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object:1.whitman - I Sing The Body Electric
author class:Walt Whitman
subject class:Poetry
book class:Whitman - Poems
class:chapter


I Sing The Body Electric
I sing the Body electric;
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.
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?
And if the body does not do as much as the Soul?
And if the body were not the Soul, what is the Soul?

The love of the Body of man or woman balks accountthe body itself
    balks account;
That of the male is perfect, and that of the female is perfect.

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 kneesdress does not hide him;
The strong, sweet, supple quality he has, strikes through the cotton
    and flannel;
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.

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,
The swimmer naked in the swimming-bath, seen as he swims through the
    transparent green-shine, or lies with his face up, and rolls
    silently to and fro in the heave of the water,
The bending forward and backward of rowers in row-boatsthe horseman
    in his saddle,                      

Girls, mothers, house-keepers, in all their performances,
The group of laborers seated at noon-time with their open dinner-
    kettles, and their wives waiting,
The female soothing a childthe farmer's daughter in the garden or
    cow-yard,
The young fellow hoeing cornthe sleigh-driver guiding his six
    horses through the crowd,
The wrestle of wrestlers, two apprentice-boys, quite grown, lusty,
    good-natured, native-born, out on the vacant lot at sundown,
    after work,
The coats and caps thrown down, the embrace of love and resistance,
The upper-hold and the under-hold, the hair rumpled over and blinding
    the eyes;
The march of firemen in their own costumes, the play of masculine
    muscle through clean-setting trousers and waist-straps,
The slow return from the fire, the pause when the bell strikes
    suddenly again, and the listening on the alert,
The natural, perfect, varied attitudesthe bent head, the curv'd
    neck, and the counting;                  

Such-like I loveI 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, and count.

I know a man, a common farmerthe father of five sons;
And in them were the fathers of sonsand in them were the fathers of
    sons.

This man was of wonderful vigor, calmness, beauty of person;
The shape of his head, the pale yellow and white of his hair and
    beard, and the immeasurable meaning of his black eyesthe
    richness and breadth of his manners,
These I used to go and visit him to seehe was wise also;
He was six feet tall, he was over eighty years oldhis sons were
    massive, clean, bearded, tan-faced, handsome;
They and his daughters loved himall who saw him loved him;
They did not love him by allowancethey loved him with personal
    love;                          

He drank water onlythe blood show'd like scarlet through the clear-
    brown skin of his face;
He was a frequent gunner and fisherhe sail'd his boat himselfhe
    had a fine one presented to him by a ship-joinerhe had
    fowling-pieces, presented to him by men that loved him;
When he went with his five sons and many grand-sons to hunt or fish,
    you would pick him out as the most beautiful and vigorous of
    the gang.

You would wish long and long to be with himyou would wish to sit by
    him in the boat, that you and he might touch each other.

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,
To pass among them, or touch any one, or rest my arm ever so lightly
    round his or her neck for a momentwhat is this, then?
I do not ask any more delightI swim in it, as in a sea.

There is something in staying close to men and women, and looking on
    them, and in the contact and odor of them, that pleases the
    soul well;                        

All things please the soulbut these please the soul well.

This is the female form;
A divine nimbus exhales from it from head to foot;
It attracts with fierce undeniable attraction!
I am drawn by its breath as if I were no more than a helpless vapor
    all falls aside but myself and it;
Books, art, religion, time, the visible and solid earth, the
    atmosphere and the clouds, and what was expected of heaven or
    fear'd of hell, are now consumed;
Mad filaments, ungovernable shoots play out of itthe response
    likewise ungovernable;
Hair, bosom, hips, bend of legs, negligent falling hands, all
    diffusedmine too diffused;
Ebb stung by the flow, and flow stung by the ebblove-flesh swelling
    and deliciously aching;
Limitless limpid jets of love hot and enormous, quivering jelly of
    love, white-blow and delirious juice;          

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.

This is the nucleusafter the child is born of woman, the man is
    born of woman;
This is the bath of birththis is the merge of small and large, and
    the outlet again.

Be not ashamed, womenyour privilege encloses the rest, and is the
    exit of the rest;
You are the gates of the body, and you are the gates of the soul.
The female contains all qualities, and tempers themshe is in her
    place, and moves with perfect balance;
She is all things duly veil'dshe is both passive and active;
She is to conceive daughters as well as sons, and sons as well as
    daughters.                        

As I see my soul reflected in nature;
As I see through a mist, one with inexpressible completeness and
    beauty,
See the bent head, and arms folded over the breastthe female I see.

The male is not less the soul, nor morehe too is in his place;
He too is all qualitieshe is action and power;
The flush of the known universe is in him;
Scorn becomes him well, and appetite and defiance become him well;
The wildest largest passions, bliss that is utmost, sorrow that is
    utmost, become him wellpride is for him;
The full-spread pride of man is calming and excellent to the soul;
Knowledge becomes himhe likes it alwayshe brings everything to
    the test of himself;                  

Whatever the survey, whatever the sea and the sail, he strikes
    soundings at last only here;
(Where else does he strike soundings, except here?)

