This site is devoted solely to Walt Whitman's much-beloved, much-studied poem, "Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking." On the surface, at least, OCER is concerned with Whitman's "birth" as a poet. This has, as one might expect, drawn scholars to the poem in search of fundamental influences which may have shaped Whitman and his work. Whitman himself, in reviewing his own poem anonymously, suggested that, "The piece will bear reading many times - perhaps, indeed only comes forth, as from recesses, by many repetitions." When Whitman wrote these lines, in 1859/60, he perhaps did not anticipate how often he would alter OCER in the years to come. We have the advantage of being able to see the poem evolve through his alterations. This is the focus of this site. With all the main versions of the poem drawn together, we can speculate on Whitman's "influences," and watch him at work as his own editor (a state poets have not always enjoyed). In making use of the hypertext medium, the user can approach the 'text' in many (but, certainly not all) of its forms, and in several different ways. We may pose such questions as; "Does this poetic progression represent a changing message, or a more perfect rendering of the same message?;" and, "Did Whitman view his poetry and its 'role' differently later in life, and did this affect how he viewed his poetic 'beginning?'" Users are invited and encouraged to ask these and to form their own questions through the exploration of these texts (and of texts beyond this site, as well).

The heart of the site is in the digital reproductions of the various versions of OCER from its first publication in The New York Saturday Press, in 1859, to its 'final' version in the 1881 edition of Leaves of Grass. For users exploring this poem in depth for the first time, the Annotated Chronology provides brief contextual notes to each successive version, as well as links to the facsimiles themselves. Users who wish to access the facsimiles directly can do so by going through the Facsimile Index (arranged by web page/first line). Perhaps even more useful is the Transcript Comparison section (with both horizontal and vertical window options), so that a transcript of any version may be readily compared side-by-side with any other. Users wishing to widen their exploration of this poem, or of Whitman in general, are directed to the Selected, Annotated Bibliography for a partial list of the wide range of Whitman scholarship, both in print and on the web.

The site is also planned to include an essay, "Progress of a Poem." By definition, an essay is a subjective narrative. It may seem contradictory to include such a thing in a site which, by its very nature, seeks to avoid subjective conclusions drawn from 'scholarly evidence' by bringing forward the 'evidence' itself for the user to access (though one may argue, effectively, that the "annotations" in the chronology and bibliography also work against this aim). "Progress of a Poem," then, will represent the impressions (rather than conclusions) of the author/editor acquired during the process of creating this site. The essay is intended to deal with possible influences and aims that seem to have informed Whitman relative to OCER, as well as his editorial method.

The user is invited to agree or disagree, partially or completely with any or all statements contained herein. The editor only asks that the user think critically while doing so.