Content:
In this manuscript (likely from the early 1850s), Whitman describes his views on style and composition. His comments about the importance of a lack of "ornament" in literature are similar to lines from the preface to the first (1855) edition of
Leaves of Grass
. Whitman reworked some of those ideas on ornament and they appeared in the poem "Says" in the 1860–1861 edition of
Leaves
. The poem was later retitled "Suggestions" and was retained in
Leaves
until 1872 but thereafter was excluded.
Physical Description: number of leaves unknown, handwritten
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Content:
Notes on a future edition of
Leaves of Grass
in which Whitman insists that the "divine style" is one without ornament. In the preface to the 1855 edition of
Leaves of Grass
, Whitman writes about literary ornaments, concluding that "most works are most beautiful without ornament." Whitman reworked some of these ideas on ornament and they appear in the poem, "Suggestions," which initially appeared in
Leaves of Grass
(1860) as "Says." This poem was retained in
Leaves of Grass
until 1872 and thereafter was excluded. This manuscript is known only from a transcription published by Richard Maurice Bucke in
Notes and Fragments
(London, Ontario: A. Talbot & Co., printers, 1899), 69.
Content:
These manuscript lines were revised to form numbered sections 1 through 4 of the
ungrouped poem "Says" in the
1860 edition of
Leaves of
Grass
. Whitman cut four verse paragraphs from the poem in the 1867
Leaves of Grass
version; from
that point on the shortened poem appeared, ungrouped, under the title "Suggestions" until its final
appearance in 1876.
Content:
These manuscript lines were revised to form numbered section 5 of the ungrouped
poem "Says" in the 1860
edition of
Leaves of Grass
.
Whitman cut four verse paragraphs in the 1867
Leaves of Grass
version; from that point on the
shortened poem appeared, ungrouped, under the title "Suggestions" until its final appearance in 1876.
Content:
These manuscript lines were revised to form numbered section 6 of the ungrouped
poem "Says" in the 1860
edition of
Leaves of Grass
.
Whitman cut four verse paragraphs in the 1867
Leaves of Grass
version; from that point on the
shortened poem appeared, ungrouped, under the title "Suggestions" until its final appearance in 1876.
Content:
These manuscript lines were revised to form numbered section 7 of the ungrouped
poem "Says" in the 1860
edition of
Leaves of Grass
.
Whitman cut four verse paragraphs in the 1867
Leaves of Grass
version; from that point on the
shortened poem appeared, ungrouped, under the title "Suggestions" until its final appearance in 1876. The
cancelled lines on the top section of the manuscript appear to be a draft of lines
that were never published but that bear great resemblance to the various "Thoughts" and "Thought (Of . . .)" poems Whitman
published throughout the many editions of
Leaves of Grass
.
