33 pages • 1 hour read
I Sing the Body Electric
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Symbols & Motifs
Electricity and Corruption, Concealment and Nudity
Electricity is a symbol for life and movement. Corruption is what happens when a body dies, decays, and begins to rot. It is the opposite of “the body electric” (Line 1). The two are binaries.
The primary goal of Walt Whitman’s poem is to sing about the alive body—charged with electricity, full of vitality, and brimming with life force to engage in wholesome, democratic, nation-building activities. He writes in Section 1 that his aim is to “discorrupt” (Line 4) the bodies, insinuating that bodies in America are in danger of being, or are in the process of being corrupted. The poem is meant to turn bodies that may rot into bodies that continue to reproduce with the charge of life.
The speaker asks, “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?” (Lines 5-6). In this context, the term “corruption” refers to slavery or any act in which a person inhibits another’s ability to express their soul through the body. Those who interrupt the life force of other bodies also corrupt themselves. Those who defile the bodies of others also defile that person’s soul and subsequently their own souls. He refers to people who corrupt their bodies as “fools” (Line 128) when discussing slavery, then answers the question he asks at the start of the poem, saying “For they do not conceal themselves, and cannot conceal themselves” (Line 129).
Whitman argues that enslavers—those who defile their bodies or the bodies of others—cannot hide their corruption. They do not engage in the “electric” (Line 1) charge of the body, but instead display their decay, their hubris, their rot.
The Face
In Section 2, Whitman writes:
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 (Lines 11-14),
Then again, in Section 8, the speaker states “And in man or woman a clean, strong, firm-fibred body, is more beautiful than the most beautiful face” (Line 127).
Traditionally, writers and artists have focused on the face as the primary mode of expression. The mouth smiles or frowns; the ears listen; the brain, housed behind the face, is responsible for thinking and feeling. In “I Sing the Body Electric,” Whitman argues that the body is just as if not more important vehicle to express a person’s soul. He draws attention to the “limbs and joints” and the “hips and wrists” (Line 13). These parts are capable of movement and can also express attitudes, changing opinions, agency, flexibility, action, and intention, the way a face can express these things. The body, unlike the face, is also responsible for, or the vehicle through which humans take action, build and make large objects, and propagate the species. Through outlining the distinction between the face and body, Whitman not only elevates the body, but also puts an emphasis on the importance of action, rather than thoughts and words.
Gaze and Touch
Whitman lists body parts throughout the poem, in part to draw attention to the complexity of the human body, to show its many working parts and their purposes. At the same time, the speaker describes his satisfaction and intrigue in seeing the body parts. In Section 2 he writes “You linger to see his back, and the back of his neck and shoulder-side” (Line 18).
He describes touching the bodies of others and wanting to touch the bodies of others. This frank admiration and sensuality suggests that the body is not only meant to be useful, but is also meant to entice, to be enjoyed by others, to be desired and to cause satisfaction. This was contrary to some of the mores of the time, as was Whitman’s glorification of pride, yet in Whitman’s view of the body, the enticement of it is something that binds people together, binding their souls in unity as well as binding their flesh.
In his description of lovemaking on the wedding night, he uses the terminology of work to describe the sexual act: “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” (Lines 62-64).
Flesh is “sweet” and it is equated with “day” (Line 64), which itself is equated with work. The appreciation of the flesh then is an appreciation for the soul, and that appreciation begets more flesh, i.e., begets children. Whitman argues that the appreciation of flesh then is holy and necessary for the bonding of human beings and the building of a coherent, harmonious, and functional society.
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By Walt Whitman
