"winders of the circuit of circuits"

[Grant Barrett]

On Dec 28, 2008, at 02:02, Geoffrey Nunberg wrote:

> Belonging to the winders of the circuit of circuits.

I wouldn't discount the electrical sense, but it might come from a
different angle than you're thinking. Consider this page at Google
Books from "Walt Whitman" by David S. Reynolds.

http://tinyurl.com/7tj7ke

"Whitman's use of the vocabulary of animal magnetism and electricity
shows the mesmerists' influence. [...] So well attuned to the
electrical theory was Whitman that at times his poetic personal seems
like a bundle of electrical impulses. 'I have instant conductors all
over me whether I pass or stop,' he writes in 'Song of Myself.'"

Reynolds goes on to quote the memorable line, "I sing the body
electric."

Grant Barrett
gbarrett at worldnewyork.org

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org