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What babble is this about

  • Whitman Archive Title: What babble is this about
  • Whitman Archive ID: med.00902
  • Repository: Catalog of Unlocated Walt Whitman Manuscripts
  • Date: Between 1850 and 1855
  • Genre: poetry, prose
  • Physical Description: number of leaves unknown, handwritten
  • View Images: currently unavailable
  • Content: The language in this manuscript is similar to the following line from first poem in first (1855) edition of Leaves of Grass , eventually titled "Song of Myself": "What blurt is it about virtue and about vice?" (1855, p. 28). Because this manuscript has not been located it is difficult to speculate on the circumstances of its composition, but it is possible that it was written in the early 1850s as Whitman was preparing materials for the first edition of Leaves of Grass .
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