Hours’ Ice-Sail
Walt Whitman
- #216Locusts and Katy-Dids
Walt Whitman
- #217The Sky—Days and Nights—Happiness
Walt Whitman
- #218Crows and Crows
Walt Whitman
- #219Colors—A Contrast
Walt Whitman
- #220November 8, ’76
Walt Whitman
- #221The Lesson of a Tree
Walt Whitman
- #222A July Afternoon by the Pond
Walt Whitman
- #223Sundown Perfume—Quail-Notes—the Hermit Thrush
Walt Whitman
- #224Summer Sights and Indolences
Walt Whitman
- #225Cedar-Apples
Walt Whitman
- #226Bumble-Bees
Walt Whitman
- #227Birds Migrating at Midnight
Walt Whitman
- #228An Early Summer Reveille
Walt Whitman
- #229To the Spring and Brook
Walt Whitman
- #230New Themes Enter’d Upon
Walt Whitman
- #231Entering a Long Farm-Lane
Walt Whitman
- #232A Soldier on Lincoln
Walt Whitman
- #233Convulsiveness
Walt Whitman
- #234Hospitals Closing
Walt Whitman
- #235The Grand Review
Walt Whitman
- #236Typical Soldiers
Walt Whitman
- #237An Interregnum Paragraph
Walt Whitman
- #238Calhoun’s Real Monument
Walt Whitman
- #239No Good Portrait of Lincoln
Walt Whitman
- #240Some Sad Cases Yet
Walt Whitman
- #241Releas’d Union Prisoners from South
Walt Whitman
- #242Western Soldiers
Walt Whitman
- #243The Armies Returning
Walt Whitman
- #244Death of a Pennsylvania Soldier
Walt Whitman
- #245Scene at the Capitol
Walt Whitman
- #246Sherman’s Army Jubilation—its Sudden Stoppage
Walt Whitman
My Preparations for Visits by Walt Whitman
Performed by
Walt WhitmanMy Preparations for Visits Annotated
In my visits to the hospitals I found it was in the simple matter of personal presence, and emanating ordinary cheer and magnetism, that I succeeded and help'd more than by medical nursing, or delicacies, or gifts of money, or anything else. During the war I possess'd the perfection of physical health. My habit, when practicable, was to prepare for starting out on one of those daily or nightly tours of from a couple to four or five hours, by fortifying myself with previous rest, the bath, clean clothes, a good meal, and as cheerful an appearance as possible.