Title: America
Creator: Walt Whitman
Date: Between 1870 and 1892
Whitman Archive ID: loc.00006
Source: The Charles E. Feinberg Collection of the Papers of Walt Whitman, 1839–1919, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. Transcribed from The Walt Whitman Archive I: Whitman Manuscripts at the Library of Congress, ed. Joel Myerson (New York: Garland, 1993), 1:134; Major American Authors on CD-Rom: Walt Whitman (Westport, CT: Primary Source Media, 1997). The transcription was then checked against 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: This manuscript was likely composed in the last two decades of Whitman's career (roughly 1870–1892) when he was more apt to mention other writers explicitly in his poetry. This poem was not published in Whitman's lifetime. Despite its title, this manuscript does not appear to be a draft of the poem "America" that Whitman published in 1888.
Contributors to digital file: Melissa Sinner, Justin St. Clair, Zach Bajaber, Nick Krauter, Nicole Gray, Andrew Jewell, Kenneth Price, and Brett Barney
America
No Homer, Shakspere, Voltaire
No palaces, Kings' palaces nor courts,
Nor armies, navies on the land, nor navies on the sea,
But countless living equal men
Average free