My great grandmother used to tell a story of the crazy old man Walt Whitman, who walked around Camden, NJ. The kids, of whom she was one, would make fun of him, and throw things at him from the button-wood trees as he walked past.
When I was in college, I found a reference, in one of Whitman's poems, to kids throwing things at him from the trees, and I thought it was pretty neat how my great grandmother's story was corroborated by something in this great poet's writings.
Well, this week my mom asked me what poem that was in, and I went looking for it. I'm sure it was somewhere in Leaves of Grass, but I can't find it. I've done full text searches of the entire book, and I can't find anything that comes close to matching my memory of the mention. It was only a single line in a poem. But I'm starting to think that I made it up, or that I imagined it.
Any Whitman scholars out there who can point me in the right direction?
For what it's worth, I'm fairly sure you pointed it out to us in college. I don't remember which poem.
Posted by: Tim on November 29, 2003 03:47 PMDon't claim to be a whitman scholar... but...
I remember "Song of the Redwood-Tree" - but that, of course, is about trees in the west - California to Washington with brief mentions fo trees around the world - China, Australia, India, etc., again, all Pacific, not NJ. However, did you look there?
--Moose
Posted by: Moose on November 29, 2003 04:07 PMHey, another question - there were three books called "Leaves of Grass" that Whitman put out. The third of those (293 poems) came out after he was in NJ. The other two (12 poems and 124 poems) came out before then.
Which version you got? BTW, the original "Leaves of Grass" was a very indecent book for the day. Check out the 12 poems! :)
--Moose
Posted by: Moose on November 29, 2003 04:14 PMI've got the final edition (1855) which contains all the material from all previous editions. In fact, it is exceedingly difficult to get the other editions these days, since really only the "complete" edition is in print anywhere.
Posted by: DrBacchus on November 29, 2003 04:31 PM