Leaves of Grass

Throughout the first edition, Whitman uses idiosyncratic punctuation. The ends of lines are usually marked by orthographically typical commas, semi-colons, or periods. However, punctuation within each line consists primarily of ellipses, although commas are used as well. The ellipses mostly have four points of suspension: “My ties and ballasts leave me . . . . I travel . . . . I sail . . . . my elbows rest in the sea-gaps” (“Song of Myself,” Line 712). At other times, the ellipses have just two or three points: “Be not ashamed women . . your privilege encloses the rest . . it is the exit of the rest” (“I Sing the Body Electric,” Line 60), and “This is the nucleus . . . after the child is born of woman the man is born of woman” (“I Sing,” Line 58). Occasionally Whitman uses em dashes instead of ellipses. 

In the second edition in 1856, Whitman rethought the presentation of his work and removed the ellipses, mostly replacing them with em dashes. In subsequent editions, the punctuation became increasingly conventional.

Whitman often poses direct questions to his readers to challenge them, involve them, and make them reflect on their own thoughts, ideas, and experience. In “Song of Myself,” the speaker asks readers to consider alongside him the definition of human existence: “What is a man anyhow? What am I? And what are you?” (Line 390). There are 20 questions in “To Think of Time.” “A Song for Occupations” poses 36 questions, including ones that encourage readers to evaluate their relationship to the ideal of Social, Political, and Spiritual Equality:

Why what have you thought of yourself? 

Is it you then that thought yourself less?

Is it you that thought the President greater than you? or the rich better off than you or the educated wiser than you? (Lines 24-26).

Anaphora is the repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of successive lines or within lines; it is generally used for emphasis, a pleasing rhetorical effect, and to convey a feeling of rising intensity. Whitman employed this technique throughout his poetic career. 

In “Song of Myself,” after the speaker states that his thoughts are not original to him but occur to all men in all ages, anaphora connects four successive lines via their beginnings and endings:

If they are not yours as much as mine they are nothing or next to nothing,

If they do not enclose everything they are next to nothing,

If they are not the riddle and the untying of the riddle they are nothing, 

If they are not just as close as they are distant they are nothing (Lines 354-57). 

The repetition highlights the speaker’s insistence on the universality and breadth of the human experience, which must be thoroughly shared, wholly encompassing, solve the problems it poses, and cover all space and time—and if it cannot be said to do those things, then it is “nothing.”