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.— (He could say) I know well enough the perpetual myself in my poems—but it is because the universe

Myself": "Looking in at the shop-windows in Broadway the whole forenoon . . . . pressing the flesh of my

O my body, that gives me identity! O my organs !

Underfoot, the divine soil— Overhead, the sun.— Afford foothold to my poems, you Nourish my poems, Earth

In Poem The earth, that is my model of poems model ?

The body of a man, is my model—I do not reject what I find in my body—I am not ashamed—Why should I be

My Darling (Now I am maternal— a child bearer— bea have from my womb borne a child, and observe it For

a makes raises but bubble of the sea-ooze in comparison with against that unspeakable Something in my

—I look back upon that time in my own days.— I have no gibes nor mocks mockings or laughter;—I have only

the 1855 edition of Leaves of Grass, which was ultimately titled "Song of Myself": "Backward I see in my

levee in life,— After death Now when I am looked back upon, I will I hold levee, after death, I lean on my

left elbow—I take ten thousand lovers, one after another, by my right hand.— I have all lives, all effects

On the reverse (nyp.00100) is a fragment related to the poem eventually titled Who Learns My Lesson Complete

Draft lines on the back of this manuscript leaf relate to the poem eventually titled "Who Learns My Lesson

Song of Myself": "Echos, ripples, and buzzed whispers . . . . loveroot, silkthread, crotch and vine, / My

respiration and inspiration . . . . the beating of my heart . . . . the passing of blood and air through

my lungs, / The sniff of green leaves and dry leaves, and of the shore and darkcolored sea- rocks, and

.; Draft lines on the back of this manuscript leaf relate to the poem eventually titled "Who Learns My

however, physical and thematic similarities with And I have discovered them by night and by, above, and My

am myself and nobody else, am the greatest traitor, I went myself first to the headland, — my own hands

I have lost my wits . . . .

I and nobody else am the greatest traitor, / I went myself first to the headland . . . . my own hands

sings as well as I, because although she reads no newspaper; never learned the gamut; And to shake my

The first lines of the notebook poem were revised and published as "My Picture-Gallery" in The American

The oppression of my heart is not fitful and has no pangs; but a torpor like that of some stagnant pool

Around me are my brother men, merry and jovial.

—Ah, if the flesh could but act what my rational mind, in its moments of clear inspiration aspires to

reinforce the truthfulness of Pierson's stories about the "koboo," Whitman mentions the fact that Captain

Captain Walter M.

bribed to swap off with touch, and go and graze at the edges of me, / No consideration, no regard for my

draining strength or my anger" (1855, p. 33).; 22; Transcribed from digital images of the original.;

not smell— —I smell the your beautiful white roses— I kiss their soft your leafy lips—I reach slide my

Can my your sight behold them as with oysters eyes?

See in particular the lines: "The supernatural of no account . . . . myself waiting my time to be one

with me about God; I can yet just begin to comprehend nothing more wonderful than so tremendous as my

Grass, ultimately titled Song of Myself: "And I know that the spirit of God is the eldest brother of my

The Elder Brother of the soul—my soul.

Grass, ultimately titled "Song of Myself": "And I know that the spirit of God is the eldest brother of my

head at nightfall, and he is fain to say, "I too am not a bit tamed—I too am untranslatable; I sound my

this manuscript may connect to the stanza of the poem eventually titled "Song of Myself" that begins "My

do not procreate like men; all of them and all existing creeds grows not so much of God as I grow in my

moustache, And I am myself waiting my time to be a God; I think I h shall do as much good and be as

pure and prodigious, and do as much good as any; — And when my do, I am, do you suppose it will please

wriggles through the world mankind and hides under helmets and it is not beloved never loved or believed.— My

See in particular the lines: "The supernatural of no account . . . . myself waiting my time to be one

drink, / But as soon as you sleep and renew yourself in sweet clothes I will certainly kiss you with my

.— wood-duck on my distan le around. purposes, nd white playing within me the tufted crown intentional

/ It seems to me more than all the print I have read in my life. / My tread scares the wood-drake and

wood-duck on my distant and daylong ramble, / They rise together, they slowly circle around. / . . .

eventually titled Song of Myself: "The boatmen and clamdiggers arose early and stopped for me, / I tucked my

trowser-ends in my boots and went and had a good time".

and wicked" may relate to the following line, which occurs later in the same poem: "Ever myself and my

eventually titled "Song of Myself": "The boatmen and clamdiggers arose early and stopped for me, / I tucked my

trowser-ends in my boots and went and had a good time."

and wicked" may relate to the following line, which occurs later in the same poem: "Ever myself and my

eventually titled "Song of Myself": "The boatmen and clamdiggers arose early and stopped for me, / I tucked my

trowser-ends in my boots and went and had a good time."

and wicked" may relate to the following line, which occurs later in the same poem: "Ever myself and my

trowser-ends in my boots and went and had a good time" (1855, p. 18).

and wicked" may relate to the following line, which occurs later in the same poem: "Ever myself and my

—I lend you my own mouth tongue A black I dart ed like a snake from his mouth.— I My eyes are bloodshot

, they look down the river, A steamboat carries off paddles away my woman and children.— Around my neck

am T The His i ron necklace and the red sores of my shoulders I do not feel mind , h H opples and ball

ankles and tight cuffs at the wrists does must not detain me will go down the river, with the sight of my

bloodshot eyes, go in to the steamboat that paddles off wife woman and child A I do not stop with my

. / How he laughs when I look down the bend after the steamboat that carries away my woman"(1855, p.

