Version Control - 1855 to 1860 to1867...

1855 vs 1860 Versions:

The 1860 version of Leaves of Grass is substantially expanded from the 1850 version and includes a number of new poems and expansions of originals from the 1855 version. To get a sense for the sheer size of the new volume, Song of Myself (which remains largely unchanged between the two versions) constituted about 45% of the pages of the 1855 version (including the preface) while Song of Myself constitutes only 18% or so of the total pages of the 1860 version. In other words, the 1860 version is about 2.5 times larger than the original in terms of word volume. While Whitman dropped his preface from the original version, major new works are included in the 1860 version including the proto-leaf, a substantially expanded version of what would come to be known as a Song for Occupations, Calamus, and a significant number of smaller poems. There seems to have been a desire for increased organization with the 1860 version containing a table of contents and the longer poems being separated into numbered sections. It is unclear if this was Whitman’s doing or his editors, but given Whitman’s closeness to the text and his background as a newspaper man and familiarity with print typing, I would assume is was more Whitman’s doing than anyone else’s. In addition to the increases in overall organization, there seems to be an attempt in the 1860 version to limit the overall length of each line (or grouping of lines) resulting in greater visual symmetry when looking at each individual page. This is different from the 1855 version where the lines of each stanza sprawl across the page regardless of relative length.

With respect to Song of Myself, I didn’t notice a substantial number of material changes to the text between the 1855 and 1860 versions. There were several areas where I noticed word/line additions, but the overall sequence and tone of the poem seemed to remain mostly the same with no substantial additions or subtractions. To provide one example of an addition, following the line “To be in any form, what is that?”, Whitman added the following parenthetical in the 1860 edition: “(around and round we go, all of us, and ever come before thither,).” In the Alamo sequence, Whitman dropped the term “jetblack sunrise” in two places. What I noticed more than the additions/subtractions, were a substantial amount of is what I would call “tinkering” – changes to punctuation, spelling, capitalization, etc. These may have been simple clean-ups either by Whitman or others given the likely wider audience and resources that were applied to the 1860 version but they could also be representative of Whitman’s obsession with the text and his need to make small edits.

1860 Blue Book vs 1867 Version:

The changes from 1860 to 1867 were far more substantial than those from 1855 to 1860. Overall, the ongoing civil war seems to have had a major impact on Whitman’s outlook and resulted in changes to several sections of Song of Myself. In addition, Whitman seems to have a greater perspective at this point as to the reception and impact Song of Myself had had on contemporary society and other academics. There are a couple of specific areas with respect to his edits that support these premises that I wanted to focus on:

1. The first substantial deletion shows up in section 17 where Whitman is discussing the ubiquity of the themes of Song of Myself. Interestingly, these particular lines had been changed between the 1855 and 1860 versions indicating a long-term focus on this part of the poem. The following lines were deleted in their entirety (original lines from the 1855 text with marks to show changes to the 1860 version):

This is the breath for America, because it is my breath,
This is for of laws, and songs, for behavior,
This is the tasteless water of Souls…. this is the true sustenance,
It is for the illiterate, it is and for the judges of the Supreme Court…. it is and for the
Federal Capitol and the State Capitols,
It is And for the admirable communes of literats,ary men and composers, and singers, and
lecturers, and engineers and savans,
And It is for the endless races of work-ing people, and farmers and seaman.

By deleting these lines and words such as “America”, “Supreme Court”, “Federal Capitols”, and “State Capitols”, Whitman reduces some of the “American” specificity to the poem and the section reads in a more general manner. This is particularly interesting because this deletion essentially has the opposite effect of the changes he made to the 1860 version.

2. Whitman makes a number of changes on pages 51-55 of the blue book, including several line deletions (most of which seem to be to create a more direct effect of the remaining lines) and the addition of an interesting line in section 23 that reads: “I accept time absolutely. It alone is without flaw, It rounds and completes all. That mystic, baffling wonder I love, alone completes me.”