The man's body is sacred, and the woman's body is sacred;
No matter who it is, it is sacred;
Is it a slave? Is it one of the dull-faced immigrants just landed on
    the wharf?
Each belongs here or anywhere, just as much as the well-offjust 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 beautiful motion.)

Do you know so much yourself, that you call the slave or the dull-
    face ignorant?                      

Do you suppose you have a right to a good sight, and he or she has no
    right to a sight?
Do you think matter has cohered together from its diffuse floatand
    the soil is on the surface, and water runs, and vegetation
    sprouts,
For you only, and not for him and her?

A man's Body at auction;
I help the auctioneerthe sloven does not half know his business.

Gentlemen, look on this wonder!
Whatever the bids of the bidders, they cannot be high enough for it;
For it the globe lay preparing quintillion's of years, without one
    animal or plant;
For it the revolving cycles truly and steadily roll'd.

In this head the all-baffling brain;              

In it and below it, the makings of heroes.

Examine these limbs, red, black, or whitethey are so cunning in
    tendon and nerve;
They shall be stript, that you may see them.

Exquisite senses, life-lit eyes, pluck, volition,
Flakes of breast-muscle, pliant back-bone and neck, flesh not flabby,
    good-sized arms and legs,
And wonders within there yet.

Within there runs blood,
The same old blood!
The same red-running blood!
There swells and jets a heartthere all passions, desires,
    reachings, aspirations;                

Do you think they are not there because they are not express'd in
    parlors and lecture-rooms?

This is not only one manthis is the father of those who shall be
    fathers in their turns;
In him the start of populous states and rich republics;
Of him countless immortal lives, with countless embodiments and
    enjoyments.

How do you know who shall come from the offspring of his offspring
    through the centuries?
Who might you find you have come from yourself, if you could trace
    back through the centuries?

A woman's Body at auction!
She too is not only herselfshe is the teeming mother of mothers;
She is the bearer of them that shall grow and be mates to the
    mothers.

Have you ever loved the Body of a woman?          

Have you ever loved the Body of a man?
Your fatherwhere is your father?
Your motheris she living? have you been much with her? and has she
    been much with you?
Do you not see that these are exactly the same to all, in all
    nations and times, all over the earth?

If any thing is sacred, the human body is sacred,
And the glory and sweet of a man, is the token of manhood untainted;
And in man or woman, a clean, strong, firm-fibred body, is beautiful
    as the most beautiful face.

Have you seen the fool that corrupted his own live body? or the fool
    that corrupted her own live body?
For they do not conceal themselves, and cannot conceal themselves.


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 poemsand
    that they are poems,
Man's, woman's, child's, youth's, wife's, husband's, mother's,
    father's, young man's, young woman's poems;
Head, neck, hair, ears, drop and tympan of the ears,
Eyes, eye-fringes, iris of the eye, eye-brows, and the waking or
    sleeping of the lids,
Mouth, tongue, lips, teeth, roof of the mouth, jaws, and the jaw-
    hinges,
Nose, nostrils of the nose, and the partition,
Cheeks, temples, forehead, chin, throat, back of the neck, neck-slue,
Strong shoulders, manly beard, scapula, hind-shoulders, and the ample
    side-round of the chest.

Upper-arm, arm-pit, elbow-socket, lower-arm, arm-sinews,
    arm-bones,                        

Wrist and wrist-joints, hand, palm, knuckles, thumb, fore-finger,
    finger-balls, finger-joints, finger-nails,
Broad breast-front, curling hair of the breast, breast-bone, breast-
    side,
Ribs, belly, back-bone, joints of the back-bone,
Hips, hip-sockets, hip-strength, inward and outward round, man-balls,
    man-root,
Strong set of thighs, well carrying the trunk above,
Leg-fibres, knee, knee-pan, upper-leg, under leg,
Ankles, instep, foot-ball, toes, toe-joints, the heel;
All attitudes, all the shapeliness, all the belongings of my or your
    body, or of any one's body, male or female,
The lung-sponges, the stomach-sac, the bowels sweet and clean,
The brain in its folds inside the skull-frame,        

Sympathies, heart-valves, palate-valves, sexuality, maternity,
Womanhood, and all that is a womanand the man that comes from
    woman,
The womb, the teats, nipples, breast-milk, tears, laughter, weeping,
    love-looks, love-perturbations and risings,
The voice, articulation, language, whispering, shouting aloud,
Food, drink, pulse, digestion, sweat, sleep, walking, swimming,
Poise on the hips, leaping, reclining, embracing, arm-curving and
    tightening,
The continual changes of the flex of the mouth, and around the eyes,
The skin, the sun-burnt shade, freckles, hair,
The curious sympathy one feels, when feeling with the hand the naked
    meat of the body,
The circling rivers, the breath, and breathing it in and out,

The beauty of the waist, and thence of the hips, and thence downward
    toward the knees,
The thin red jellies within you, or within methe bones, and the
    marrow in the bones,
The exquisite realization of health;
O I say, these are not the parts and poems of the Body only, but of
    the Soul,
O I say now these are the Soul!




    

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