The Walt Whitman Archive
In Whitman's Hand
Manuscripts
About this Item
Title: See'st thou
Creator: Walt Whitman
Date: Between 1850 and 1855
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00162
Source: The Charles E. Feinberg Collection of the Papers of Walt Whitman, 1839–1919, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. 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: Whitman probably drafted this manuscript in the early 1850s as he was composing the first (1855) edition of Leaves of Grass. It probably relates to the seventh poem in that edition, part of which eventually became "Song of the Answerer." The manuscript is collected in a bound volume with other manuscripts.
Contributors to digital file: Brett Barney, Nicole Gray, and Amy Hezel
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![[Page image: https://whitmanarchive.org/manuscripts/figures/loc_bb.00052.jpg]](https://whitmanarchive.org/manuscripts/figures/loc_bb.00052.jpg)
See'st thou
Knows thou
The Three
of the tThree
There is on the one part
Between this beautiful
but dumb Earth, with
all all its manifold eloquent
but inarticulate
shows & objects
And on the other part, the
being Man, curious
questioning & at fault, va[illegible]
Now between the two
comes the poet the
Answerer,
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![[Page image: https://whitmanarchive.org/manuscripts/figures/loc_bb.00053.jpg]](https://whitmanarchive.org/manuscripts/figures/loc_bb.00053.jpg)