STARTING FROM PAUMANOK

The Blue Book from "1860" includes Walt Whitman's editings, his personal line by line breakdown of changes he wishes to devise on latter versions of "Song of Myself." One interesting note was his obvious debate between whether or not to use "soul" or "self."

In the "1860" version,
"Victory, union, faith,  identity, time, the Soul, your-
self, the present and future lands..."
An edit which carries forth into the "1867" version. However, later in the poem Whitman reutilizes "soul,"

"The satisfier, after due long-waiting, now advancing,
<><><><><><> </> <><><><><><> </>

Yes, here comes my mistress, the Soul."

It appears as if Whitman views the self and soul gendered- thus the composition of two creates a human. An entity that is neither male, nor female, but a hybrid combination of both. This is a similar theme throughout American Literature, the idea of a boy-girl, a Mr.Mrs., a She-he, a lad-lady, one theme often overlooked. The blue book makes this fairly overt, exemplifying the usefulness of such a tool.

The Soul female, the Self male.

An interesting use of words to describe the omnipresence of masculine and feminine details an individual human being carries.

A second altercation is his decision to use "Reckon'd" rather than "Reckoned." By altering "ed," Whitman is able to both add a stylistic element to his work (IE making him look more scholarly because it replicates old english), and also to add ambiguity betwixt the verbiage condensed. Reckon'd, whether or not  gramatically "allowed," could be a conjunction for reckon and any other word. It's rather ingenius, and gives his poem a quality known only to the originator.

Link: http://whitmanarchive.org/published/1860-Blue_book/images/leaf002r.html