Another minor change in section 23 was very interesting to me. Whitman changes his language slightly when speaking to other scientists about their work and how his own work should compare to theirs. Later in the poem (section 42), Whitman changes the words in which he addresses the upper class going from “Those who piddle and patter” to the harsher “The little plentiful mannikins.” While these changes are relatively small, Whitman seems to maintain an increased sensitivity with respect to the wider audience he has reached with his work. He wants to clarify where his poem stands among the various sciences and seems to want to berate the upper echelons of society who may have received his work in a negative manner when initially published.

3. On pages 76-77 of the blue book, Whitman considers deleting the entire Alamo sequence but ultimately decides to leave it in. There is definitely a focus and a number of changes to the battle related sequences in the poem, including the inclusion of the reference to Whitman’s grandmother’s father in the sea battle sequence and the deletion of a number of lines in section 37 that refer to America’s war for independence. The horrors of the ongoing civil war were certainly forefront in Whitman’s mind as he made edits to the 1860 version. Later in the poem, Whitman adds a line regarding the solemn existence of the soldier.

The soldier camp’d, or upon the march, is mine;
On the night ere the pending battle, many seek me,
and I do not fail them;
On the solemn night (it may be there last,) those that
know me seek me.

The Oneida Community

I am yet to find a direct connection between Whitman and The Oneida Community but there are certainly a number of interesting parallels between the lifestyle of the Oneida Community and some of the themes Whitman focuses on in his poetry. Regarding a direct connection, I still think there is probably one out there somewhere – I look forward to hearing/reading what others have found on the topic (Iona’s post was a great one!). Most interestingly, the editor of our recommended edition of Leaves of Grass, David S. Reynolds, wrote the NYTimes review of Spencer Klaw’s book Without Sin: The Life and Death of the Oneida Community when it was published twenty years ago. Hmmm.

A number of the theories, or practices, of the Oneida Community remind me of Whitman’s poetical themes, in particular the idea of “perfectionism” and the practice of “communalism.” Perfectionism, a belief that humans could live free of sin in a heaven-like community on earth, is a theme echoed in Song of Myself. While the Oneida Community was theoretically a religiously driven community while Whitman, respectful of various religious, was more interested in writing the “religion of himself” (as I like to call it), there are endless passages in Song of Myself that speak to Whitman’s views of his earthly existence in a divine, perfection-like manner. One of my favorites being the lines:

“Swiftly arose and spread around me the peace and joy and knowledge that pass all the art and argument of the earth;
And I know that the hand of god is the elderhand of my own,
And I know that the spirit of god is the eldest brother of my own,
And that all the men ever born are also my brothers…. and the women my sisters and lovers,
And that a keelson is the creation of love;”

Communalism, or the practice of communal ownership, is another life practice of the Oneida Community that I hear in Song of Myself – “…For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you.” Whitman viewed himself and all people as equal in terms of possibilities of their worldly experience and he tied his views on the efficacy of his writing to a need for ubiquitous applicability across all people. While these stances are not exactly the same as communalism as a community practice, the Oneida Community’s practice of communalism represent to me a microcosm of Whitman’s larger views on one’s place in the world relative to all other people.

After Trying a Certain Book

In the section from Specimen Days entitled “After Trying a Certain Book”, Whitman speaks of ordering and then attempting to read a scholarly volume on the “theory of poetry” but quickly determines it to be rubbish and gives up on it. The idea of Whitman reading an academic publication on poetry is a little comical. It’s like Sid Vicious ordering a book on how to play bass guitar – his technical skills on the instrument were certainly subpar relative to the commonly accepted notion of a good bass player, but the genius of the music was his shunning (or possible ignorance of) the standard rules of a virtuoso and simply letting the raw energy of the music shine through. I often think of Whitman in terms like these. Anyway, after tossing the theory book aside, Whitman jots down a few notes to himself, some of which make little sense to me, but one of which I wanted to comment on. Whitman notes:

“Common teachers or critics are always asking "What does it mean?" Symphony of fine musician, or sunset, or sea-waves rolling up the beach -- what do they mean? Undoubtedly in the most subtle-elusive sense they mean something -- as love does, and religion does, and the best poem; -- but who shall fathom and define those meanings? (I do not intend this as a warrant for wildness and frantic escapades -- but to justify the soul's frequent joy in what cannot be defined to the intellectual part, or to calculation.)”

