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leaf 1 recto

Out from Behind this Mask.

small type (On an engraved head, a Portrait 'looking
at you.')

Out from behind this mask,

This general curtain of the face, con-

tain'd in me for me, in you for

you, in each for each,

(Tragedies, sorrows, songs—laughter and

tears—O heaven!

The passionate, teeming play this cur-

tain hid!)

This glaze of God's serenest, purest sky,

This film of Satan's seething pit,

This Soul's geography's map—this lim-

itless, small continent—this sound-

less sea;

Out of the folded convolutions of this

globe,

This subtler astronomic orb than sun

or moon—than Jupiter, Venus, Mars,

This condensation of the Universe—nay, here

the real Universe—here the Idea—all

in this mystic handful wrapt;

From these to emanate, to you, whoe'er

you are,

These burin'd eyes—a Look.

Walt Whitman.

Date: This manuscript was probably composed in 1876 shortly before the poem was published.

Editorial note

"Out from Behind This Mask" was published first on February 19, 1876 in the New York Tribune and, later that same year, in Two Rivulets. The poem was written in response to an engraving by William J. Linton based on a photograph of Whitman taken by George C. Potter in about 1871.

The verso of the manuscript leaf is blank.

Notes written on manuscript

In top margin, in unknown hand: 1/8.

Location: Out from Behind this Mask | Boston Public Library.