I Sing the Body Electric

Essay Questions

1. *How does Whitman use the concept of "electricity" as a central metaphor in I Sing the Body Electric to argue for the inseparability of body and soul? Consider how this metaphor shapes both the poem's philosophical claims and its emotional tone, and evaluate how effectively it challenges the Calvinist and Victorian views of the body as sinful or subordinate to the spirit. (AQA AO1/AO2; AP Lit Q1 poetry analysis; IB guiding concept: Identity)*

1. *To what extent does the slave auction sequence function as the moral and political climax of I Sing the Body Electric? Explore how Whitman's use of irony — adopting the auctioneer's role — transforms a scene of dehumanisation into a radical assertion of bodily sacredness, and assess how this moment intensifies or complicates the poem's otherwise ecstatic tone. (AQA AO1/AO2/AO3; AP Lit Q1 poetry analysis; IB guiding concept: Freedom)*

1. *How does Whitman construct a democratic vision of the human body in I Sing the Body Electric, and how successfully does the poem argue that no body — regardless of gender, age, or social condition — holds lesser value than another? In your response, consider the portraits of the elderly farmer, the male and female bodies, and the enslaved individual as deliberate rhetorical choices. (AQA AO1/AO2; AP Lit Q1 poetry analysis; IB guiding concept: Identity)*

1. *"The catalogue in I Sing the Body Electric is less a list than a prayer." To what extent do you agree that the extended inventory of body parts in the poem's final section functions as a sacred or devotional act, and what does this structural choice reveal about Whitman's central argument regarding the relationship between the physical and the spiritual? (AQA AO1/AO2; AP Lit Q1 poetry analysis)*

1. *How does the tone of I Sing the Body Electric balance ecstasy with moral urgency, and why is this balance central to the poem's persuasive power? Explore how Whitman avoids didacticism while still making a politically charged argument, drawing on the poem's treatment of joy, intimacy, and the auction scene. (AQA AO1/AO2; IB guiding concept: Beauty)*

1. *Compare the ways in which Whitman in I Sing the Body Electric and ONE other poem you have studied use the human body as a site of political or philosophical meaning. Consider how each poet's treatment of the body reflects the historical and cultural anxieties of their moment, and which poem you find more persuasive in its argument. (AQA AO1/AO2/AO3; AP Lit Q2 comparative poetry; IB guiding concept: Freedom/Identity)*

1. *To what extent does I Sing the Body Electric engage with the theme of mortality, and how does Whitman's insistence on the body's vitality — exemplified by figures such as the elderly farmer — constitute a response to the fear of physical decline and death? Consider how the poem's symbols and structure support or undermine a reading of it as fundamentally concerned with the relationship between bodily life and legacy. (AQA AO1/AO2; AP Lit Q1 poetry analysis; IB guiding concept: Mortality)*

1. *How does Whitman's positioning of women in I Sing the Body Electric — as both cosmic origin and threshold of life — both challenge and reflect the gender ideologies of nineteenth-century America? Evaluate whether the poem ultimately empowers or aestheticises the female body, supporting your argument with close reference to the poem's symbolism and rhetorical strategies. (AQA AO1/AO2/AO3; AP Lit Q1 poetry analysis; IB guiding concept: Identity/Beauty)*