Content:
Whitman probably drafted this manuscript in the early 1850s as he was composing the first (1855) edition of
Leaves of Grass
. The manuscript fragments of poetry are partial drafts of lines used in the first poem in that edition, eventually titled "Song of Myself." Lines written on the back of this manuscript (uva.00278) are similar in idea to lines in the poem "To One Shortly To Die," first published in the 1860 edition of
Leaves of Grass
.
