About this Item

Title: Man, before the rage of

Creator: Walt Whitman

Date: Before 1855

Whitman Archive ID: uva.00287

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: Although they are written in free verse, both the conventional nature of these lines and the handwriting suggest an early date of inscription. This draft may be a continuation of "There is no word in," suggesting it may relate to the poem eventually titled "Song of Myself." The lines, especially the first and third, also bear some resemblance to a passage of the preface to the 1855 Leaves of Grass and to lines in what eventually became section 6 of "I Sing the Body Electric."