Gods
Gods - meaning Summary
Divinity of Self and World
Whitman presents a fluid, expansive vision of the divine that can be found in many forms: the infinite, an ideal human, death as gateway, creative impulses, collective ideals, time, space, the earth, and celestial bodies. The speaker invites these varied presences to serve as gods, emphasizing immanence and the sanctity of self and world. The poem affirms a plural, democratic spirituality rooted in experience and aspiration.
Read Complete Analyses1 THOUGHT of the Infinite—the All! Be thou my God. 2 Lover Divine, and Perfect Comrade! Waiting, content, invisible yet, but certain, Be thou my God. 3 Thou—thou, the Ideal Man! Fair, able, beautiful, content, and loving, Complete in Body, and dilate in Spirit, Be thou my God. 4 O Death—(for Life has served its turn;) Opener and usher to the heavenly mansion! Be thou my God. 5 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. 6 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! 7 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.
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