5. I Sing the Body Electric Flashcards
Summary
- Whitman celebrates the glories of existence, explores the body as a whole & in its parts, & the equal importance of both body & soul & that all bodies are equally sacred (despite gender & race, everyone has the same blood running through their veins.
- Whitman grounds all of his observations & discoveries in the body. He does so because he believes that the one thing we all share in common is the body & thus, the body becomes the root source of all society, equality & democracy.
- The poem states the similarities between body & soul, arguing that the body doesn’t corrupt the soul.
- Whitman / the speaker includes an extensive lists of the features of the human body to illustrate the individual importance of each feature that makes the body perfect.
- Whitman talks about the similarities & dissimilarities of the male & female body to highlighting the importance of women as well as men.
- Whitman expresses his condemnation of slavery, believing that all bodies are equally sacred as everyone has the same blood running through their veins.
Context
Many of Whitman’s beliefs about the holiness of the individual soul and body draw on American Quakerism, a branch of Protestant Christianity that believes every person is guided and illuminated by their own “inner light,” a personal connection with God.
Quakers reject elaborate church rituals and hierarchies and prefer to worship by sitting together in silence.
Persecuted in England, Quakers started migrating to the American colonies in the 17th century and were an established and active religious group in the U.S. by the time Whitman was born.
While Whitman was skeptical about organized religious groups in general, Quakerism’s humanistic attitudes—and its reverence for the individual—were all deep influences on his thought.
Whitman was influenced in particular by the famous Quaker thinker Elias Hicks, the leader of a progressive splinter group and a friend of Whitman’s grandfather. The young Whitman was deeply impressed by hearing Hicks’s sermons as a child, and he took to heart Hicks’s belief that people need to look inward to come in contact with the deepest truths (and can trust their own inner knowing over any outer wisdom).
Like Whitman, the Quakers were also staunch abolitionists; in fact, they were one of the earliest groups to collectively denounce slavery. Quakers actively campaigned against slavery on the basis that all humans carry a sacred inner light—an argument much like the one that Whitman makes in “I Sing the Body Electric.”
Title
Back then, electricity was new, this evokes a feeling of novelty, inventive, astonishment; electricity woul be thought of as a barely contained force of nature.
Section 1
I sing the body electric,
The armies of those I love engirth me and I engirth them,
They will not let me off till I go with them, respond to them,
And discorrupt them, and charge them full with the charge of the soul.
Was it doubted that those who corrupt their own bodies conceal themselves?
And if those who defile the living are as bad as they who defile the dead?
And if the body does not do fully as much as the soul?
And if the body were not the soul, what is the soul?
- armies are a metaphor for a mighty force ready to fight for a cause
- The body is charged “full with the charge of the soul” & “I sing the body electric” - poem begins with electrical-themed terms. Electricity has connotations of lively, vibrant & potentially dangerous energy. Thus, it prepares the reader for praise for the human body as an entity that is mysterious, enlivening & an awe-inspiring force.
- Rhetorical questions - invites readers to question their own comfortable assumptions in preparation for unexpected truths such as the body being just as important as the soul. it forces the readers to reveal truths
- Opposes protestant idea that the body and soul are separate in iconoclastic statement. The body & spirit are presented as one unified object.
Section 2
The love of the body of man or woman balks account, the body itself balks account,
That of the male is perfect, and that of the female is perfect.
The expression of the face balks account,
But the expression of a well-made man appears not only in his face,
It is in his limbs and joints also, it is curiously in the joints of his hips and wrists,
It is in his walk, the carriage of his neck, the flex of his waist and knees, dress does not hide him,
The strong sweet quality he has strikes through the cotton and broadcloth,
To see him pass conveys as much as the best poem, perhaps more,
You linger to see his back, and the back of his neck and shoulder-side.
