Walt Whitman conceptualized his poetic project in terms of language experimentation. His varied use of syntax, rhythm, and aural effects such as anaphora, assonance, consonance, slant rhyme, and elision is nowhere more evident than in "Song of Myself," the poem that opens the 1855 edition of Leaves of Grass and in which hearing and listening are central themes:

"I think I will do nothing for a long time but listen,
And accrue what I hear into myself....and let sounds contribute toward me. […]

I hear the sound of the human voice....a sound I love
I hear all sounds as they are tuned to their uses....sounds of the city and sounds
          out of the city....sounds of the day and night;"

Lines such as these suggest how much is lost when we read only with our eyes.

Unfortunately, "Song of Myself" is a poem that is much read but seldom heard. This is a particular problem since Whitman's long idiosyncratic line can look like prose to many readers. By integrating a diplomatic transcript of the 1855 version of "Song of Myself" with six streaming audio tracks, this audiotext emphasizes the oral register of the poem, thus enabling users to better apprehend the relations between sound and sense.

In doing so the audiotext also highlights an understudied aspect of the poem. Despite its title, "Song of Myself" is a polyvocal poem, one in which several poetic personae and voices compete. Such polyvocality is represented here by six different readers, each of whom reads the entire poem. Users are encouraged to "mix" these voices as they deem fit, experimenting with vocal tracks line by line, section by section, or page by page. In presenting the poem in this way, we refrain from asserting that there is a correct way to vocalize a given line. Whitman famously "hear[d] America singing"; this audiotext will help users to hear the diversity of that singing and its singers.

The audiotext is presented through an interface that resembles a copy of the original edition of Leaves of Grass lying open on a desk. (Our model for this design is the Paradise Lost audiotexts project, which is also hosted by Liberal Arts Instructional Technology Services at the University of Texas at Austin.) Composed in Adobe Flex, the Flash-based interface is backed by an XML-encoded text that conforms to the P5 guidelines of the Text Encoding Initiative. Although we ultimately intend to include the entire text of the 1855 Leaves of Grass, we will offer audio tracks for "Song of Myself" only. We also plan to include annotations that situate the poem in relation to historical and cultural contexts and discourses (e.g., democratic culture, temperance, slavery, abolitionism, U.S. imperialism, Native American removal, "deviant" sexuality, phrenology).

The implications of this project extend beyond the study of Walt Whitman and even beyond the purposes of literary instruction. By developing and promoting the audiotext format, we aim to bring into closer conversation the history of the book and the future of information technology.

Depending on the speed of your computer and connection, the audiotext takes anywhere from several seconds to over a minute to load.

The primary means of controlling the audiotext is the “playhand,” an icon that resembles a Whitman doodle of a hand with an extended index finger. The playhand appears in the left margin of the text and points to the line in the poem that corresponds to the current position of the audio tracks. To move the playhand, click on a line and the playhand will move to that position..

In addition to the playhand, the audiotext offers a toolbar with the following buttons: Options, Previous Page, Next Page, Zoom, and Play.

Play: Starts the audio at the point of the playhand. Use the selection menu to the right of the play button to switch between six different voices. When the audio is playing, the play button converts to a pause button.

Zoom: Fills the window with the region of the audiotext immediately surrounding the playhand. When the audio is playing, this zoomed-in view will scroll automatically. Otherwise, you can click on a line to scroll the view..

Previous Page / Next Page: Turns to the next or previous page. Hold a button down to turn pages at a faster speed.

Options: Opens a panel that offers three means of searching/navigating the audiotext:

• Goto Line Tool: Moves the playhand to the line number (1-1336) selected by the user in the input box.
• Selection Tool: Moves the playhand to the first line of a range of line numbers selected by the user in the input boxes. The “Show Selection” button highlights the selected text, while the “Hide Selection button” removes this highlighting.
• Search Tool: Generates a list of lines from the poem that contain all the search terms entered by the user in the input box. These lines are displayed in the “Search Results” field with a button next to each line. The user can move the playhand to a given line by pressing the associated button, which is labeled with the line number.

Keyboard shortcuts:

• p = play/pause
• z = toggle zoom
• o = show/hide options
• up/left arrow = move playhand up one line
• down/right arrow = move playhand down one line
• page down key = next page
• page up key = previous page

Editors
Coleman Hutchison
Olin Bjork
Michael Winship

Audio
Michael Heidenreich, Audio Engineer
Sean Neesley, Assistant Audio Engineer

Readers
Tom Cable
Franchelle Dorn
Louisa Hall
James Loehlin
Dorothy Meiburg
Patrick Rosal

Project Management
Emily Cicchini, LAITS Special Projects Manager
Gary Dickerson, Manager of the Student Technology Assistant Program

Graphic Art & Interface Design
Suloni Robertson, Web Designer/Artist
David Choi, Student Technology Assistant
Karen Cheng, Student Technology Assistant

Developers
Scott Herrick, Division of Instructional Innovation and Assessment
Ran An, HTML and CSS Designer
David Choi, Student Technology Assistant