What Whittman Wrote (and why)

(disclaimer: I'm not 100% sure this is how you want us to format this but I tried)

My original impressions without looking at the notes:
 My first thought is that his handwriting is SO HARD to read. In addition, trying to read it without looking at the notes is really hard. Moving past that, it is super interesting to get this inside glance into Walt's mind. This notebook seemed to be for literally anything, from the addresses of people to little doodles. Structurally it reveals a lot about Whitman. His minds wanders from thought to thought, crossing out words and phrases as he goes. Yet he still has a vague focus for each section of the notebook, as all the drawings are confined to one space rather than being spread out. Something else I noticed is that he seemed to vary the direction on which he wrote on the page. It might have just been the way the pictures were taken, but it seemed as if sometimes he wrote horizontal and sometimes he wrote vertical. That seems super weird to me, and it gives me the sense that he knew whether he was going to be writing longer sentences (horizontal) or shorter sentences (vertical). This seemed to be a place for him to work out his ideas, evident through the fact that some of his words and phrases are marked through. He toys with ideas such as the metaphor of a ship representing different things, the idea of religion, and others that appear in his published writing.

After reading the notes and having my mind blown with all the info they got from this:
He is for sure toying with his ideas in this notebook, from multiple titles for a never created brochure to poetry about Lincoln. This notebook reveals the extent to which Whitman's poetry and mindset was influence by the political state of the united states. In particular it reveals how invested he was in Lincoln and how much he wished to share with the president elect at the time. In addition, the theme of democracy, which is very present in his published poems, are also very prevalent in this notebook. It is seen through his questions of how Lincoln will do in office and his other political statements. Also, let me just say that I'm a little annoyed they skipped around pages and put them in a different order maybe because I don't like that someone who is not Walt decided what I see of his notebook and in what order. Also that causes some of my first observations to be not valid anymore, like ordering all the drawings together. Also, I am confused by the idea that he didn't draw those doodles himself. I mean, I don't hand people my personal journal to draw portraits of myself, but I guess it speaks to the kind of guy he his, one who likes to look at himself. I mean I have my friends take selfies for me so I can see the similarities to that and the drawings in his notebook. From his notebook and what that website told me about his notebook, I feel as if Walt was a guy who was confident in his opinions and reflective of the world around him, especially the political world.