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The most superb beauties are

About This Item

  • Title: The most superb beauties are
  • Date: Before or early in 1855
  • Creator(s): Walt Whitman
  • Whitman Archive ID: duk.00304
  • 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 the manuscripts, see our statement of editorial policy.
  • Editorial note: These notes, or possibly trial lines, expressing the idea that beauty is found in what is "cheapest" and "commonest," may be connected to the following line in the first poem of the 1855 Leaves of Grass, ultimately titled "Song of Myself": "What is commonest and cheapest and nearest and easiest is Me." The date is most likely before or early in 1855.
  • Cite this page: Whitman, Walt. "The most superb beauties are." The Walt Whitman Archive. Gen. ed. Matt Cohen, Ed Folsom, & Kenneth M. Price. Accessed 08 May 2025. <http://www.whitmanarchive.org>.
  • Source File: duk.00304.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
  [begin leaf 1 recto] The most superb beauties and are in the cheapest The most bdivinest blessings are in the commonest bestowed every where, and the ^most superbest beauties are the cheapest, the world over.—   [begin leaf 1 verso]
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