Content:
The poem was originally numbered 71 and then modified to 72. These 2 leaves
contain verses first published in section 16 of the 1860
Leaves of Grass
cluster. In 1867
Whitman transferred this poem to a different "Leaves of Grass" group with the poems that would
become "Night on the Prairies"
and "I Sit and Look Out."
After receiving the title "The World
Below the Brine" in the 1871 "Sea-Shore Memories" group of
Passage to India
, the final change was its transfer
to the cluster "Sea Drift"
within the main body of
Leaves of
Grass
in 1881.