At a number of points in Song of Myself, Whitman speaks frankly regarding his lack of knowledge with respect to the meaning of life and other impossible philosophical queries. Most famously, when asked “What is the Grass?” by a young child, Whitman simply answers “I do not know.” Or later in the poem, he states “You sea!... I guess what you mean” indicating his interest in these questions but never coming to or offering his reader any conclusions. Whitman’s note above helps provide some additional clarity with respect to how he approaches these questions, both in his poetry as well as in his life. He does not dismiss these kinds of questions as a waste of time or chide those who spend their time attempting to answer them. He acknowledges an underlying meaning to all aspects of life, but he realizes that it is fruitless (at least for him) to attempt to define or specify these meanings. One may think that by not offering a point of view on these challenging questions, Whitman could open himself up for criticism or have his poetry be viewed as weak or lacking in philosophical vision, but the real outcome is anything but weak. Whitman’s stance actually enhances his reader’s confidence and trust in what he is trying to say. Whitman is in effect saying: I don’t know the answers to these questions, but let me tell you what I do know. I love the confidence of this approach.

Poetry and the long white beard...

In addition to Longfellow’s The Village Blacksmith (“TVB”), I took a look at the poems of the other two “Fireside/Schoolhouse Poets” on our list: William Cullen Bryant’s Thanatopsis and John Greenleaf Whittier’s The Hunters of Men. While we spoke of a number of similarities and differences between Whitman and Longfellow in class last Thursday, I wanted to add one additional comparison with respect to the overall structure of TVB compared to Whitman’s Song of Myself (“SOM”). In TVB, Longfellow follows a fairly linear path with respect to the story line and the ultimate revelation of the poem. Longfellow sets the stage for the poem with his description of the blacksmith, his work, how he is viewed by the town and his lugubrious situation, and then neatly ends the poem with a comparison of the blacksmith and his work to life itself. Reading the poem is like unwrapping a pristinely wrapped package. There is clearly a beginning, middle and end to the poem and you always know where you are when reading. Whitman’s SOM could not be more different with respect to the overall structure. I would describe SOM as more circular in nature with the path the poem follows being significantly less clear to the reader as he winds his way through. SOM is my mind has no real beginning, middle or ending; you can pick it up and read from any point with the overall structure helping to reinforce Whitman’s message of the poem as a perpetual beginning rather than a reference to a fixed amount of time. It is probably a little unfair to draw too many hard conclusions with respect to structure when comparing a relatively short poem with that of a very long one, but these differences stood out to me nonetheless.

William Cullen Bryant’s Thanatopsis is a beautiful meditation on death that foreshadows a number of themes of SOM including merging with nature, meadows/grass as an adornment for one’s coffin, and a number of references to the ocean and water as a metaphor for life. Unlike Whitman, Thanatopsis takes a significantly more somber view of death and finishes with a nod to the theme of “carpe diem” so that the reader may be prepared to “join the innumerable caravan, which moves to that mysterious realm.” In short, Bryant seems to view death as more of an ending relative to Whitman who seems to have no fear of his own mortality. In addition, you can’t help but notice the difference in diction between Bryant and Whitman. Thanatopsis is filled with “thy’s” and “thee’s” and reads like a poem written by someone highly educated in the historical manner with which you write a great poem. Whittier’s poem The Hunters of Men is an anti-slavery statement that reminds me of certain passages of SOM including the sequence of the hunted slave who comes to Whitman’s home and stays for the week. Interestingly, both Whitman and Whittier seem to have somewhat similar points of view as it relates to slavery in the union – they are both against slavery, but not necessarily pro-abolition. The Hunters of Men ends with a foreshadowing of the slave hunters lost ambition as others turn away from the practice. In other words, it is not a formal act of government that will end the practice, but a more general shift of public opinion that will ultimately turn the tide. With respect to its form and structure, like TVB, The Hunters of Men is much more traditional in its structure with a fixed meter and rhyme.