It were unworthy a live man to pray

Whitman Archive Title: It were unworthy a live man to pray
Whitman Archive ID: duk.00162
Repository ID: MS q 203
Repository: Catalog of the Walt Whitman Literary Manuscripts in the Trent Collection of Whitmaniana, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina
Date: Before or early in 1855
Genre: poetry, prose
Physical Description: 1 leaf, handwritten
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Content: An early scrap of prose material similar to parts of "Song of Myself," which first appeared as the opening poem in Leaves of Grass (1855). The manuscript's final three lines may have contributed to what became section 32, in which Whitman describes wanting to "live awhile with animals" because "[t]hey do not sweat and whine about their condition, / They do not lie awake in the dark and weep for their sins." These lines were present in the first version of the poem in 1855, suggesting a date of before or early in that year.