The sprawl and fulness of babes, the bosoms and heads of women, the folds of their dress, their style as we pass in the street, the contour of their shape downwards,
The swimmer naked in the swimming-bath, seen as he swims through the transparent green-shine, or lies with his face up and rolls silently to and fro in the heave of the water,
The bending forward and backward of rowers in row-boats, the horseman in his saddle,
Girls, mothers, house-keepers, in all their performances,
The group of laborers seated at noon-time with their open dinner-kettles, and their wives waiting,
The female soothing a child, the farmer’s daughter in the garden or cow-yard,
The young fellow hoeing corn, the sleigh-driver driving his six horses through the crowd,
The wrestle of wrestlers, two apprentice-boys, quite grown, lusty, good-natured, native-born, out on the vacant lot at sun-down after work,
The coats and caps thrown down, the embrace of love and resistance,
The upper-hold and under-hold, the hair rumpled over and blinding the eyes;
The march of firemen in their own costumes, the play of masculine muscle through clean-setting trowsers and waist-straps,
The slow return from the fire, the pause when the bell strikes suddenly again, and the listening on the alert,
The natural, perfect, varied attitudes, the bent head, the curv’d neck and the counting;
Such-like I love—I loosen myself, pass freely, am at the mother’s breast with the little child,
Swim with the swimmers, wrestle with wrestlers, march in line with the firemen, and pause, listen, count.
- the body refuses submission.
- The speaker’s language suggests that the difficulty of putting the body into words is partly to do with the body’s own lively energy. Putting this inarticulable wonder right up front, the speaker invites readers to see the bodies the way he does.
- “That of the male is perfect, & that of the female is perfect” - Language & parallel lines suggests a broad, egalitarian vision of what makes bodies special.
- His bodily “expression” communicates what words cannot.
- In Whitman’s eyes the body is a work of astonishing art, much like an individual poem. He believes both entities to be of serious power in their ability to connect people with their very souls.
- These bodies do not only display their health or beauty, but also give these people their characters & unique identities.
- “The swimmer naked in the swimming-bath, seen as he swims through the transparent green-shine” - the steady polyptoton & hushed sibilance that runs all through the lines, vividly evoke the experience of swimming, its repetitive motions & the soft swish of water around the arms & legs. The speaker’s visual imagery is no less bright: the “transparent green-shine” of the water seems to glow. The overall effect is one that inspires the reader to appreciate the simple joys in life.
- “The wrestle of wrestlers, two apprentice-boys, quite grown…” - Asyndeton evokes the speaker’s fascination: linked together without conjunctions, the lines feel continuous & hypnotic, as if the speaker is utterly entranced by these beautiful men. The speaker’s descriptions demonstrate how people can be connected by habitual human activities, by empathy, & attraction to each other’s bodies.
- despite being individuals with their respective self hood, their actions transcen their own time and place. These people are more than themselves they are at the intersection of the specific an the universal.
- “pause, listen and count”- Whitman is a seperate entity- he can observe along with experience. this introduces a paradoxical tension between the individual and the collective. being a separate body is what allows him empathy
Section 3
I knew a man, a common farmer, the father of five sons,
And in them the fathers of sons, and in them the fathers of sons.
This man was of wonderful vigor, calmness, beauty of person,
The shape of his head, the pale yellow and white of his hair and beard, the immeasurable meaning of his black eyes, the richness and breadth of his manners,
These I used to go and visit him to see, he was wise also,
He was six feet tall, he was over eighty years old, his sons were massive, clean, bearded, tan-faced, handsome,
They and his daughters loved him, all who saw him loved him,
They did not love him by allowance, they loved him with personal love,
He drank water only, the blood show’d like scarlet through the clear-brown skin of his face,
He was a frequent gunner and fisher, he sail’d his boat himself, he had a fine one presented to him by a ship-joiner, he had fowling-pieces presented to him by men that loved him,
When he went with his five sons and many grand-sons to hunt or fish, you would pick him out as the most beautiful and vigorous of the gang,
You would wish long and long to be with him, you would wish to sit by him in the boat that you and he might touch each other.
- WW expresses his ideas of the body and soul differently in each section. like turning aroundd a jewel to examine each facet.
- families of generations explores connection through reproduction; directly connects every man to the future and the past.
- In other words, when the speaker looks at this farmer, he sees not just a man, but an unfolding, infinite, fractal pattern of humanity.
- this old man seems to unite all the different kinds of bodily wonder the speaker examined in section 2. Like the “wrestlers” & “swimmers”, he is an active man, who goes out shooting, fishing & sailing. Like the “firemen” & “mother[s]”, he is deeply connected to other people, part of a loving family & community. He is also physically desirable, everyone wishes to be close by him. In short, this old man expresses everything about the body that the speaker finds moving, beautiful, & fascinating. If the body is, as the speaker aruges, the same thing as the soul, then this old man’s soul - that quality that makes him himself - is rich & complete.
