The Walt Whitman Archive
In Whitman's Hand
Manuscripts
About this Item
Title: born at all is equally
Creator: Walt Whitman
Date: Between 1850 and 1855
Whitman Archive ID: nyp.00100
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 revised this poetic fragment and used it in "Who Learns My Lesson Complete?," a poem that was untitled when it first appeared as the eleventh poem in the 1855 edition of Leaves of Grass.
Related item: A list of words is written on the back of this manuscript leaf. See nyp.00734.
Contributors to digital file: Stephanie Blalock, Caitlin Henry, Kirsten Clawson, Nicole Gray, and Janel Cayer
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born at all is equally wonderful . . . .
and that I rose from passed from being
a babe in the infantile creeping trance of
three years summers and three winters to be articulate child
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