About this Item

Title: His very aches are exstasy

Creator: Walt Whitman

Date: Between 1850 and 1855

Whitman Archive ID: uva.00602

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 fragmentary lines may relate to a section on touch included in the first poem in that edition, eventually titled "Song of Myself."

Related item: Poetic lines on the back of this manuscript leaf relate to lines in the poem eventually titled "The Sleepers." See uva.00256.