“I Sing the Body Electric”

I really loved Emma’s discussion of the way in which Whitman plays with gender associations and qualities and agree with her assertion that his descriptions of the male and female bodies emphasizes his larger claim about the importance of the individual.  This theme of the exploration of the intricacies of the individual is a resounding energy in Whitman’s work and “I Sing the Body Electric” captures that energy  in a powerful way through the emphasis on the physicality of the human body and its many awe inspiring agencies.  The language which opens the poem is strong, bold, and definitive drawing attention to the capacity of the human body in its relation the the individual: “That of the male is perfect, and that of the female is perfect” (Whitman 251).  These claims reveal to the reader that “perfection” is a universal quality of humanity that has already been achieved among all, rather than something that is embodied by a certain gender, race, or any other classification of human being.  Whitman goes on to express his wonder at the human form and its qualities and abilities and in doing so inspires the reader to pay attention to  coexistence and its pleasures. He explains in 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…” (Whitman 253).  The abstract qualities of emotion (laughing) with the physical language (flesh) is what leads to Whitman’s further claim that the soul reveals itself in the physical properties and agencies of human beings.  He provides that the soul is pleased by the observation of another’s soul as it is revealed in another human’s physical and emotional expressions.