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Walt Whitman - I Sing The Body Electric
Work rating: Medium

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 account—the 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 knees—dress 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-boats—the 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 child—the farmer`s daughter in the garden or
         cow-yard,
The young fellow hoeing corn—the 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 attitudes—the bent head, the curv`d
         neck, and the counting;                                      

Such-like I love—I 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 farmer—the father of five sons;
And in them were the fathers of sons—and 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 eyes—the
         richness and breadth of his manners,
These I used to go and visit him to see—he was wise also;
He was six feet tall, he was over eighty years old—his sons were
         massive, clean, bearded, tan-faced, handsome;
They and his daughters loved him—all who saw him loved him;
They did not love him by allowance—they loved him with personal
         love;                                                        

He drank water only—the blood show`d like scarlet through the clear-
         brown skin of his face;
He was a frequent gunner and fisher—he sail`d his boat himself—he
         had a fine one presented to him by a ship-joiner—he 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 him—you 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 moment—what is this, then?
I do not ask any more delight—I 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 soul—but 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 it—the response
         likewise ungovernable;
Hair, bosom, hips, bend of legs, negligent falling hands, all
         diffused—mine too diffused;
Ebb stung by the flow, and flow stung by the ebb—love-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 nucleus—after the child is born of woman, the man is
         born of woman;
This is the bath of birth—this is the merge of small and large, and
         the outlet again.

Be not ashamed, women—your 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 them—she is in her
         place, and moves with perfect balance;
She is all things duly veil`d—she 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 breast—the female I see.

The male is not less the soul, nor more—he too is in his place;
He too is all qualities—he 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 well—pride is for him;
The full-spread pride of man is calming and excellent to the soul;
Knowledge becomes him—he likes it always—he 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-off—just 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 float—and
         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 auctioneer—the 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 white—they 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 heart—there 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 man—this 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 herself—she 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 father—where is your father?
Your mother—is 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 poems—and
         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 woman—and 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 me—the 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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