The Poem I Sing the Body Electric by Walt Whitman Analyses - Essay Example

I SING THE BODY ELECTRIC Thesis Democracy is the ideal concept as it upholds the individual’s self-dignity and fundamental rights. One of these rights is the right to choose one’s own sexual orientation and preference. Homosexuality is a part and parcel of human life. Homosexuals, like their heterosexual counterparts, consider their body sacred and they have the privilege of having sexual relations with those they consider compatible. It follows then that homosexuality should not be criminalized; the civil rights of gays should be equally respected and protected. Another facet of democracy is that there should be no discrimination against anyone on the basis of race or color; a true democracy therefore, has no room for slavery. Background Walt Whitman (1819 – 1892) was born into the newly formed United States of America and grew up believing that his new country would have a stable existence. During most of the 1840s he wrote poems that reflected accepted norms and proprieties such as ‘Our Future Lot’ and ‘The Love that is Hereafter’. But his friendship with radical thinkers and writers made Whitman change his views on the issue of race and on the overall issue of equality in democracy, the key components being slavery (which was widespread) and homosexuality (which was then a taboo subject). He began seeing himself as an appropriate spokesman for the young U.S. democracy (denoted by his use of “I” in his poems) in upholding just causes (http://www.english.uiuc.edu/maps/poets/ s_z/whitman/bio.htm) and this inspired him to write poems which changed the course of American poetry. Whitman wrote 12 poems (one of which is “I Sing the Body Electric”) in his protean “Leaves of Grass” in 1855, arguably the most explosive and influential volume of poems in the history of American literature, praised by Ralph Waldo Emerson as “a remarkable mixture of the Bhagvat Gita and the New York Herald.” (http://www.english.uiuc.edu/ maps/poets/s_z/whitman/bio.htm). These poems were the product of Whitman’s language experimentation and presented an unconventional yet exquisite blending of the spiritual (such as his explanation about body and soul {“I Sing the Body Electric”, Section 1, Lines 5-9}) and everyday speech of the people (like the tale of the common farmer {“I Sing the Body Electric”, Section 3, Lines 33-44}), sometimes beyond the ordinary range of human experience and understanding, yet belonging very much to this world. “I Sing the Body Electric” is a tribute to Whitman’s free and open exposure of his thoughts, memories and a dignified celebration of American history, politics, geography, occupations and speech. It is unconventional in that glorifies the human body, calling it ‘sacred’ (“I Sing the Body Electric”, Section 6, Line 83), something that was not openly talked about during those days. Analysis The poem shows Whitman’s excessive elevation of the human body and sexual love, a reflection of his lively interest in the physical aspect of things. It is famous for the explicit depiction of the human body (such as the “all baffling brain” and the “jetting heart” {“I Sing the Body Electric”, Section 7, Lines 100 & 110}), and its delight and praise of the senses during a time where such frank descriptions were considered gross violations of the principles of right and wrong (http://www.answers.com/topic/leaves-of-grass). His critics were flabbergasted by the graphic and intense humanism reflected in the vivid anatomical descriptions in the poem and heavily criticized it. Whitman hit back at them, asking if they thought the body organs were not present just because they did not discuss about them in their posh dining parlors and lecture halls (“I Sing the Body Electric”, Section 7, Line 111). Whitman provides very graphic details of first the female body (“I Sing the Body Electric”, Section 5, Lines 52-73) followed by the male body (“I Sing the Body Electric”, Section 6, Lines 74-82), thus exalting the body and its vital function in establishing links between people (http://www.sparknotes.com/poetry/whitman/section9.rhtml). Like Nietzsche, Whitman refuted the belief that the human body was the cause of sin (“I Sing the Body Electric”, Section 1, Lines 5 & 6), instead portraying it as something extraordinarily good and capable of great achievements (http://faculty.frostburg.edu/phil/ /forum/Nietzsche.htm} He calls the human body ‘perfect’ (“I Sing the Body Electric”, Section 2, Lines 9-10, and in another instance says that the body is ‘clean, strong-limbed and beautiful’ (“I Sing the Body Electric”, Section 8, Line 127). He praises the body most for its ability to produce new life. The ability of the human body to procreate is also portrayed in the anecdote of the “common farmer” (I Sing the Body Electric”, Section 3), where Whitman praises the ability of the uncomplicated man to be a part of and build a family generation (http://www.sparknotes.com/poetry/whitman/section9.rhtml). Whitman was a great admirer of democracy. The theory of radical unity and equality is evident in his poem: in the body, the different parts like the arm and arm-pit, the belly and the bowels are considered equally important contributors to the fullness of identity as the seemingly more important parts like the heart and brain (“I Sing the Body Electric”, Lines 140-150). Similarly in a democracy, all citizens were equally important, whether they were poor or rich (http://www.english.uiuc.edu/maps/poets/s_z/whitman/bio.htm). In Sections 7 and 8 of the poem, Whitman displays his aversion to slavery. He first gives details of a male and then a female auction, portraying those slaves as parents of an indefinite number of offspring, thereby blasting the way slaves were treated and contending that slaves are as human as others and should be treated on equal footing (http://www.sparknotes.com/poetry/whitman/section9.rhtml); they deserve a rightful place in the democratic framework of the country (a crucial issue that was then