About this Item

Title: airscud

Creator: Walt Whitman

Date: Between 1850 and 1855

Whitman Archive ID: nyp.00734

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 between 1850 and 1855, as he was composing the first (1855) edition of Leaves of Grass. This list of words may have been brainstorming for lines that appeared in the first and fifth poems of that edition, eventually titled "Song of Myself" and "I Sing the Body Electric."

Related item: Draft lines on the back of this manuscript leaf relate to the poem eventually titled "Who Learns My Lesson Complete?" See nyp.00100.