The Walt Whitman Archive
In Whitman's Hand
Manuscripts
About this Item
Title: I am a Student
Creator: Walt Whitman
Date: Between 1850 and 1855
Whitman Archive ID: uva.00238
Source: Papers of Walt Whitman (MSS 3829), Clifton Waller Barrett Library of American Literature, Albert H. Small Special Collections Library, University of Virginia. 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. Lines in the manuscript are similar to sentences used in the preface to that edition. Ideas expressed in the manuscript also relate loosely to lines in the first poem in the 1855 edition, eventually titled "Song of Myself."
Related item: Lines written on the back of this manuscript leaf appeared in the poem eventually titled "Song of Myself." See uva.00570.
Contributors to digital file: Nicole Gray and Michael Carmody
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![[Page image: https://whitmanarchive.org/manuscripts/figures/uva.00238.001.jpg]](https://whitmanarchive.org/manuscripts/figures/uva.00238.001.jpg)
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I am ^a a Student, free of all a vast limitless Library; it is they are —it is
^limitless and eternally
open to me;
It is
The books are
written in numberless tongues,—always
perfect,
always
and
alive;
Those
He
They
aredo
not own the libraryies
who have
bought the
buy the books and can sell them
again,
I am the owner of the libraryies, for I read
ev read every page, and enjoy the
meaning of the same
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![[Page image: https://whitmanarchive.org/manuscripts/figures/uva.00238.002.jpg]](https://whitmanarchive.org/manuscripts/figures/uva.00238.002.jpg)