Leaves of Grass

Whitman was one of the early practitioners of free verse, which does not use metrical feet or rhyme, instead relying on cadence (rhythmical movement) for its effects. Whitman often uses long lines and repetition of words and clauses to vary his poems’ rhythm. His cadenced verse draws on the rhythmic structures of the King James Bible, particularly the Song of Solomon and the books of Prophets Isaiah and Jeremiah. Many of the lines in Leaves of Grass, both in the 1855 edition and in modern editions, cannot be fitted typographically on the printed page as one line, so they overflow to two or three printed lines, but only one line of poetry is intended.

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).