About this Item

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.