Student Question
How does "Song of Myself" present the relationship between body and soul?
Quick answer:
"Song of Myself" presents the relationship between body and soul as equal and interconnected. Whitman rejects the traditional belief that the soul is superior to the body, asserting their equality and mutual importance. This perspective aligns with transcendentalism, emphasizing unity across all creation. For Whitman, the body and soul must coexist harmoniously to fully experience the universe, with the physical world holding divine significance.
In "Song of Myself," Walt Whitman seeks to overcome two traditional beliefs: first, that the body and soul are separate, and second, that the soul is greater than the body. In Christian doctrine, the soul is divine and exists separately from the physical world or body. It is the soul that goes on to a spiritual afterlife—not the body.
Whitman pushes against this understanding of body and soul in "Song of Myself." He asserts in section 48,
I have said that the soul is not more than the body,
And I have said that the body is not more than the soul ...
It is important to note that Whitman's portrayal of the soul as equal to the body does not diminish the soul:
Clear and sweet is my soul, and clear and sweet is all that is not my soul. (Section 3)
Rather, all that is not...
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the soul, meaning the physical world, is just as important as the soul. This idea of equality extends farther when Whitman states,
I believe in you my soul, the other I am must not abase itself to you,
And you must not be abased to the other. (Section 5)
Here, Whitman claims the soul should not belittle the body and the body should not belittle the soul.
The relationship between body and soul in "Song of Myself" is best contextualized within transcendentalism. This loose spiritual movement, of which Whitman was a part, believed in a unity across all creation. This is why Whitman focuses intently on the physical world and bodily perception:
I loafe and invite my soul,
I lean and loafe at my ease observing a spear of summer grass.
My tongue, every atom of my blood, form’d from this soil, this air. (Section 1)
For Whitman, the natural world, including the body, has just as much divine significance as the soul. The body is not less than the soul—it is animated by the soul. The two must coexist in order for a person to fully experience the universe.
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