A handwritten poem by American poet Walt Whitman (1819-1892) is up for auction at Bonhams next month.

At the top of the page Whitman writes of his intention to produce a short poem “on the theme of that hour - on Death."

Walt Whitman had one of the most unique voices in American literature

The lines below read: "perhaps / a life of stout toil is over with / over the past not God himself has Power / For what has been has been and I have had my hour."

As the father of transcendentalism, Whitman’s influence on world literature has been enormous.

He’s widely considered the greatest of all American poets.  

This lot is valued at up to $30,000.

There’s also a letter fragment from Spanish conquistador Nuno de Guzman, who was sent to Mexico in 1525 to serve as the governor of the Panuco region.

The appointment was a personal one from King Charles V of Spain.

The king worried that Hernan Cortez, who had led the conquest of Mexico in 1519, was beginning to grow too powerful.

Guzman proved himself a cruel and tyrannical figure. As well as curbing the excesses of the early conquistadors, he enslaved tens of thousands of natives – subjecting them to extraordinarily harsh working conditions.

This text from 1528 refers to a dispute about ownership over a group of slaves and is valued at around $7,000-10,000.

Our fascinating selection of rare manuscripts is available to view here.

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