Published Works

Books by Whitman

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - [begin page 380] - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

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 traveler'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 bestow upon any man or woman the entrance to
all the gifts of the universe.

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