The Body Electronic is dedicated to providing a place for talking about "physical eloquence" in American poetry. If you have a paper pertaining to the construction and representation of the body in American poetry, we would be happy to read it, offer comments, and post it here if it fits our theme. We hope to create a friendly academic forum for study and discussion of these issues, and the heart of any forum is its participants. To send us a paper, or a query mail us.

Papers on Whitman's poetry of the body:

• Whitman's Physical Eloquence--Explores the idea of "Physical Eloquence" in Whitman's Leaves of Grass, and contemporary political discourse. By M. Jimmie Killingsworth.
• Putting "The Body Electric" into Historical Context--Some information on the historical context of and contemporary attitudes toward the presentation of sexually charged materials in Whitman's poetry. By M. Jimmie Killingsworth
• Whitman's "Calamus": A Rhetorical Prehistory of the First Gay American--Explores how the "Calamus" poems mark a rhetorical shift in Whitman's sexual sensibility. By M. Jimmie Killingsworth

Resources for Study and Teaching:

• Parallel texts of the electronically available editions of the "Calamus" poems, from "Live Oak, With Moss" to the deathbed edition, collected by S. Marsden.

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