Purity of Mind, Body, and Soul

"I loafe and invite my soul"

"Clear and sweet is my soul . . . . and clear and sweet is all that is not my soul"

"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"

"The souls moving along . . . . are they invisible while the least atom of the stones is visible?"

"This is the the tasteless water of souls . . . . this is the true sustenance"

"I am the poet of the body,
And I am the poet of the soul"
"We also ascend dazzling and tremendous as the sun,
We found our own my soul in the calm and cool of the daybreak"
"Logic and sermons never convince,
The damp of the night drives deeper into my soul"
"Swift wind! Space! My Soul! Now I know it is true what I guessed at"

"I fly the flight of the fluid and swallowing soul,
My course runs below the soundings of plummets"

"To a drudge of the cotton fields or emptier of privies I lean . . . . on his right cheek I put the family kiss,
And in my soul I swear I never will deny him"
"All forces have been steadily employed to complete and delight me,
Now I stand on this spot with my soul"
"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,
And nothing, not God, is greater to one than one's-self is"


I loafe and invite my soulBeing the fourth line of the poem, this early call of attention to the soul is important as Whitman is invoking his soul as a kind of muse. Whitman has worked hard and is ready to loafe around, and so he invites his soul to relax as well. While he is relaxing every physical and mental part of his being, he is also calling to his soul to make itself known and help him in his poetic journey of his song.
 
Clear and sweet is my soul . . . . and clear and sweet is all that is not my soulWhitman also draws attention to the idea of purity (which goes hand-in-hand with the soul in Whitman's eyes ) in this poem. Here he states that his soul is clear and that all other souls in the world are clear as well. Nothing can be more raw or pure as the soul and Whitman calls to this in most of this poetry as loafing, nature, and being free are all qualities of purity. To Whitman, being free and out in nature is the closest way to not only find his soul, but to let it too be free with him.
 
I am the poet of the body/And I am the poet of the soulWhitman obviously sees himself as a voice of the unvoiced. By being a poet of the soul, he seems to be stating that he is the voice of purity and of true human nature. He is the voice of understanding on both a physical and metaphysical state of being. He is the voice of mentality, sensuality, physicality, and spirituality. With this passage Whitman suggests that he is a voice of the soul and to the soul. He can speak and write past someone's ears and dive straight into the core of humans, into their soul and make them feel as he does. Whitman, in a sense, states that he transcends any bodily functions as a poet and is of a purer nature, calling straight into the souls of his readers/listeners.
 
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/And nothing, not God, is greater to one than one's-self is
Here is the cornerstone of Whitman's poetic soul. While his idea of the soul is pure and transcends all bodily form, the soul is not more or better than the body and vice versa. One is nothing without the other. The two need each other and draw from each other. While Whitman calls to his soul and in a way befriends his own soul, his soul is no better than his body. He needs his soul to be the poet that he is and his soul needs his body to act as a device from which to sing through.
 
Throughout this poem, Whitman uses the ides of the soul as a motif to continuously link himself and the reader back to nature, back the the self and purity, and back to his writing. With his constant references to the soul, whether it be his own or in general, Whitman keeps both himself and the reader focused on the purity of the nature and the poet and does not let readers forget that without soul, our mind and body might be useless. One is not greater than the other, but rather they all need each other to equally coexist.
 
Whitman seems to drone on and on about the soul (particularly his own) at times and even personifies the soul to be a living breathing thing at times. While at times it may seem annoying, it shouldn't be taken so lightly. The soul to Whitman is as impirtant as the words that he writes. Without his soul the words would not exist. Whitman seems to transcend all normal thought when it comes to the soul and has a deeper understanding of what it means to have a soul and what it means to join mind, body, and soul. Whitman's soul is his muse and he calls to it when he needs purity, calmness, and poetic beauty. The soul to Whitman is pure, and his poetry is evidence of this.