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To pass existence is so

About This Item

  • Title: To pass existence is so
  • Date: Between 1850 and 1855
  • Creator(s): Walt Whitman
  • Whitman Archive ID: nyp.00052
  • Source: The Henry W. and Albert A. Berg Collection of English and American Literature, New York Public Library. 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. The draft line is similar in subject to lines used in the first poem in that edition, eventually titled "Song of Myself." The numbering, paper, and ink are also similar to other manuscripts that feature lines that appeared in that poem.
  • Related Item(s):
  • Cite this page: Whitman, Walt. "To pass existence is so." The Walt Whitman Archive. Gen. ed. Matt Cohen, Ed Folsom, & Kenneth M. Price. Accessed 08 May 2025. <http://www.whitmanarchive.org>.
  • Source File: nyp.00052.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] 241 If tTo pass existence be is so good, 
  what room there is no chance can there be  
  for death   [begin leaf 1 verso]
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