Title: I admire a beautiful woman
Creator: Walt Whitman
Date: Between 1850 and 1855
Whitman Archive ID: nyp.00125
Source: The Henry W. and Albert A. Berg Collection of English and American Literature, New York Public 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: Based on the paper and ink, which are similar to those used in other early manuscripts, Whitman probably drafted this manuscript in the early 1850s as he was composing the first (1855) edition of Leaves of Grass.
Related item: On the back of this manuscript is a partial draft of "Memorial in Behalf of a Freer Municipal Government, and Against Sunday Restrictions," printed in the Brooklyn Star on October 20, 1854. See nyp.00735.
Contributors to digital file: Stephanie Blalock, Caitlin Henry, and Nicole Gray
I am ready Poet! go to swear I will never ^ to write another word,
Act
I do not
I admire a beautiful woman . . . . I am easy about him
who paints her portrait,