2. Whitman’s Poetry: Criticism and Context
2 WHITMAN’S POETRY: CRITICISM AND CONTEXT
2.1 History of Leaves of Grass
Leaves of Grass has an uncommon publishing history. There were nine editions during Whitman’s life and Leaves of Grass is the general title under which Whitman published his complete poetry. It all began with the first edition, published by the poet in 1855, with only the title and a picture of him on its cover. The 1855 edition contained the now historical Preface and twelve individually untitled poems (in fact, some of them received Leaves of Grass as titles). These poems, which were numbered and received titles from the second edition (1856) on, included “Song of Myself”, the first and longest one, “A Song for Occupations”, “To Think of Time” and “Great are the Myths”. In the first edition, the poet’s name only appeared in what was later known as section 24 of “Song of Myself”, in the verse: “Walt Whitman, a kosmos, of Manhattan the son.” The following excerpt is an accurate description of this edition, from Notes on Walt Whitman, as Poet and Person (1867) by John Burroughs, Whitman’s friend and disciple:
