Published Works

Books by Whitman

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To Rich Givers.

WHAT you give me, I cheerfully accept,

A little sustenance, a hut and garden, a little money
—these as I rendezvous with my poems,

A traveller's lodging and breakfast as I journey
through The States—Why should I be ashamed
to own such gifts? Why to advertise for them?

For I myself am not one who bestows nothing upon
man and woman,

For I know that what I bestow upon any man or
woman is no less than the entrance to all the
gifts of the universe.

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