"God"

THOUGHT of the Infinite--the All!
Be thou my God.

Lover Divine, and Perfect Comrade!
Waiting, content, invisible yet, but certain,
Be thou my God.

Thou--thou, the Ideal Man!
Fair, able, beautiful, content, and loving,
Complete in Body, and dilate in Spirit,
Be thou my God.

O Death--(for Life has served its turn;)
Opener and usher to the heavenly mansion!
Be thou my God.

Aught, aught, of mightiest, best, I see, conceive, or know,
(To break the stagnant tie--thee, thee to free, O Soul,)
Be thou my God.

Or thee, Old Cause, when'er advancing;
All great Ideas, the races' aspirations,
All that exalts, releases thee, my Soul!
All heroisms, deeds of rapt enthusiasts,
Be ye my Gods!

Or Time and Space!
Or shape of Earth, divine and wondrous!
Or shape in I myself--or some fair shape, I, viewing, worship,
Or lustrous orb of Sun, or star by night:
Be ye my Gods.


Analysis:

This poem is an ode to the religious God but also to Whitman’s Gods – the natural elements that inspire him. The poem is divided into seven stanzas. The frist five are dedicated to “the God”, while the last two are dedicated to Whitman’s Gods. Two anaphoras are present: “Be thou my God” (stanzas 1-5) and “Be ye my Gods” (stanzas 6-7), These anaphoras show that Whitman considers equally important both “God” and his “Gods”. While the describing the God, he uses several overstatements, such as “THOUGHT of the Infinite – the All” (l.1), to show his majesty and importance. Whitman refers to God as a perfect comrade, the ideal man, able, beautiful. However, the poet is well aware that God doesn’t represent only life, but death too. So, in the fourth stanza (after three stanzas, a possible allusion to the Trinity), Whitman talks about death, and how God is the opener, but also the usher “to the heavenly mansion” (l.11), an allusion to Paradise. The last two stanzas are dedicated to Whitman’s Gods. Some of the are great ideas, races’ aspirations, heroism, space, time, the Earth. There is a strong contrast between the natural world and the supernatural: however, the poet’s message is to reconcile these two aspects of the world. He manages to do this using a solemn and grand tone, using words and phrases such as “be thou my God”, “aught, aught mightiest”, “all heroism, all great ideas”.

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