Versions of Grass

1855>1860
        First thing’s first… ‘Proto-Leaf’ is now the first poem in 1860. Very cool poem title by the way, Walt. The first leave of grass is kinda like Song of Myself, in that Walt  says he is the poet for all, for the nation, no matter who you may be. A difference is that he isn’t talking so much about us all being one entity as much… It’s still all about unity, but there seems to be more individuality here. Walt also focuses a lot on the ‘Soul,’ and capitalizes the word too, much like I did just now.
        When I started reading the newer version of Song of Myself, I started trippin a little because the words were basically the same, but there was something different… Something was off. Then I realized Walt removed the ellipses and replaced them with boring old commas. Commas are cool, but ellipses are… Well, it’s hard to describe the impact ellipses have on me, but I like the pause they bring. For whatever reason, to me, they almost automatically make anything romantic. If Walt Whitman was talking to a dude, I think he’d have more success asking for “A few light kisses…. a few embraces” rather than asking for “A few light kisses, a few embraces” at the end of the night. The hyphens he uses are close to ellipses for me, but the ones he replaces with commas… no. He lost poetical romanticism points on that one, in my opinion. It’s his poem, so I must let him do whatever he likes, but I had to hate on that part a bit.

The greatest joke ever, WITHOUT ellipses:

The greatest joke ever, WITH ellipses (Obviously better):

        I looked for a few other key words and searched for them just to see a side of Whitman’s meticulousness. He changed his phrasing of “it is the Fourth of July” (pg. 11 in our book) to “it is the Fourth of the Seventh Month”…Apparently Whitman thought ‘July’ was too dull of language to use to describe that month. My opinion of this change?: Cmon son!!!
        “Behavior lawless as snowflakes… words simple as grass… uncombed head and laughter and naivete;” becomes “Behavior lawless as snowflakes, words simple as grass, uncombed head, laughter and naivete;” (pg 32)
        Why? Maybe the he thought the commas made the language flow off the tongue more easily? Maybe he wanted his poem to look more like a poem? The new punctuation certainly does that, I suppose.
Oh, and in 1860, Whitman had a shit-ton more poems than in the 1855 version.

Blue Book>1860
        First thing’s first… did you see the new picture Walt has in his book? He takes on the appearance of a common man in the 1855 edition, but in 1860, he looks all bougie.
        Walt’s meticulousness comes out again. Who writes notes all over their PUBLISHED book??? And it was the 2nd/3rd edition too… Walt scribbles out words and sometimes sentences when things don’t look right to him. Maybe Walt needs to learn about leaving things alone. If Walt lived until he was 1000 years old, he may still have new editions of Leaves of Grass coming out next year. He might be helped by treating his writing like it was music, and have all the beauty and expression lay there on the tape, whether you may find imperfections in it later, or not. The 1967 version ends up keeping a lot in common with the 1960 version, even though Whitman scribbled out lots of sections in his blue book. Going through a text search of a few key points in the poem I wanted to check, he did change one of my favorite lines in the poem… He removes the line “Dash me with amorous wet…. I can repay you.”
        WTF MAN?!? That was one of my favorite lines! I even read it out loud for our project…. But alas, this is how Walt ends up repaying me… Sometimes, you need to put pen to pad, and then let it be.

Q. What did the caterpillar say the the Walt Whitman?
A. Man... you've changed.