To Rich Givers
by Walt Whitman
· 1871
Published 01/07/1871
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.