Published Works

Books by Whitman

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16.

1WHO is now reading this?

2May-be one is now reading this who knows some
wrong-doing of my past life,

Or may-be a stranger is reading this who has secretly
loved me,

Or may-be one who meets all my grand assumptions
and egotisms with derision,

Or may-be one who is puzzled at me.

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3As if I were not puzzled at myself!

Or as if I never deride myself! (O conscience-struck!
O self-convicted!)

Or as if I do not secretly love strangers! (O tenderly,
a long time, and never avow it;)

Or as if I did not see, perfectly well, interior in
myself, the stuff of wrong-doing,

Or as if it could cease transpiring from me until it
must cease.

Distributed under a Creative Commons License. Matt Cohen, Ed Folsom, & Kenneth M. Price, editors.