Content:
Originally numbered 86 and revised by overwriting to 87; Whitman also numbered the
leaves 1-5 (in pencil, lower left corner), with the 1 replacing a 6 and the 2
written over what looks like a 7. The leaves correspond to various verses in the
1860 published version "France, The 18th Year of These States". Although Whitman never changed
the title, and did not revise the poem much, he did transfer it twice, grouping it
in the cluster "Songs of
Insurrection" within the main body of
Leaves of Grass
in 1871 and 1876, and in 1881 finally
transferring it to the new cluster "Birds of Passage" within
Leaves of Grass
.
