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Whitman Archive Title: I know as well as
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Whitman Archive ID: duk.00051
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Repository ID: MS q 5
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Repository: Catalog of the Walt Whitman Literary Manuscripts in the Trent Collection of Whitmaniana, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina
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Date: Between 1850 and 1855
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Genre: poetry
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Physical Description: 1 leaf, handwritten
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Content:
A manuscript draft treating ideas about divine revelation. Lines from this manuscript appear in the first poem in the first (1855) edition of
Leaves of Grass.
In its final version the poem was titled "Song of Myself," and the relevant lines appeared in section 41. The ideas and some of the language are also similar to other early manuscripts that relate to the second poem in the 1855 edition of
Leaves
, ultimately titled "A Song for Occupations," and part of a cluster titled "Debris" that appeared in the 1860 edition of
Leaves of Grass
(see loc.00013, uva.00251, and duk.00261). The reverse (duk.00887) contains notes, dated March 20th '54, about the characters and physical traits of several men that Whitman met in his travels.
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