Skip to main content
-
Whitman Archive Title: Lofty sirs
-
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00387
-
Repository: Catalog of the Walt Whitman Literary Manuscripts in The Charles E. Feinberg Collection of the Papers of Walt Whitman, 1839-1919, Library of Congress, Washington, DC.
-
Box: 31
-
Folder: before 1855, "I Am a Born Democrat," draft
-
Series: Literary File
-
Date: Between 1840 and 1855
-
Genre: prose
-
Physical Description: 1 leaf, handwritten
-
View Images:
1
-
Content:
Edward Grier concludes that this manuscript was likely written before 1855 because of its similarity to several of the notebooks that Whitman wrote from that period (
Notebooks and Unpublished Prose Manuscripts
[New York: New York University Press, 1984], 6:2110). Ideas in this manuscript are similar to ideas in the first poem in the 1855 edition of
Leaves of Grass
, eventually titled "Song of Myself," and lines and phrases from the manuscript appear in another manuscript that may have contributed to the poem eventually titled "Song of Myself": see "I know many beautiful things" (tex.00031.html). The tone of the statements is also consistent with Whitman's early journalistic and editorial persona. Ideas and words from this manuscript are also similar to ideas and words that appeared in the preface to the 1855
Leaves of Grass
. There is also a chance this manuscript relates to language in a Whitman-authored review of the 1855 edition of
Leaves of Grass
, titled "Walt Whitman and His Poems," originally published in the
United States Review.
An image of the reverse of this manuscript is currently unavailable.
View All Works
