by Whitman · Cluster: Faith · Providence · Divine Love
Abstract
A litany naming the divine Comrade, the Ideal Man, Death, great ideas, Time, Space and stars as the poet’s gods; free-verse hymn on the divine, death, comradeship and the soul.
Connections
Motifs: Death, Stars Themes & Concepts: Comradeship, Self-Knowledge, Faith Forms & Genres: Free Verse, Hymn
Testo integrale / Full text
Cluster: BY THE ROADSIDE
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.
All great ideas, the races’ aspirations,
All heroisms, deeds of rapt enthusiasts,
Be ye my Gods.
Or Time and Space,
Or shape of Earth divine and wondrous,
Or some fair shape I viewing, worship,
Or lustrous orb of sun or star by night,
Be ye my Gods.