The Walt Whitman Archive
In Whitman's Hand
Manuscripts
About this Item
Title: I shall venerate hours and
Creator: Walt Whitman
Date: Between 1850 and 1855
Whitman Archive ID: nyp.00089
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 manuscripts, see our statement of editorial policy.
Editorial note: Whitman likely drafted this manuscript between 1850 and 1855, as he was composing the first (1855) edition of Leaves of Grass. Some of the language in the manuscript is similar to language in the first poem of that edition, eventually titled "Song of Myself."
Related item: On the back of this manuscript is another poetry draft. See nyp.00742.
Contributors to digital file: Stephanie Blalock, Caitlin Henry, Nicole Gray, John Owen Havard, and Chris Forster
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I shall venerate hours and days, [illegible] and think
them ^immeasurable infinite stupendous hereafter;
I ^am finding how much I am passing can pass through
in a few minutes.—
I was a ^good friend to all things before,
But now what I was seems to me limpsy
and little.
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