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This may have been an original creation of Walt’s – the first search results for discorrupt take us right back to his poem without much of a definition, and the ngram viewer (a digital humanities tool that graphs the yearly count of selected words as found in over 5 million books digitized by Google) shows no mention of the word until this poem.
With this language Whitman explores the physical and chemical processes that were being studied and discovered in his time. The poem suggests that the science that applies to everything else applies to humans just as well. And if there’s a way for people to become corrupt, it must be through a reversible physical process, meaning discorruption is just as possible.
What is this?
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It is perhaps ambiguous whether the “body” is the isolated, corporeal body of the speaker or something more broad and populous–a body of people.
Here an electrical word is chosen: charge. But that charge is seen to course through a body of people, suggesting the latter possibility.
Again Whitman appropriates the science of his time as a new way to talk about people, to talk about bodies. This poem’s first version was published in 1855 and much revised in subsequent editions of Leaves of Grass. The first practical batteries were invented in the 1830s, when different European chemists learned how to harness electricity in cells for later use. The first rechargeable battery was invented in 1859.
What is this?
The Genius annotation is the work of the Genius Editorial project. Our editors and contributors collaborate to create the most interesting and informative explanation of any line of text. It’s also a work in progress, so leave a suggestion if this or any annotation is missing something.
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What is this?
The Genius annotation is the work of the Genius Editorial project. Our editors and contributors collaborate to create the most interesting and informative explanation of any line of text. It’s also a work in progress, so leave a suggestion if this or any annotation is missing something.
To learn more about participating in the Genius Editorial project, check out the contributor guidelines.
What is this?
The Genius annotation is the work of the Genius Editorial project. Our editors and contributors collaborate to create the most interesting and informative explanation of any line of text. It’s also a work in progress, so leave a suggestion if this or any annotation is missing something.
To learn more about participating in the Genius Editorial project, check out the contributor guidelines.
Is this another version of Burrr? Instead of the sound of a freezing shiver, this onomatopoeia is reminiscent of a speeding car coming to a screeching halt – something went wrong!
The message appears when RG is temporarily down. It means something failed, so it’s the opposite of skoooooorRG.
From Professor Nasrallah:
The day the course launched was astonishing—like drinking from a fire hose. The edX discussion threads couldn’t handle the amount of people who were commenting, and crashed and slowed down. More people participated on Poetry Genius that day than ever before—the apostle Paul beat out Beyonce!
What is this?
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I'll forever be better, you'll never be near me
Your books are as eerie as Beverly Cleary! Epic Rap Battles of History (Ft. Watsky & Zach Sherwin) – Stephen King vs Edgar Allan Poe
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Beverly Cleary is an American author who wrote children’s literature.
If King’s scary thrillers are as eerie as her books, they’re not scary at all!
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“The Pit and the Pendulum” is another one of Poe’s short stories.
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Ahead of his time, as usual, Whitman declares the importance of body language. Today we understand that the way we behave with our full bodies is a huge part of how we communicate.
That’s why the body balks account – a linguistic account can only communicate a small fraction of what the signifié is.
Based on the format of the poem, it seems more likely that Whitman was implying that the body balks account due to it’s perfection, which stems from a vast amount of parts working together to the point where the entity they compose is capable of both rational thought and producing countless more generations of beings like themselves.
161,922
One of the English examiners I had recommended counting out the syllables in poems in the exam on your fingers, so that you were reminded that poetry is a full-body experience.