FEINBERG/WHITMAN          LITERARY FILE          POETRY FILE     "America" (1888)      A. MS. draft.
Box 26      Folder 14115
America: poem. A.MS. (1p. 18½ x 21½ cm.)

Witten in pencil on a sheet torn from the top of a larger sheet,
the rough draft of the beginning lines of a poem, 29 words in all:

                                   America

No Homer, Shakspere, Voltaire
No palaces, Kings' places nor courts,
Nor armies [navies] on the land, nor navies on the sea,

But
  countless living equal men
Average freeAmerica

No Homer, Shakspere, Voltaire
No [palaces], Kings' palaces nor courts,
Nor armies,  [navies] on the land, nor navies on the sea,

But
     countless living equal men
Average free