The Walt Whitman Archive
In Whitman's Hand
Manuscripts
About this Item
Title: Had I the Choice
Creator: Walt Whitman
Date: About 1885
Whitman Archive ID: yal.00040
Source: Yale Collection of American Literature, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript 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: "Had I the Choice" was first published in the "Fancies at Navesink" sequence in the August 1885 issue of Nineteenth Century. This manuscript was likely written in 1885, shortly before the poem's publication.
Notes written on manuscript: On leaf 1 verso, in unknown hand: "Inlay as it is"
Contributors to digital file: Nick Krauter, Lisa Renfro, Stephen Boykewich, Andrew Jewell, Kenneth Price, Brett Barney, and Nicole Gray
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last revise
To limn the stately and the
beautiful—to emulate
Had I the Choice
Had I the choice to tally greatest bards
To limn
the their portraits
stately,
and the beautiful—^—the power
to
emulate at will
[paper glued]
[cut away]
Homer with all his wars and loftiest
warriors—Hector, Achilles, Ajax,
Or
Shakspere's
woe‐envelop'd entangled
Hamlet,
Lear, Othello—Tennyson's fair
ladies;
Metre, or wit the best, or choice
con-
ceit
^to wield, or
fin perfect rhyme,
triumph delight
of singers
Had I ^ indeed the choice These, these, O sea, all
these
of living winds.
all, all theose
I'd gladly barter
Could Would you the undulation of your one wave, its trick to me transfer
WCould Could you
but breathe
one one
breath upon
my this
verse,
And leave its odor there.
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![[Page image: https://whitmanarchive.org/manuscripts/figures/yal.00072.019.jpg]](https://whitmanarchive.org/manuscripts/figures/yal.00072.019.jpg)