The Walt Whitman Archive
In Whitman's Hand
Manuscripts
About this Item
Title: Who knows that I shall
Creator: Walt Whitman
Date: Between 1850 and 1855
Whitman Archive ID: uva.00262
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. Versions of the manuscript lines appear in the first poem of that edition, eventually titled "Song of Myself."
Related item: Lines on the back of this manuscript leaf also relate to the poem eventually titled "Song of Myself." See uva.00261.
Contributors to digital file: Caitlin Henry, Nicole Gray, Leslie Ianno, Brett Barney, and Stephanie Blalock
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[cut away]
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Who knows that I shall not myself [cut away]
time be a God, as pure and prodigious
as any?
And when I am I you may be sure I
shall do as much good as any.
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