Title: In the gymnasium
Creator: Walt Whitman
Date: Between 1850 and 1860
Whitman Archive ID: yal.00452
Source: Yale Collection of American Literature, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library. 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 to mid-1850s. Versions of these lines appeared in a long manuscript poem titled "Pictures," which probably dates to the mid- to late 1850s. The first several lines of "Pictures" (not including these lines) were eventually revised and published as "My Picture-Gallery" in The American in October 1880. The poem was later published in Leaves of Grass as part of the "Autumn Rivulets" cluster.
Related item: Poetic lines drafted on the back of this manuscript leaf likely contributed to the poem eventually titled "Song of Myself." See yal.00483.
Contributors to digital file: Brandon James O'Neil and Nicole Gray
In the gymnasium, leaping and lifting from
In Listening [illegible] in Far ago Li the classic market place—O divine
tongue, I ^too am silent under your elenchus!
O bare feet, O bulging paunch, I will saunter
along with you!
Sauntering in the [illegible] Seeking Arguing with And For And here arguing the questioner of and in the classical time ^—Socrates in ^after the questioner in in the market place ; arguing with Socrates
(O divine tongue! I too am grow silent under your elenchus!
O bare feet! O bulging paunch belly! I saunter along ^by you and listen)
only;).—
out