Title: The Play-Ground
Creator: Walt Whitman
Date: About 1846
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00264
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 manuscripts, see our statement of editorial policy.
Editorial note: This manuscript is a draft of the early poem "The Play-Ground," nearly as it appeared in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle on June 1, 1846 (during Whitman's editorship of the paper).
Related item: On the reverse of this leaf is a draft of prose fiction. See loc.07421.
Contributors to digital file: Caitlin Henry and Brett Barney
The Play‑Ground.
When painfully athwart my brain
Dark thoughts come crowding on,
And, sick of worldly hollowness,
My heart feels sad and lone—
Then out upon the green I walk,
Just ere the close of day,
And swift I ween the sight I view
Clears all my gloom away.—
For there [are merry?] children, the village children come—
The cheeriest things on earth,
I see them play—I hear their tones
Of loud and reckless mirth.—
And many a clear and flute‑like laugh
Comes ^Flies ringing through the air;
And many a roguish flashing eye,
And rich red cheek are there.—
O, lovely, happy children!
I am with you in my soul:
I shout—I strike the ball with you—
With you I race and roll.—
Methinks, white‑winged angels,
Floating unseen the while,
Hover around this village green,
And pleasantly they smile.
O, angels! guard these children!
Keep grief and guilt away:
From worldly harm—from evil thoughts—
O shield them night and day—!