About this Item

Title: It seems to me

Creator: Walt Whitman

Date: Between 1847 and 1855

Whitman Archive ID: duk.00302

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Editorial note: Edward Grier dates this manuscript to between 1847 and 1855 (Notebooks and Unpublished Prose Manuscripts [New York: New York University Press, 1984], 1:157). Whitman's admonition here to avoid similes and ornament in poetry is possibly related to passages in the prose preface to the 1855 edition of Leaves of Grass, which express similar sentiments. The manuscript has been pasted to a backing sheet along with three other manuscript scraps, most likely by a collector or archivist.