Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Literary Manuscripts
  3. Manuscript Catalogs
  4. med.ead01_med.00909

I entertain all the aches

  • Whitman Archive Title: I entertain all the aches
  • Whitman Archive ID: med.00909
  • Repository: Catalog of Unlocated Walt Whitman Manuscripts
  • Date: Before or early in 1855
  • Genre: poetry, prose
  • Physical Description: number of leaves unknown, handwritten
  • View Images: currently unavailable
  • Content: Phrasing and imagery in this manuscript are reminiscent of phrases and ideas Whitman used in the first poem in the 1855 edition of Leaves of Grass , ultimately titled "Song of Myself." Compare these lines from that edition: "I lean and loafe at my ease . . . . observing a spear of summer grass" and "Wherever the human heart beats with terrible throes out of its ribs" (1855, pp. 13, 36). Because the manuscript has not been located it is difficult to speculate on the circumstances of its composition, but it is possible that it was written in the early 1850s as Whitman was preparing materials for the first edition of Leaves of Grass .
View All Works
Back to top