Thoughts on Whitman's process of revision

A striking difference from the initial 1855 composition, "Song of Myself" has been recast as "Walt Whitman." Looking at the different editions, the most widespread of Whitman's emendations seem to be typographical/organizational in nature, and demonstrate his interest/experience in that subject and printing. By the 1867 version nearly all of the words carrying the same form as "packed " and "helped" have been modified to "packt" and "help'd." Throughout the poem this is evident. The ellipsis of the 1855 version have been replaced by the 1860 version with dashes and commas. In the 1867 version, many of the commas (especially in lists) and exclamation points have become semi-colons. These changes, in addition to the exclusion of occasional extraneous passages, allow the poem to breathe a bit more since they can cut down on overall line length. He also, in the 1867 version, omits certain things: passages about particularly himself ("I am the poet;" "I step up"; "I eat and drink" ; "I receive you") ;  racially-specific language ("darkey"; passages about the "savage") ; and overtly eroticized language ( "thruster holding me tight" ; "the climax of my love-grip"). I think Whitman made these changes because of their ability to obscure the general message and the overall import of the poem. Often passages of conflict, especially the prisoners of war section, have been reduced or excised, suggesting the influence of the war on his writing. Some redundancies in place names have been eliminated. Fat and excess have generally been trimmed. However, the reason for many of the changes eluded me, and I will probably return to add something substantive to this post. It's tough for me to say how all the revisions alter the constitutional and thematic import of the poem as I think their effect on the poem has been generally minor.