Section 4
I have perceiv’d that to be with those I like is enough,
To stop in company with the rest at evening is enough,
To be surrounded by beautiful, curious, breathing, laughing flesh is enough,
To pass among them or touch any one, or rest my arm ever so lightly round his or her neck for a moment, what is this then?
I do not ask any more delight, I swim in it as in a sea.
There is something in staying close to men and women and looking on them, and in the contact and odor of them, that pleases the soul well,
All things please the soul, but these please the soul well.
- A quiet hymn to the joy of being around other people & good company.
- the speaker appreciates the physical presence of people around him, describing them as “beautiful…flesh”. He finds pleasure in the tangible reality of human existence; the companionship & sensory experiences it offers.
- While all things bring some amount of fulfilment to the soul, the companionship of other human beings brings a profoundly satisfying kind of joy.
Section 5
This is the female form,
A divine nimbus exhales from it from head to foot,
It attracts with fierce undeniable attraction,
I am drawn by its breath as if I were no more than a helpless vapor, all falls aside but myself and it,
Books, art, religion, time, the visible and solid earth, and what was expected of heaven or fear’d of hell, are now consumed,
Mad filaments, ungovernable shoots play out of it, the response likewise ungovernable,
Hair, bosom, hips, bend of legs, negligent falling hands all diffused, mine too diffused,
Ebb stung by the flow and flow stung by the ebb, love-flesh swelling and deliciously aching,
Limitless limpid jets of love hot and enormous, quivering jelly of love, white-blow and delirious juice,
Bridegroom night of love working surely and softly into the prostrate dawn,
Undulating into the willing and yielding day,
Lost in the cleave of the clasping and sweet-flesh’d day.
This the nucleus—after the child is born of woman, man is born of woman,
This the bath of birth, this the merge of small and large, and the outlet again.
Be not ashamed women, your privilege encloses the rest, and is the exit of the rest,
You are the gates of the body, and you are the gates of the soul.
The female contains all qualities and tempers them,
She is in her place and moves with perfect balance,
She is all things duly veil’d, she is both passive and active,
She is to conceive daughters as well as sons, and sons as well as daughters.
As I see my soul reflected in Nature,
As I see through a mist, One with inexpressible completeness, sanity, beauty,
See the bent head and arms folded over the breast, the Female I see.
- This section of the poem encourages women to embrace their inherent beauty, unique qualities & power.
- “…all falls aside but myself & it, // Books, art, religion, time, the visible & solid earth, & what was expected of heaven or fear’d of hell, are now consumed” - illustrates the incredible power of attraction that all women exude.
- “night of love…prostrate dawn” - suggests a divine feeling, encompass something celestial when humans engage in sex.
- Sex is the ultimate connection, it merges two bodies, thus, souls into one. Sex is the centre of existence.
Section 6
The male is not less the soul nor more, he too is in his place,
He too is all qualities, he is action and power,
The flush of the known universe is in him,
Scorn becomes him well, and appetite and defiance become him well,
The wildest largest passions, bliss that is utmost, sorrow that is utmost become him well, pride is for him,
The full-spread pride of man is calming and excellent to the soul,
Knowledge becomes him, he likes it always, he brings every thing to the test of himself,
Whatever the survey, whatever the sea and the sail he strikes soundings at last only here,
(Where else does he strike soundings except here?)
The man’s body is sacred and the woman’s body is sacred,
No matter who it is, it is sacred—is it the meanest one in the laborers’ gang?
Is it one of the dull-faced immigrants just landed on the wharf?
Each belongs here or anywhere just as much as the well-off, just as much as you,
Each has his or her place in the procession.
(All is a procession,
The universe is a procession with measured and perfect motion.)
Do you know so much yourself that you call the meanest ignorant?
Do you suppose you have a right to a good sight, and he or she has no right to a sight?
Do you think matter has cohered together from its diffuse float, and the soil is on the surface, and water runs and vegetation sprouts,
For you only, and not for him and her?
- The male aspect of the soul has to do with power and action.
