What does "lacy jags" mean in Whitman's poem?

Question

I ran into this poetic expression when my literature teacher quoted Walt Whitman,

I depart as air—I shake my white locks at the runaway sun;
  
  I effuse my flesh in eddies, and drift it in lacy jags.

According to Dictionary.com, 'jag' has the meaning of 'a load, as of hay or wood'. So here 'lacy jags' means 'wood with laces'? I'm confused.

jjrose · Answer

A jagged surface or edge has a lot of rough pointed parts that make it look broken or torn. (Macmillen Dictionary)
So a lacy jag would be the softened jagged edges as he effuses through the air perhaps in death.

Peter Shor · Answer

One possibility is the following definition from the OED:

A shred of cloth; in plural. Rags, tatters. Also transferred and figurative. A scrap, fragment. Obsolete exc. dialect.

With this definition, the line would mean that he drifts his flesh in lacy shreds, which seems reasonable.
Was this meaning in use when Whitman wrote, or was it already obsolete by then? (Although note that Whitman was quite happy to use obsolete words.) Judging by the popularity of the phrase "rags and jags" in 19th century American English (See Ngram), I expect that the word was known, at least in some dialects of American English, when Whitman was writing.

What does "lacy jags" mean in Whitman's poem?

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