being hotly debated in the U.S), similar to those ‘well-off’ (“I Sing the Body Electric”, Section 6, Lines 86-87). Whitman is lavish in his praise of women, saying that a divine ‘nimbus’ emanates from the female form (“I Sing the Body Electric”, Section 5, Line 2). He reposed great faith in the bountiful richness of motherhood. He praises the deep involvement of women in the reproductive process, and calls on women to cast away their perceived shame and break away from the notion that they are unimportant; he urges them to exult in their vital importance to the human race, calling them the ‘gates of the body and soul’ (“I Sing the Body Electric”, Section 5, Line 67 {http://www.sparknotes.com/poetry/whitman/ section9.rhtml}). Whitman is seen by many as the forerunner of homosexual liberation. He did not sire any children himself and is known to have been a homosexual (he is reported to have had two male lovers: Jean Granouille and Peter Doyle {http://www.answers.com/topic/walt-whitman}). During the American Civil War Whitman saw the intense bonds of friendship between soldiers; he noticed this again in Washington D.C where he worked as a nurse. This gave rise to his notions about the convergence of homosexuality and democracy; that there should be no discrimination between hetrosexual and homosexual love in a true democracy (http://www.answers.com/topic/walt-whitman). Whitman associated homosexual love with the calamus plant – a plant named after the river god Calamus who mourned the death of his boy lover Carpus. Throughout his lifetime Whitman was marked as a morally loose and indecent writer, his ‘crime’ being to celebrate the reality of sex in his writings (http://www.infopt.demon.co.uk/whitman.htm). Whitman yearns for freedom to choose his own friends without being contradicted, pleading to freely mingle with and maintain close relations with others (“I Sing the Body Electric”, Section 4, Lines 50-51). He castigates those who frown on homosexuality, asking what right they had to malign homosexuals, asking them if only they had the right to all that the earth had to offer (“I Sing the Body Electric”, Section 6, Lines 90-94 {http://faculty.frostburg.edu/phil/forum/Nietzsche.htm}). The poem reflected Whitman’s view that his new country was fated to pose this ideal of a true democracy to the rest of the world as the nation which freed the human spirit from the bondage it was subjected to (http://www.answers.com/topic/Walt_Whitman) The poem’s explicitly erotic descriptions of the male body reflected Whitman’s leanings towards homosexuality and homoeroticism. While describing the male auction in Section 7, he shows his fondness for the male body by stating that the auctioneer (whom he calls ‘sloven’) does not know his business as properly as he should (“I Sing the Body Electric”, Section 7, Line 95), and goes on to help him by detailing the strange and surprising features of the man’s body (http://www.sparknotes.com/poetry/whitman/ section9.rhtml). While Whitman praises nature and the human part in it, he also gives great importance to the human mind or soul. ( http://www.answers.com/topic/leaves-of-grass). Like Nietzsche, he strongly disagreed with traditional philosophy’s tendency towards metaphysical thinking (http://faculty.frostburg.edu/phil/forum/Nietzsche.htm), insisting that the mind (soul) cannot be a different identity separated from the body (“I Sing the Body Electric”, Section 1, Line 8). The last part of the poem gives a surprising list of body parts, ending with the words that these belong to both the body and the soul (“I Sing the Body Electric”, Section 9, Line 164), meaning that although the body is like an assistant of the soul or mind, and becomes sacred as a result of its association with the soul), body and soul are not two separate entities but one unit. The body is the medium that makes it possible for the soul to experience the world. The fondness of the physical body, both male and female, that is so apparent in the poem is the product of Whitman’s appreciation for the close association between the body and the soul and the intense sharing that can come through physical contact http://www. sparknotes.com/poetry/ whitman/section9.rhtml). Conclusion The American Civil War (1861-1865) took place during the lifetime of Walt Whitman and resulted in the abolition of slavery, something that would have pleased Whitman tremendously, given his writings against slavery apparent in “I Sing the Body Electric” as well as other poems. During the lifetime of Walt Whitman, homosexuality was hidden and secret, ruthlessly suppressed by society. “I Sing the Body Electric” is the first poetry to address this issue in America, as it not only contains the enigma that is America, but it also reveals how America has consistently crippled and damaged its ultimate aims of perfection, especially its prejudice against homosexual love, a taboo that caused suffering in Whitman’s life. This has led to Whitman being hailed as the pioneer of the gay rights movement (which later shot into prominence and gained momentum after the famous Stonewall riot {June 1969} as a consequence of a police raid on an illegal gay bar). “I Sing the Body Electric” enjoyed an unexpected spurt of popularity in the late 1990s when it became known that former U.S. President Bill Clinton, who had earlier gifted the book “Leaves of Grass” to his wife Hillary while at college, also presented the book to his mistress Monica Lewinsky! (http://www.answers.com/topic/leaves-of-grass). References Anon. “Leaves of Grass”. Answers.com. No date. Anon. “Walt Whitman”. Answers.com. No date. Bramann, Jom K. “Nietzsche: The Dark Side of Things”. Frostburg.edu. 2004. Martin, Melissa. “SparkNote on Whitman’s Poetry”. Sparknotes.com. 7 Oct. 2006 Norton, Richard. “Walt Whitman, Prophet of Gay Liberation”. The Great Queens of History. 18 Nov. 1999 Price, Kenneth M. & Fulsom, Ed. “About Walt Whitman”. The Walt Whitman Hypertext Archives. 1998 Whitman, Walt. “Leaves of Grass” (c1900). Bartleby.com. 1999 Read More