In Whitman's Hand

Manuscripts

About this Item

Title: For remember that behind all

Creator: Walt Whitman

Date: Between 1845 and 1860

Whitman Archive ID: loc.05334

Source: The Thomas Biggs Harned Collection of the Papers of Walt Whitman, 1842–1937, 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: Edward Grier notes that this scrap contains ideas similar to those found in what would become section 4 of the poem eventually titled "Song of Myself." But Grier also indicates that the manuscript could be notes for a lecture that Whitman was planning (Notebooks and Unpublished Prose Manuscripts [New York: New York University Press, 1984], 6:2047). In either case, the manuscript likely dates to the 1850s.

Contributors to digital file: Kirsten Clawson, Janel Cayer, Kevin McMullen, Nicole Gray, and Kenneth M. Price



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For remember that behind all this show of ostensible life, of every man and woman,—of you hearing me now [in?] these talks, amusements, dress, money, politics, &c. stands the real life of every man and woman of you who hear me now


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[Page image: https://whitmanarchive.org/manuscripts/figures/loc_af.00514.jpg]




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