About this Item

Title: I am not content now

Creator: Walt Whitman

Date: Between 1850 and 1855

Whitman Archive ID: duk.00026

Source: Trent Collection of Whitmaniana, David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Duke University. Transcribed from digital images of the original. For a description of the editorial rationale behind our treatment of manuscripts, see our statement of editorial policy.

Editorial note: This manuscript was probably written in the early 1850s, as Whitman was composing the first (1855) edition of Leaves of Grass. The ideas and phrasing of the manuscript are similar to those used in the first poem of that edition, eventually titled "Song of Myself." The manuscript has been mounted and framed with a portrait, so an image of the back of the leaf is not currently available.