In Whitman's Hand

Manuscripts

About this Item

Title: I call back blunderers

Creator: Walt Whitman

Date: Between 1850 and 1855

Whitman Archive ID: uva.00250

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. The last couple of lines are similar to lines in the first poem in that edition, eventually titled "Song of Myself."

Notes written on manuscript: On leaf 1 recto, in unknown hand: "5"

Contributors to digital file: Nicole Gray and Amy Hezel



[begin leaf 1 recto] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[Page image: https://whitmanarchive.org/manuscripts/figures/uva.00250.001.jpg]

I call back blunderers; and [illegible]

I give strong meat in place of panada;

I will not permit loads expose them who put
them him what whoever [illegible] that tryies loads on the soul.

Is ^ [illegible] Are yYou! so poor that you are always miserly,? Priests?

Will you prize a round [?]thing trifle like a saucer, done
in red and yellow paint?

Lo! I offer men no painted saucers—I make every one
a present of the sun; himself;

I have plenty more—I have millions of suns left.


[begin leaf 1 verso] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[Page image: https://whitmanarchive.org/manuscripts/figures/uva_jc.00299.jpg]




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