Are the prostitutes nothing

About This Item

Title: Are the prostitutes nothing
Date: Between 1850 and 1855
Creator(s): Walt Whitman
Whitman Archive ID: duk.00889
Source: Trent Collection of Whitmaniana, David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Duke University. Transcribed from a digital image of the original manuscript. For a description of the editorial rationale behind our treatment of the manuscripts, see our statement of editorial policy.
Editorial note: This manuscript was probably written between 1850 and 1855 when Whitman was composing his first (1855) edition of Leaves of Grass. It includes a draft of a line from the third poem in that edition, eventually titled "To Think of Time."
Related Item(s):
- On the back of this leaf is a partial draft of the final poem in the 1855 edition of Leaves of Grass, ultimately titled "Great Are the Myths." See duk.00032.
- See wwa.00011.
Cite this page: Whitman, Walt. "Are the prostitutes nothing." The Walt Whitman Archive. Gen. ed. Matt Cohen, Ed Folsom, & Kenneth M. Price. Accessed 09 May 2025. <http://www.whitmanarchive.org>.
Source File: duk.00889.xml (TEI)

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]

Are the prostitutes nothing? Are the
mockers of religion nothing? ? Does the light or heat pick out? Does
the attraction ^o of ^^gravity pick out?

(In remarks on myself
What they say of him —he was just like other men—he shall
not be singled out. —one of the common

[begin leaf 1 verso]