Published Works

Books by Whitman

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - [begin page 10] - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

WHEN I READ THE BOOK.

WHEN I read the book, the biography famous,

And is this, then, (said I,) what the author calls a
man's life?

And so will some one, when I am dead and gone, write
my life?

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - [begin page 11] - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

(As if any man really knew aught of my life;

Why, even I myself, I often think, know little or noth-
ing of my real life;

Only a few hints—a few diffused, faint clues and indi-
rections,

I seek, for my own use, to trace out here.)

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