When reading the Deathbed version of “Song of Myself”, I kept thinking back to the first version that we read. Specifically, I kept trying to find what the differences between the two versions were, and what the significance of those differences is. The main thing that stuck out to me, as I’m sure it did to most other people, was the inclusion of section breaks. We have seen sections in other of Whitman’s writing, such as “Leaves of Grass”, but we did not have them in the first version of “Song of Myself” that we read. Last class, we talked about how the pacing and flow of “Song of Myself” (due to a minimal use of periods and instead a constant use of commas) lead us to feel like we are always moving forwards, unable to stop and sometimes unable to breathe. I felt as though the usage of separate sections slowed down this pacing and made the act of reading more manageable, but also less unique and interesting. What did you think of the usage of sections? Do you feel that it helped or hindered the reading experience? What do you think the intention was behind separating the poem into sections?