The Walt Whitman Archive
In Whitman's Hand
Manuscripts
About this Item
Title: I ask nobody's faith
Creator: Walt Whitman
Date: Between 1850 and 1855
Whitman Archive ID: nyp.00102
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 probably drafted this manuscript in the early 1850s as he was composing the first (1855) edition of Leaves of Grass. The paper and ink are similar to that used for other early poetry manuscripts. In his transcription of this manuscript, Richard Maurice Bucke combines it with "Do I not prove myself," but the manuscripts do not appear to be continuous (Notes and Fragments [London, Ontario: A. Talbot & Co., printers, 1899], 25).
Contributors to digital file: Caitlin Henry and Nicole Gray
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I ask nobody's faith . . . . . I am very little concerned about that
When Do yYou doubt ^not the east and the west,
When Do yYou doubt ^not your desires and or your finger‑nails,
When Do yYou doubt not iron metal water or acid or steam,