Do you ask me | Whitman Archive

About This Item

Title: Do you ask me
Date: Between 1850 and 1870
Creator(s): Walt Whitman
Whitman Archive ID: med.00730
Source: The transcription presented here is derived from Walt Whitman, Notebooks and Unpublished Prose Manuscripts, ed. Edward F. Grier (New York: New York University Press, 1984), 208. Grier based his text on Walt Whitman's Workshop, ed. Clifton J. Furness (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1928), 45. The location of this manuscript is unknown. For a description of the editorial rationale behind our treatment of the manuscripts, see our statement of editorial policy.
Editorial note: Because the manuscript has not been located it is difficult to speculate on the circumstances or date of its composition. The manuscript's language and phrasing resembles that of the early editions of Leaves of Grass, so it is possible that it was written in the 1850s or 1860s.
Cite this page: Whitman, Walt. "Do you ask me." The Walt Whitman Archive. Gen. ed. Matt Cohen, Ed Folsom, & Kenneth M. Price. Accessed 21 April 2026. <http://www.whitmanarchive.org>.
Source File: med.00730.xml (TEI)

Key

Textual Feature	Appearance
Overwritten	brown with strikethrough
Added inline	purple with double underline
Uncertain	gray with wavy underline
Supplied from another source	turquoise with brackets
Metamark	green with triple underline
Long deletion	gray background with top and bottom border

Do you ask me what are my own particular dangers and complaints—what is taken that belongs to me—I complain not of myself—What have I to complain of for myself—Everything is mine that I want, and I know of nothing to be had at all which I could not work for and get.