- suggests maleness is about self reliance. connects 19th century transcendentalist ideas of self knowledge and independance.
- the male and female become an extended metaphor for the paradoxical qualities of the human soul. WW draws on ancient images of maleness and femaleness as 2 sides of the same coin; distinctive qualities which form an inseperable and fruitful whole.
- The rhetorical questions are hectoring but however suggestibe that since humanity is connected then all of humanity must share their flaws.
- changes from a mystical tone to a political one
- addresses the affluent and questions their prejudice.
- the body is the image of the universe and vice versa.
Carol Rumens
“The grammar seems deliberately convoluted, and it has been suggested that Whitman was struggling between the revelation and the concealment of his homosexuality. But these questions, shadowed by the opposition of corruption and “discorruption”, might equally open the critique of slavery, an important theme addressed in two sections of the poem.”
Section 7
A man’s body at auction,
(For before the war I often go to the slave-mart and watch the sale,)
I help the auctioneer, the sloven does not half know his business.
Gentlemen look on this wonder,
Whatever the bids of the bidders they cannot be high enough for it,
For it the globe lay preparing quintillions of years without one animal or plant,
For it the revolving cycles truly and steadily roll’d.
In this head the all-baffling brain,
In it and below it the makings of heroes.
Examine these limbs, red, black, or white, they are cunning in tendon and nerve,
They shall be stript that you may see them.
Exquisite senses, life-lit eyes, pluck, volition,
Flakes of breast-muscle, pliant backbone and neck, flesh not flabby, good-sized arms and legs,
And wonders within there yet.
Within there runs blood,
The same old blood! the same red-running blood!
There swells and jets a heart, there all passions, desires, reachings, aspirations,
(Do you think they are not there because they are not express’d in parlors and lecture-rooms?)
This is not only one man, this the father of those who shall be fathers in their turns,
In him the start of populous states and rich republics,
Of him countless immortal lives with countless embodiments and enjoyments.
How do you know who shall come from the offspring of his offspring through the centuries?
(Who might you find you have come from yourself, if you could trace back through the centuries?)
- WW looks at a time before the 13th amendment, before the civil war.
- in a dramatic apostrophe he describes the man to be sold as an out and out miracle. he comicallys uses objectifying pronouns and outlines the asininity of slavery.
- Rumbling anaphoric repetition gives whitman prophet like quality once more.
- Apostrophises the reader to rattle the affluent, the privileged, the out of touch.
- reminder of the connection through reproduction. how we are representative of the past as well as the future.
Section 8
A woman’s body at auction,
She too is not only herself, she is the teeming mother of mothers,
She is the bearer of them that shall grow and be mates to the mothers.
Have you ever loved the body of a woman?
Have you ever loved the body of a man?
Do you not see that these are exactly the same to all in all nations and times all over the earth?
If any thing is sacred the human body is sacred,
And the glory and sweet of a man is the token of manhood untainted,
And in man or woman a clean, strong, firm-fibred body, is more beautiful than the most beautiful face.
Have you seen the fool that corrupted his own live body? or the fool that corrupted her own live body?
For they do not conceal themselves, and cannot conceal themselves.
- desire, affection, awe and connection bleed into each other.
- “cannot conceal themselves” the initial narrative is flipped. This is the paradox of the human body. if we are all intrinsically connected, harming another is harming oneself and everyone else. to harm is to conceal because the act of harming is an obscurity of the human connection. however, they cannot conceal themselves because the harm will reflect upon them, they are also marked. branded by their own folly
Section 9
- Final impassioned apostrophe
- body parts illuminate the ultimate connection
- the rapturous catalogue of bodies is more than a
theme
- The Body
- Sexuality
- Equality
- Human Connection
- Evils of Slavery
form
Like most of Whitman’s poems, “I Sing the Body Electric” is written in free verse.
Whitman also divides this poem into nine numbered sections of all different lengths, each exploring the beauty and meaning of the human body in different ways. Most of those sections are broken down into several smaller stanzas, which reflect the speaker’s evolving thoughts: a new stanza will introduce a new dimension of a section’s central idea. But the final section is one long unbroken chant, and it makes it feel as if the speaker is getting swept away by his sheer enthusiasm for every part of the body he enumerates.
