I Sing the Body Electric

The title “I Sing the Body Electric” suggests that the poem functions as a song. Songs are made up of multiple parts, differing notes, and frequently, differing instruments that rely on the interplay of one another to create a harmonious whole. The “song” that Walt Whitman sings in the poem demonstrates the way different parts of the body work together and shows that the different kinds of people in America, the differing bodies, function together to make something greater. The form and substance of the poem demonstrate that the soul, through the body, is part of a greater pattern of existence in which parts work together to create a song—a more ordered, powerful whole.

In the first stanza, the speaker notes, “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” (Lines 2-4). He introduces the topic of communality, stating he is surrounded by other bodies and his body surrounds the bodies of those he loves. It is a reciprocal condition, and the speaker declares he must “charge them full with the charge of the soul” (Line 4). For the speaker, this communality is intertwined with holiness, and the “charge” of the soul is what drives him to be with others, who he recognizes as fellow souls. But, he asks, “if the body were not the soul, what is the soul?” (Line 8).

In Section 2, the speaker says, “The love of the body of man or woman balks account, the body itself balks account” (Line 9). Yet the speaker attempts to explain the body throughout the poem. The speaker goes to great lengths to list various male parts, to give a complete picture of the bodies he describes, to explain something that may “balk” explanation. The lists enumerate functional parts of people’s bodies, drawing attention to the magnitude of their creation. Rather than being bodies, they are made up of many different parts, each distinct, working together. The lists emphasize how complicated, intricate, and worthy of praise and wonder the body is.

Whitman writes, “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” (Lines 17-18). The complexity of the body, when you see it, inspires contemplation. It is not mere carnality though that Whitman contemplates, but also the way the body expresses aspects of the soul. A single body cannot demonstrate all the aspects of creation, however. From here, Whitman lists different qualities of types of bodies: “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” (Line 19).

It is not enough for the speaker to simply notice different kinds of people. The purpose of noticing is to imagine himself into their lives and to find empathy with their physical placement and conditions. Through observing bodies, he expands his place in the universe, his knowledge, energy, sympathy, and capabilities. “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” (Lines 32-33).

In Section 3, the speaker focuses on the description of the common farmer. Though he is “common,” (Line 33) he expresses all that is beautiful in a human being and realizes his full potential. The speaker finds this attractive and wishes to touch the man. This demonstrates the way men inspire one another to love, to create, to give one another gifts, and to propagate the species. This too is all expressed through the body and cannot be done independent of the body.

In Section 4, being with others is enough. It represents the highest form of delight. He couples the description of this coming together with a particularly earthy, kinesthetic description, “There is something in staying close to men and women and looking on them, and in the contact and odor of them” (Line 51). He emphasizes that this carnality is what pleases the soul “well” (Line 52).

In Sections 5 and 6, he emphasizes the purpose of differences between men and women. The genders imply one another and know one another through their differences. When making love to a woman, a man is “consumed” (Line 54) and his concerns are consumed in the consciousness and coupling of their bodies. The bridegroom works, “Undulating into the willing and yielding day, / Lost in the cleave of the clasping and sweet-flesh’d day” (Lines 63-64).

In Section 6, Whitman notes that man “is not less the soul nor more, he too is in his place” (Line 76), suggesting that each body, soul, and person exists in context of a greater whole. The place of the male is in relationship to the female. He is born of woman; woman is impregnated by man. They exist in a symbiotic relationship but could not exist on their own as independent entities. This recalls the function and makeup of a song, which also relies on “ebb and flow” (Line 60), on dissonance and resolution, on differing notes to play off one another to make a whole.

This metaphor extends throughout history as well. Whitman often references those who have come before and those who will come after, aware and drawing awareness to the fact that his generation is merely part of a larger whole.

The speaker notes the following:

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) (Lines 85-91).

Here, Whitman is speaking again of an ordered chaos. A procession, like a song, has a constant flow but is also directed and bound by a kind of order. People march in an order, going together in one direction, each taking a particular place in the march. In a song, the voices all work in accordance with one another and move from beginning to middle to end, each note working to create a larger whole, each note functioning alongside other notes.

In Parts 7 and 8, he relates this philosophy to the enslaved men and women in particular. He says “I help the auctioneer, the sloven does not half know his business” (Line 98). The speaker means that the man selling the body of another man does not understand the importance of that body. Whitman steps in to demonstrate that importance by listing the different parts of the body. This mirrors the way he describes the bodies of free people, thus making a clear comparison between the bodies of free people and the bodies of enslaved people. If the body is an expression of the soul, an enslaved person must have the same soul as a one not enslaved, thus making them equals.

He also communicates a sense of the history that has made the enslaved person’s body, linking it to a cosmogony, an understanding of man’s place in the universe. He writes, “For it the globe lay preparing quintillions of years without one animal or plant, / For it the revolving cycles truly and steadily roll’d” (Lines 101-02).

Here and elsewhere, the speaker illustrates that nature creates mankind and mankind depends on nature. They are a part of the system of the Earth, dating back to the planet’s origin. This magnifies the importance of a body, and in that way, it condemns the auctioneer (who he calls a sloven) or anyone who would diminish or put a price on that body.

The bodies of enslaved people also connect to the future. He notes the man will be the father of many children, and he says of the enslaved woman, “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” (Lines 120-21).

Whitman emphasizes the connection of each body to the past and the future, placing them as parts of larger wholes, and more importantly, the whole as part of them. As with a song, the scope of Whitman’s people expands and contracts. This is reflected in the structure of the poem. The poet enumerates America with long lists of different parts, then focuses on specific persons—a farmer, a man and woman on their wedding night, and enslaved persons at auction. Like music, the poem swells then contracts, making a constant motion.

Section 9 is its crescendo. Whitman brings the readers’ attention back to his own body and its connection with others:

O my body! I dare not desert the likes of you in other men and women, nor the likes of the parts of you,

I believe the likes of you are to stand or fall with the likes of the soul, (and that they are the soul,)

I believe the likes of you shall stand or fall with my poems, and that they are my poems,

Man’s, woman’s, child’s, youth’s, wife’s, husband’s, mother’s, father’s, young man’s, young woman’s poems (Lines 130-33),

Whitman makes clear that his body is the body of others. His soul will rise and fall with others, including those who are different from him. Whitman argues that his soul is his body and that the bodies of others are his body and his soul. He returns to what he said in the first stanza, that the others will not “let him off” (Line 3) until he charges them with soul. Thus, he cannot desert them because he is part of them. As each part of his body is integral to the rest, so he is integral to every other person and every other person integral to him.

Next, the speaker lists each body part to show their importance. He intentionally makes this list long and complete because each part is necessary, important, and worthy of attention. His final argument repeats what he said at the beginning of the poem: “The exquisite realization of health; / I say these are not the parts and poems of the body only, but of the soul, / I say now these are the soul!” (Lines 163-65).

He ends the poem/song with the same “note” with which it starts. This creates harmony, a sense of order, and the feeling that a journey has come to completion. The form mirrors the meaning, which is that there is a holy order, and the order encompasses all things; all things are part of that whole.