James Merrill's Poetry Manuscripts

Merrill included these manuscripts in the file of "The Thousand and Second Night" papers he sent to Washington University Libraries. Some of these manuscripts are more clearly related than others to the completed poem. For example, Manuscript 1 is a draft from "The Broken Home." Manuscript 8 seems related to Merrill's work on his poem "Time," which also appears in Nights and Days; and the city descriptions in 3 and 4 seem related to Merrill's descriptions of Istanbul in the completed poem. 

The concept of  "love without an object" in Manuscripts 2 and 9 appears in many mystical traditions. For example, this line from a poem by Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi, a Persian poet and Sufi master (b. 1207): “A love with no object is a true love." Manuscript 2 contains a note in the right margin: "1002nd Night." Manuscript 9 contains lines ("Lost friends . . .  I bless you") that were worked into the "Love. Warmth." poem. Manuscript 10 contains a draft letter to Harold Moss about the publication of the poem in The New Yorker.