"Walt, Put Down the Pencil, and Back Away Slowly"

The most interesting revision to me was that Whitman strikes:

118   Thruster holding me tight, and that I hold tight!

We hurt each other as the bridegroom and the bride          hurt each other.

from the blue book and it doesn't remain in the 1867 version. I remember reading that the first time through and thinking, “Whoa, that causes a pause in 2012 never mind in the mid 1800s.” I wonder why he decided to take it out. Maybe he thought it was crossing the line, though I doubt it considering all of the other sexual references presented in the work.


The other revision that stood out to me was the addition of "O, speech" to one of my favorite lines, "Do you not know, O speech, how the buds beneath you are folded?" This really clarifies the metaphor and it makes the meaning much more powerful.

Other than some sporadic changes like these two, in which I can't speak to Whitman's motivation of why he cut these lines or not, the only pattern I noticed in this revision is that of taking the “e” out of past tense verbs so that they only have the “ 'd” remaining. He also changes some words that normally would be capitalized and makes them lowercase. I am not sure why he does this. The first thing that comes to mind is that he wants it to sound more colloquial, more like the common man and as for striking down the uppercase letters: Maybe he is getting rid of hierarchy in the written word to match his belief put forth in “Song of Myself” that everyone is as good or bad as everyone else. Equality everywhere, even for proper nouns! Don't think you're so important! 

Personal pet-peeve: Why doesn't every edition of Leaves of Grass have line numbering? (I am looking at the two editions I have, the original 1855 edition and the “Death-Bed” edition.) That would make everyone's life a lot easier for comparing since Whitman seems a bit OCD in changing his work over and over and over again. There is something to be said for over-revision. Maybe a poem shouldn't be treated like a series of new software releases.

I think that despite completely chopping certain sections, for the most part Whitman makes minor revisions; punctuation changes and the small detail changes mentioned above. The feel of “Song of Myself” remains the same. The heart of the poem, what it intends to do, works equally as well in all of these editions.