In Whitman's Hand

Manuscripts

About this Item

Title: Who wills with his own

Creator: Walt Whitman

Date: Between 1850 and 1860

Whitman Archive ID: uva.00283

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: This manuscript is distantly similar in topic and wording to language in the preface to the 1855 Leaves of Grass, suggesting the manuscript may have been written in the early to mid-1850s. In his transcription, Richard Maurice Bucke combines it with three other manuscripts: see nyp.00095, nyp.00097, and uva.00134 (Notes and Fragments [London, Ontario: A. Talbot & Co., printers, 1899], 28–29). Though the subject matter is similar, the manuscripts do not appear to be continuous.

Notes written on manuscript: On leaf 1 recto, in unknown hand: "30"

Contributors to digital file: Nicole Gray and Joshua Ranger



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

[Page image: https://whitmanarchive.org/manuscripts/figures/uva.00283.001.jpg]

Who wills with his own brain,
the good sweet of the float of the earth
descends and surrounds him,

If he you be a laborer or apprentice or
solitary farmer, it is the same.


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

[Page image: https://whitmanarchive.org/manuscripts/figures/uva_jc.00317_large.jpg]




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