P.S. 5 Tips for Revision Inspired by Walt Whitman

"...untie the bundle, reel out diary-scraps and memoranda, just as they are..."

Great works of literature are never singular. They almost always exist in multiple forms—even a poem as canonical as Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass. In fact, Leaves of Grass is a brilliant example of this principle because Whitman never stopped working on it, publishing seven different editions over the course of his life.¹ Whenever someone says that they read Leaves of Grass, I always ask: “Which one?”²

Whitman’s heavily annotated personal copy of the third edition of Leaves of Grass from Walt Whitman’s Blue Book: The 1860-61 Leaves of Grass Containing His Manuscript Additions and Revisions.

And why would we expect anything different from Whitman, who habitually accumulated scraps? For Whitman, editing was usually a matter of adding more and more material, rather than cutting. The first edition of Leaves of Grass contained 12 poems, while the final edition Whitman oversaw included over 400 poems. After all, Whitman contained multitudes—America contains multitudes—and he wanted to include it all!

For this postscript, I’m channeling Walt Whitman to offer 5 tips for revision based on his notes. His style is radically different from my own—but that’s why I find it so fascinating. Sometimes it’s useful to get out of our creative comfort zones and try something new.

These postscripts offer paid subscribers a deeper dive into the note-takers I cover in our regular posts. You can read my full post on Walt Whitman’s notes here. If you look forward to reading Noted, please consider becoming a paid subscriber—you’ll help keep this newsletter going!