Luis Alberto Ambroggio’s poem “We are All Whitman: #2 Song of/to/My/Your/Self”embodies similarity of the rhythmic enumeration to Walt Whitman’s poem “I Sing the Body Electric” through the aspects of recitation of poem, punctuation and the grammatical structure. Whitman’s “I Sing the Body Electric,” has an enumeration of body parts which causes a very cacophonous sound when the reader is reciting the poem. It all involves the emphasis when reading the high use of repetition, punctuation, and the listing of body words that allows the poem to continue with a very harsh flow.
Ambroggio’s poem follows this Whitman style of poetry as it also involves similar aspects that could be pinned back to Whitman’s poem. Whitman uses the the long list of body parts to signify the founding over the human body through, “O I say these are not the parts and poems of the body only, but of the soul, / O I say now these are the soul” (267), as he concluded to list off the the different parts of the body. While in Ambroggio’s poem, he explains the nature of an individual by looking back towards their roots from their skin color, religion, etc as they all come from somewhere.
While closely looking Ambroggio’s poem, the sound the poem flows through while even having the listing of features. Whitman gave this very cacophonous sound as it involved harsh wording that Whitman purposely placed to be properly pronounced and articulated to support this main idea. However, Ambroggio’s poem had more of a graceful euphonious sound while also incorporating the enumeration. When both poems involve listing off words, the poem designs it to be recited in a particular way such as in Whitman’s case, the reader is needed to rapid fire the list of body parts that as the reader is reading the poem it intensifies them without much of caesura or end stop punctuation. Ambroggio follows the similar structure when further describing the individual’s identity through a list as without much a stop for a breather makes the reader recite the poem quickly. With both similar parts of the enumeration, they change the rhythm of the poem while having the reader recite it quickly as they do not have an intended meter, rhyme scheme, and punctuation that makes the reader pause and reflect on the text.
Naraint Catalan Rios
Introduction to Poetry 
Sep 17, 2021 @ 20:19:22
You make a valid point: recitation is a great way for one to get their message across. Through recitation, people follow more closely and remember the work that contained it far better than without. Thank you for including a line of Whitman’s, this really allows the reader to see for themselves what you mean. My two suggestions are adding a small line from Ambroggio’s also that showcased this and comparing the effect of cacophonous vs euphonious have on the readers memory (specifically, what effect each type has on their focus).
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