Preview

I Sing The Body Electric Sparknotes

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
903 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
I Sing The Body Electric Sparknotes
Kitam Jubran
English 16
Professor Julie Bolt
March 15, 2018
Walt Whitman “I Sing the Body Electric” In “I Sing the Body Electric” Walt Whitman explores the physicality of the human body as well as the essence of the soul, and the connection between the body and soul. Whitman addresses many topics showing that all humans, whether male, female or enslaved have something in common: bodies and souls and that all human bodies are equal, sacred and should be treated so; he proved this by describing the beauty of the male and female body, giving a detailed description of the aspects and means of the human body and soul, and showed that enslaved people also shared the same aspects of the soul and body parts as humans.
“And if the body does not fully …show more content…
Whitman starts of the seventh stanza with the verse, “A man’s body at auction, I help the auctioneer the sloven does not half know his business.” Whitman shows how people ignored the soul’s connection with the body when it came to slaves. Whitman ‘helps’ the auctioneer, shame the bidders, and denounce slavery all at the same time. He described the body parts of the enslaved man as strong and having great senses. “Within there runs blood, The same old blood! The same red-running blood! “Whitman is emphasizing that all humans, regardless of race have "the same red-running blood" running through their veins, therefore there shouldn’t be any inequalities towards the treatment of the human body. Further describing the enslaved peoples bodies as "...wonders within there yet...” Ultimately, he makes readers realize that enslaved people are important and that they can have children just like people, and their children could possibly become great leaders , revolutionizes or geniuses. He asks, "How do you know who shall come from the offspring of his offspring through the
Continue Reading
View Writing Issues

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Satisfactory Essays

    Sandra Lim: Poem Analysis
    • 173 Words
    • 1 Page

    Sandra Lim: Poem Analysis

    Stanford and University of California alumni Sandra Lim reads from The Wilderness on April 7, 2015, at Prairie Lights. As an alumna from the International Writing Program Lim was making her return back to Iowa City after 11 years. In The Wilderness Lim reads a collection of poems about love, spring and one poem that caught my attention was about the individual struggle of one's body within one’s mind. The poems are open to many interpretations but that is the way that I chose to interpret that poetry in particular. The interesting thing about Lim’s poem is how describes the body parts in some of her poems. It is very vague. It almost makes me feel a little bit uncomfortable but at the same time, I really like her style. The way she describes…

    • 173 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
    Read More
  • Better Essays

    I Too by Langston Hughes vs One Song America Before I Go by Walt Whitman
    • 1307 Words
    • 6 Pages

    I Too by Langston Hughes vs One Song America Before I Go by Walt Whitman

    Folsom, Ed, and Kenneth M. Price. The Walt Whitman Archive. Center For Digital Research, Sept. 2002. Web. 27 Sept. 2013.…

    • 1307 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
    Read More
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Civil Rights Activist: Harriet Tubman
    • 175 Words
    • 1 Page

    Civil Rights Activist: Harriet Tubman

    Slaves were treated harshly and with cruelty. In the poem, it says “I am the one who labored as a slave, beaten and mistreated for the work that I gave.” They made her work beat her and mistreated her with cruelty.…

    • 175 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Walt Whitman's When I Heard The Learned Astronomer
    • 900 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Walt Whitman's When I Heard The Learned Astronomer

    Walt Whitman, generally ignored in his time, has come to be recognized as a great poet among the American romantics. His works emphasize romantic ideals such as reverence towards nature, examination of the inner self, and distaste for scientific thought. Whitman's poems piece together life lessons and observations of existence into a message which promotes reader based reflection. His strongest works are debatable, but his poems with the strongest messages remain clear. "When I Heard the Learned Astronomer," "A noiseless patient spider," and "A Clear Midnight" each present a fascinating insight into the nature of human existence.…

    • 900 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    The Death Of Ivan Ilyich And From Song Of Myself, By Walt Whitman
    • 820 Words
    • 4 Pages

    The Death Of Ivan Ilyich And From Song Of Myself, By Walt Whitman

    To being, Whitman adequately addresses the reader as a close friend. His attitude is portrayed as someone who wants to help you and support you. I think this is important because relationships are what give life meaning. Another theme that is apparent in this work is the theme of identity. Whitman has multiple identities, one of the soul, one of himself, and one of the natural world, including animals. This theme is important because in the two other works, identity is something the main characters struggle with. On the contrary, Whitman knows that relationships with people are all important. The last theme that I will be addressing is one of spirituality. Whitman believes that the soul and body are both immortal because human beings are a part of the natural world unlike the Biblical references where the soul is immortal and the body is not. All in all, Whitman is content with the ways of life unlike Ivan and…

    • 820 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    An Analytical Comparison of "I Hear America Singing" and "I, Too:
    • 714 Words
    • 3 Pages

    An Analytical Comparison of "I Hear America Singing" and "I, Too:

    Walt Whitman is sometimes considered a pioneer of free verse and non-esoteric subject matter with focus on the working-class using realistic imagery. Whitman’s poem “I Hear America Singing” demonstrates no end rhyme, but we hear a sense of melody in his repetitions and rhythm in the length of his lines that substitutes for the pattern we would expect to perceive in conventional poetry. Though beyond that we can tell that the tone of the poem is muscular, its beat vibrant, and its mood proud. Each tradesman in the poem performs his labor with the same pride and triumph that one might hear from a singer. There is no promotion of importance attached to the jobs performed or the performers who carry out those jobs. In the end of the poem he mentions the inclusion of female voice with “delicious singing” (10) along with “the young wife at work, or of the girl sewing or washing” (10-11). With attention to include both sexes, Whitman seems to be taking in all aspects of America’s working class, but it has been drawn out many times that this poem does not specifically detail African-Americans as part of the cluster. It is this detail that Hughes believed should have been incorporated and led to his follow-up poem, “I, Too”.…

