In Whitman's Hand

Manuscripts

About this Item

Title: The sores on my shoulders

Creator: Walt Whitman

Date: Between 1850 and 1855

Whitman Archive ID: uva.00260

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 preparing materials for the first (1855) edition of Leaves of Grass. The manuscript is a draft of a section of the fourth poem in that edition, eventually titled "The Sleepers."

Related item: Lines on the back of this leaf relate to the manuscript poem "Pictures." See uva.00565.

Notes written on manuscript: On leaf 1 recto, in unknown hand: "11"

Contributors to digital file: Caitlin Henry, Nicole Gray, Leslie Ianno, and Stephanie Blalock



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[Page image: https://whitmanarchive.org/manuscripts/figures/uva.00260.001.jpg]

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He [illegible]

The sores on my neck shoulders are from his
iron necklace

I look on the off on the river with
my bloodshot eyes

He stops the steamboat and till she
will paddle off with away take my woman, and paddle away with her

He treats politicians with what

[end hashmark section]

[begin leaf 2 verso] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[Page image: https://whitmanarchive.org/manuscripts/figures/uva.00260.002.jpg]




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