Which version is best version?

>>8267829

Leaves of ASS heheh amirite?

>>8267829
i've been wondering too

>>8267829
I don't understand why this is such a common question. Why wouldn't it be the deathbed version?
He spent his life writing and rewriting these poems, why wouldn't you get the complete and final version?

>>8267979
That is not the case with Whitman at all.

The best version by general consensus is the first edition, the one from 1855. After that, Whitman only wrote a handful of good poems. The rest range from decent to mediocre.

>>8267979
there is the argument that he ruined his best work by rewriting the best parts into something different. But and so, therefore, the most thorough Whitman student would read the earliest editions and then the deathbed edition.

I think the Penguin Edition of his complete poems has the Deathbed version and then lots of first edition poems in annexes with it.

>>8267979
apparently he's mostly shit

>>8268019
So what? It's not what Whitman wanted or else he wouldn't have rewritten it. Either read multiple editions or the deathbed.

>>8268055
Plebus maximus.

I was just gonna get the dover thrift edition. I love dover thrift mang.

>>8267979
Just because he wrote it does not make it good.

I think it best to treat the multiple versions as different books. That being said I'd recommend starting with the 1855 edition as it is the best.

>>8267829
The one you smoke.

>>8268198
dank

>>8268178
you people fundamentally misunderstand poems. this isnt video games, you're not farming books to get the "best" drop out of the lot. "best" has absolutely zero relevance whatsoever when youre reading, if it does youre reading on a ridiculously shallow level in which poetic vision means nothing to you and youre simply collecting a personally good time for yourself.

but of course, this is /lit/ so who cares about reading for anything other than pure entertainment right? let the scholars deal with proper reading

>>8270178
You know absolutely nothing about Whitman and the history behind Leaves pf Grass, don't you? Have you even read and compared both versions?

File: 990304333443.jpg (28KB, 412x412px)

28KB, 412x412px

>be pleb
>not even sure what version I have
>check bookshelf
>1855

>>8270178
Malady.