Liza Twilley
Professor Meehan
Transcendentalism
DRAFT
Whitman and Poe: Literary Similarities
Walt Whitman and Edgar Allan Poe share several of the same types of literary characteristics when it comes to the analysis of their work. These two authors have their distinct differences, but fortunately have similar qualities and characteristics when referencing their writing techniques. Both Whitman and Poe are able to demonstrate these techniques through the evaluation of their works because they embrace the constant notion of revision. Through the analysis of selected poems in Leaves of Grass by Whitman and a variety of Poe’s short stories, one can see their distinct literary similarities in the terms of revision.
Walt Whitman published Leaves of Grass’s first edition in 1855 and followed the publishing with a variety of editions in later years. What first began as a simple book with a limited amount of poems, quickly evolved into a thick compilation of hundreds of poems by the end of Whitman’s life. Each version of Leaves of Grass can be considered its own type of distinct book that includes continuously altered material as more editions were created.
Within each new edition, Whitman incorporated several distinct characteristics. These characteristics include, but are not limited to, adding new poems, renaming certain poems, reconstructing new punctuation techniques and restructuring the strategic location of poems. By revising each edition of Leaves of Grass, Whitman allowed himself to make each publication unique by not only altering the physical structure of the book, but also the literal configuration.
Each edition holds it own importance to the meaning of Whitman’s work. The first edition of Leaves of Grass introduces America to a new literary influence and depicts the image of Whitman. “As Leaves of Grass grew through its five subsequent editions into a hefty book of 389 poems (with the addition of the two annexes), it gained much in a variety and complexity, but Whitman’s distinctive voice was never stronger, his vision never clearer, and his design never more improvisational than in the twelve poems of the first edition.” (The Walt Whitman Archive)
For example, early drafts of poems that were created in the first edition of Leaves of Grass set a different president and tone when compared to the voice distinguished in later editions.“ Early drafts that would lead Whitman’s poem, “The Sleepers” reveal the poet’s struggle to empty out his poetic persona in an effort to create an absent space…” (Whilhite, 922) The poem “The Sleepers,” taken from the first edition, exemplifies how Whitman did not have a dominant tone of voice because he had yet to understand his own poetic process. Within the later editions, the poem had embraced a new, stronger meaning than in editions before.
The second edition of Leaves of Grass was only a further continuation of Walt Whitman’s genius theory of revision. The process of revision is defined as “to alter something already written or printed, in order to make corrections, improve, or update.” As a result of revision, Whitman was not only able to transform the physical appearance of the book, but also the content infused within the pages. “With the 1856 edition Whitman began his lifelong practice of adding new poems, reworking previous published poems, and reordering poems into different groups.” (The Walt Whitman Archive) A genius example of reworking and revising poems can be witnessed by the poem “By Blue Ontario’s Shore.” “By Blue Ontario’s Shore” made its debut in the second edition of Leaves of Grass and can be seen as a piece that has undergone the most dramatic of transformations under the concept of revision.
“By Blue Ontario’s Shore” was taken from the 1855 prose Preface and drastically transformed into a new type of piece. First published in the 1856 edition as “Poem of Many in One,” it was reprinted in 1867 “As I Sat Alone by Blue Ontario’s Shore,” and finally resumed its present title in 1881.