The retrospective extasy ecstasy is upon me— I am now my soul —spirit burns volcanic The earth recedes

ashamed before my prophetical crisis.— Whitman probably drafted this manuscript in the early 1850s as

similar to the following line in the poem eventually titled "Song of Myself": "The dirt receding before my

19 I am become the poet of babes and the little things I descend many steps—I go backward primeval My

equanimous arms feet 209 I surround retrace things steps oceanic—I pass to around not merely my own

. / My feet strike an apex of the apices of the stairs, / On every step bunches of ages, and larger bunches

Compare these lines from that edition: "I lean and loafe at my ease . . . . observing a spear of summer

I entertain all the aches of the human heart Outside the asteroids I reconnoitre at my ease.

Compare these lines from that edition: "I lean and loafe at my ease . . . . observing a spear of summer

first several lines of that poem (not including the line in question) were revised and published as My

first poem of the 1855 edition of Leaves of Grass , later called "Song of Myself": "I do not trouble my

The first several lines of the notebook (not including this line) were revised and published as "My Picture-Gallery

just granting his request, with great commiseration, when an old lady from the gallery cries out "O my

Bibles i are divine revelations of God But I know say that any each leaf of grass and every hair of my

compiled composed is not august enough to dent endow answer tally a leaf of grass the partition of in my

. / I intend to reach them my hand and make as much of them as I do of men and women" (1855, p. 64).;

night walkers And do no better for me— Who am a regular gentlemen or lady, With a marble broad stoop to my

And is the day here when I vote at the polls, One with the immigrant that last August strewed lime in my

.— what my touch wanted any thing whatever I wanted.— Surely I am out of my head!

I am lost to myself and someth something else Nature in another form has laid down in my place.

though I lie so sleepy and sluggish, my tap is death" (1855, p. 74).

though I lie so sleepy and sluggish, my tap is death" (1855, p. 74).

man who claims or takes the power to own another man as his property, stabs me in that the heart of my

own The one scratches me a little on the cheek forehead , the other draws his murderous razor through my

t T hat black and huge lethargic mass, my sportsmen, dull and sleepy as it seems, has holds the lightning

eventually titled "Song of Myself": "Buying drafts of Osiris and Isis and Belus and Brahma and Adonai, / In my

These words are for the five or six grand poets, too; and the masters of artists: — I waste no ink, nor my

receive you, and attach and clasp hands with you, / The facts are useful and real . . . . they are not my

pass death with the dying, and birth with the new-washed babe . . . . and am not contained between my

Have I hasten to inform you it is just as good to die, and I know it; I know it For I take my death with

the dying, And my birth with the new-washed babe Whitman probably drafted this manuscript in the early

pass death with the dying, and birth with the new-washed babe . . . . and am not contained between my

The clearest relation is to the line: "A minute and a drop of me settle my brain" (1855, p. 33), but

Henceforth After this day, A touch shall henceforth be small Little things is shall be are henceforth my

my tongue proof and argument It They shall tell s for me that people In them, the smallest least of

over all, and what we thought death is but life brought to a finer parturition.— An inch's contact My

The clearest relation is to the line: "A minute and a drop of me settle my brain" (1855, p. 33), but

I rubbed my eyes a little, to see if this sunbeam were no illusion; but the solid sense of the book is

head at nightfall, and he is fain to say,— I too am not a bit tamed—I too am untranslatable; I sound my

I loafe and invite my soul, I lean and loafe at my ease…observing a spear of summer grass.

I guess it must be the flag of my disposition, out of hopeeful green stuff woven.

All I mark as my own you shall offset it with your own, Else it were time lost listening to me.

." ***** "O despairer, here is my neck, You shall not go down! Hang your whole weight upon me."

My moral constitution may be hopelessly tainted or—too sound to be tainted, as the critic wills, but

, Earth of the limpid grey of clouds brighter and clearer for my sake! Far swooping elbowed earth!

The damp of the night drives deeper into my soul."

———Under Niagara, the cataract falling like a veil over my countenance ."

Earth of the limpid gray of clouds brighter and clearer for my sake! Far-swooping elbowed earth!

the wounded person, My hurt turns livid upon me as I lean on a cane and observe.

Heat and smoke I inspired…I heard the yelling shouts of my comrades, I heard the distant click of their

I lie in the night air in my red shirt…the pervading hush is for my sake, Painless after all I lie, exhausted

"I, too, am not a bit tamed…I, too, am untransla- table untranslatable ; I sound my barbaric yawp over

more foolish than the rest of the volume:— "I too am not a bit tamed—I too am untranslatable, I sound my

The last scud of day holds back for me, It flings my likeness, after the rest, and true as any, on the

I depart as air—I shake my white locks at the run-away sun, I effuse my flesh in eddies, and drift it

To prepare for sleep, for bed—to look on my rose-coloured flesh, To be conscious of my body, so amorous

Have you learned the physiology, phrenology, politics, geography, pride, freedom, friendship, of my land

Earth of the limpid grey of clouds, brighter and clearer for my sake! Far-swooping elbowed Earth!

since, after the closest inquiry, "I find no sweeter fat than sticks to my own bones."

If I worship any particular thing, it shall be some the spread of my own body."

As for Mine, Mine has the idea of my own, and what's Mine is my own, and my own is all Mine and believes

in your and my name, the Present time. 6.

I lie in the night air in my red shirt—the pervading hush is for my sake, Painless after all I lie, exhausted

look through the eyes of the dead, nor feed on the spectres in books : ; "You shall not look through my

beautiful, curious, breathing, laughing flesh is enough; To pass among them, or touch any one, or rest my