Title: And I have discovered them
Creator: Walt Whitman
Date: Between 1850 and 1855
Whitman Archive ID: duk.00006
Source: Trent Collection of Whitmaniana, David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Duke University. For a description of the editorial rationale behind our treatment of manuscripts, see our statement of editorial policy.
Editorial note: Whitman probably drafted this manuscript in the early 1850s as he was composing the first (1855) edition of Leaves of Grass. The manuscript includes drafts of lines used in the first poem in that edition, eventually titled "Song of Myself."
Related item: This leaf is held with another small leaf in plastic casing. The prose drafted on the back of these and several other related manuscript leaves includes ideas and phrases that resemble those used in "Unnamed Lands," a poem published first in the 1860 edition of Leaves of Grass. See duk.00003.
Contributors to digital file: Nicole Gray, Andrew Jewell, Brett Barney, and Kenneth M. Price
And I have discovered them by night and by
day;
And every one is signed by His Name;
And I leave them where they are, for I know that
others will punctually come as long as I live,
And afterward [wherever I am?] they will be forwarded to me
144
[cut away]