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Whitman Archive Title: To be at all
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Whitman Archive ID: duk.00001
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Repository ID: MS q 2
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Repository: Catalog of the Walt Whitman Literary Manuscripts in the Trent Collection of Whitmaniana, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina
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Date: Between 1850 and 1855
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Genre: poetry
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Physical Description: 1 leaf, handwritten
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Content:
This manuscript contains a draft of the following lines in the first poem of the 1855 edition of
Leaves of Grass
, a poem that was later titled "Song of Myself": "To be in any form, what is that? / If nothing lay more developed the quahaug and its callous shell were enough. / Mine is no callous shell, / I have instant conductors all over me whether I pass or stop, / They seize every object and lead it harmlessly through me" (1855, p. 32). On the
reverse side (duk.00883) are notes, trial lines, and lists of words and phrases related
to what eventually became sections 24 and 49 of "Song of Myself" and to lines included in "The Sleepers." Both poems were first published in the 1855 first edition of
Leaves of Grass.
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