About this Item

Title: Describing the death of nine

Creator: Walt Whitman

Date: Between 1850 and 1855

Whitman Archive ID: nyp.00113

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: The handwriting and ink of this manuscript are very similar to the handwriting and ink on the back, which features draft lines of the poem that would eventually be titled "Song of Myself." The date of both is therefore likely before or early in 1855.

Related item: On the back of this leaf are poetic lines that were used in revised form in the 1855 edition of Leaves of Grass, in the poem that was eventually titled "Song of Myself." See nyp.00511.