    • 714 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Reading Response: Whalt Whitman
    • 407 Words
    • 1 Page

    Reading Response: Whalt Whitman

    Although Whitman may not have been referred to as a “Sweaty Toothed Madman” when he was living, some people may have privately considered him to be mad. He lived a vagabond life and some of his poetry brought his sexuality into question. However, the fact still remains that he is one of the great poet’s in America and part of the literary canon of today.…

    • 407 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
    Read More
  • Powerful Essays

    Walt Whitman and Civil War
    • 2759 Words
    • 12 Pages

    Walt Whitman and Civil War

    Walt Whitman Author(s): HENRY NEUMANN Reviewed work(s): Source: The American Scholar, Vol. 2, No. 3 (July 1933), pp. 260-268 Published by: The Phi Beta Kappa Society Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/41203967 . Accessed: 05/02/2013 12:59…

    • 2759 Words
    • 12 Pages
    Powerful Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Emily Dickinson Imagery
    • 681 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Emily Dickinson Imagery

    In Emily Dickinson’s poem “I am afraid to own a Body” the speaker primarily uses sound to posit the overall theme of the poem. More specifically, she uses incoherent and disjointed repetition (notably alliteration and assonance) and slant rhymes that scatter the poem but do not fall into any pattern to suggest her own inability to conform to expected or desired patterns of being a human. The background imagery of inheritance to which the poem alludes complements these expected patterns.…

    • 681 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Close Reading: Walt Whitman's Song Of Myself
    • 579 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Close Reading: Walt Whitman's Song Of Myself

    In Walt Whitman’s poem, Song of Myself, I found different key pieces of Whitman’s diction and language to be more in depth and not so cut, black and white. This poem really makes you think by giving you different perspectives of life to wonder about through the use of his words. I have gotten the impression that Whitman really values himself and his beliefs of a good world and being alive in the present is worthwhile to him. His words are very powerful, thoughtful and even strong enough to change somebodies view of how they see the world. Whitman includes inspirational, yet erotic views of how he feels for his soul and the life around him.…

    • 579 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Sing The Body Electric
    • 877 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Sing The Body Electric

    Ray Bradbury’s “I Sing the Body Electric” is a science fiction story about a family who, after the death of the mother, replaces her with a robot. In Rod Serling’s Twilight Zone episode, “I Sing the Body Electric,” Anne must learn to understand and accept that her new grandmother can be tender, loving, thoughtful, and caring. The Grandmother’s ability to love changes the tone of the story, which in turn, changes the reader’s level of emotional engagement. Also, by removing the Egyptian imagery from the story, the Twilight Zone diminishes the intensity of the children’s relationship with the Grandmother. In addition, the Grandmother is more human in the Twilight Zone episode, unlike…

    • 877 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Better Essays

    Walt Whitman's Song Of Myself
    • 3042 Words
    • 13 Pages

    Walt Whitman's Song Of Myself

    In “Song of Myself” Walt Whitman is trying to see self as a whole. He wants to find strength and beauty as to make self whole and to be unified with humanity and nature. While people are condemning him, because the expression of a sexual content and a connection that makes use body and soul as well as the shock value. Whitman’s friend Ralph Waldo Emerson decides to back him in his writing. Emerson’s letter to Whitman calling Leaves of Grass "the most extraordinary piece of wit and wisdom that America has yet contributed" saved Whitman 's self-published first edition from sinking into obscurity. Yet even more important, Emerson 's work as a whole helped to prepare readers for the liberal, post-Christian spirituality that pervades Leaves of Grass. (Insert my source). Whitman wants to bring…

    • 3042 Words
    • 13 Pages
    Better Essays
    Read More
  • Powerful Essays

    Sex & Sexuality in the Poetry of Walt Whitman
    • 3844 Words
    • 16 Pages

    Sex & Sexuality in the Poetry of Walt Whitman

    Perhaps, in the following essay I put a quart into a pint pot, because I intend to puzzle out, or rather, find and give a deeper insight into Walt Whitman's sexuality that is still a question on agenda. There are readers and critics who state that it is a shame to humble his poetry to this level, but I think that he was homosexual in his era the topic cannot be left untouched, because therefore this factor was very influential on his everyday life, thinking and hence on his poetry, too.…

    • 3844 Words
    • 16 Pages
    Powerful Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    “a Noiseless Patient Spider” Response Paper
    • 444 Words
    • 2 Pages

    “a Noiseless Patient Spider” Response Paper

    Walt Whitman’s use of first person in his poems, allows the reader to be the author’s spectator. It is like the author is talking directly to the reader, which makes the reader feel more comfortable to read the poem and understand it better. However, the author uses first person as a rhetorical device. This leads the reader to pay closely attention to the poem in order to figure out what topic the author is trying to make the reader consider, from his perspective. Whitman’s poem “A Noiseless Patient Spider,” clearly shows this use of first person as a rhetorical device.…

    • 444 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Song of Myself
    • 584 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Song of Myself

    Life is a very delicate and mysterious process. Walt Whitman’s poem Song of Myself exhibits how life should be celebrated and enjoyed accordingly. His optimistic and carefree view of life is easily distinguished through his words. Whitman expressed a love of life as well as his easygoing mood when he composed this poem. Moreover, his writings are referring to enjoying life, the similarities between all living things, and enjoying life until death is upon him.…

    • 584 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More

Related Topics