Revising Himself: Walt Whitman and Leaves of Grass
Walt Whitman (1819-1892) to Abraham Paul Leech (1815-1886), September 9, 1840

. . . my purgatory here is just finishing—In a few days more I shall be unbound and unloosed—

. . .'O how my spirit springs and grows elastic at the idea of leaving this diabolical, and most particularly cursed locality!

. . . old school-room, dirty-faced urchins, and moth eaten desk, I bid ye all a long farewell