k that disguises the essence of the individual. Whitman allows himself to recognize the allure, the temptations of an artificial existence, but rejects the opportunity to become inebriated in its appeal. He instead chooses the natural, the odorless air of the atmosphere. In doing so he is not only declaring his support for the natural, but for the communal as well (Mulcaire 480). The atmosphere is a shared environment. Everyone breathes of it. In contrast, the crowded shelves offer to each individual a unique, albeit artificial scent. In choosing the perfume, one is effectively choosing to be defined by the terms of a created and illusory world. Also of importance is the syntactical structure. While the verse is basically prose, the line breaks reveal the statement Whitman wishes to convey. The indented "crowded with perfumes" exemplifies the constriction of the artificial, "crowded" being the antithesis of "free." The second indentation "let it." implies the reader has a choice, and must take a conscious action, to decide their direction (Egan). Whitman is saying that this world of boundaries, and things, and conflicts, and ephemeral individuality, will consume you, but only if you let it. Therefore, one must make a resolution with oneself to choose the free and "odorless." That resolution, on a literal level, is to discover your own humanity and claim intimacy with yourself, which Whitman expounds with, "and naked." The relationship between humanity and nature fascinated Whitman and the pursuit of that understanding became his life's purpose. Leaves of Grass was revised and rewritten a multiplicity of times. Stimulated by a letter of congratulations from the eminent essayist and poet Ralph Waldo Emerson, Whitman hastily put together another edition of Leaves of Grass (1856), with revisions and additions. The most significant 1856 poem is "Crossing Brooklyn Ferry," (noted above by Mulcaire) in which the poet vicariou...
