33 pages • 1 hour read
Walt WhitmanI Sing the Body Electric
Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1855A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Further Reading & Resources
Related Poems
“I Hear America Singing” by Walt Whitman (1860)
“I Hear America Singing” is one of Whitman’s most widely known poems. As with “I Sing the Body Electric,” this poem celebrates everyday, working-class Americans, glorifying work and nation-building. It includes references to the value of women and a variety of different kinds of laborers, but it does not reference enslaved people or slavery. It relies on repetition and makes use of the word “sing” to signify celebration and harmony of a collective.
“O Pioneers! O Pioneers!” by Walt Whitman (1865)
In this poem, Whitman celebrates the pioneers, moving westward to settle the land on behalf of the European-descended, new Americans. The pioneers would have faced hardships and danger and would have been required to endure physical deprivation and long hours of manual labor to create new houses, towns, cities, etc. This poem glorifies bravery, self-sufficiency, and the ethics around work. As with Section 5 of “I Sing the Body Electric,” in which Whitman describes an idealized farmer, this poem demonstrates an idealized version of pioneers settling the West through their determination, hard work, and bravery.
“O Captain, My Captain” by Walt Whitman (1865)
Though widely known, this poem is an outlier from Whitman’s typical style. It mourns the death of President Abraham Lincoln, who Whitman compares to the captain of a ship. Like many of Whitman’s poems, it celebrates America, specifically Lincoln.
“When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d” by Walt Whitman (1865)
This is another poem mourning the death of Lincoln. It is more personal than “O Captain My Captain,” and typical of Whitman’s style, it is longer and encompasses imagery of nature, binding Lincoln up with lilacs, birds, and the western star.
Further Literary Resources
Whitman’s Leaves of Grass, I Sing the Body Electric, #2 by Tim McGee (2022)
In this lecture, Tim McGee discusses the meaning of “I Sing the Body Electric,” specifically Whitman’s intention of integration. He integrates philosophy, science, sociology, religion, etc., and also integrates body and soul and different people into one people. He discusses Whitman’s influence by Emerson and Emerson’s theology. In the Western world, the tendency to separate the body and soul comes from Descartes.
“Pride” The Walt Whitman Archive (1998)
In this article, Christopher Griffin explores Whitman’s writings on the subject of pride. In Christian doctrine, pride is considered negative, something to be avoided. In “I Sing the Body Electric,” Whitman states that pride expresses the soul “well” (Line 52), which would have been an uncommon belief in his time. This article sheds light on some of Whitman’s beliefs around pride based on what he has written. It is necessary and beneficial for the creators of a new country to have some pride in themselves to bulwark and spur on their creative energies.
“Whitman’s Transcendentalism: An Analysis of “Song of Myself” by Comparing with Emersonian Thought” by Rui Liu Atlantis Press (2021)
This article explores the similarities and differences between Emerson’s view of Transcendentalism and Whitman’s. Though the article focuses on Whitman’s poem, “Song of Myself,” it expands upon Whitman’s feelings surrounding the body and can add to a reader’s understanding of “I Sing the Body Electric.” It also offers insight into Whitman’s importance in the Transcendentalism movement and how the two writers influenced one another and American thought to come.
Listen to Poem
This short video presents the entirety of Whitman’s text of “I Sing the Body Electric” alongside a series of changing images. The poem is read by a woman (unnamed) who reads the words slowly and articulately. This channel also provides subscribers and viewers with a brief summary of Whitman’s life and importance.
Related Titles
By Walt Whitman
