Whitman tries to emphasize and harmonize the body and soul in the poem. Beyond ethnicity, it lists several human bodies of people from different professions and age groups. As the title suggests, it brings out the individuality of various body structures. Walt Whitman’s poem “I Sing the Body Electric” is written in open form. This shows that the poem does not follow the traditional rhyme scheme or metric system (Kahn, 2019). This is Whitman’s most famous style, and I think that his love for such style motivated him to write the poem in free verse.
In “I Sing the Body Electric,” the reader will find it difficult to discover unique rhyme patterns. However, this does not mean that the entire work is free of rhyme and rhythm cases. Half rhymes, also known as diagonal or partial rhymes, should be visible to the watchful reader (Knoop et al., 2019). Whitman also uses internal rhymes that appear within a line of text, not at the end of the text. In open-form work, such lines deliver rhythmic qualities through the repetition of grammatical structures and words (Meyer and Miller, 2020). I think that the open-form style allowed Whitman to emphasize the beauty of the human body by using repetitions.
I am interested in this poem because Whitman addresses some of his most famous and well-known issues in this poem. Many people are amazed and annoyed by the sensuality he brought when he wrote this poem. He was not afraid to talk about sexuality, body, and self-esteem. The reader finds an image of the poet’s body and experiences it throughout the poem. In addition, the chosen form of the poem is not typical, which makes it even more extravagant.
References
Kahn, S. J. (2019). ‘Open form’ in poetry (Whitman). In Actes du cinquième Congrès International d’Esthétique. Amsterdam 1964. Proceedings of the fifth International Congress of Aesthetics, pp. 245-248. De Gruyter Mouton. Web.
Knoop, C. A., Blohm, S., Kraxenberger, M., & Menninghaus, W. (2019). How perfect are imperfect rhymes? Effects of phonological similarity and verse context on rhyme perception. Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts. Web.
Meyer, M., Miller Q.D. (2020). Literature to go. Bedford.
Whiteman W. (1855). I sing the body electric. Leaves of Grass.