Chanting the Square Deific

Chanting the Square Deific by Walt Whitman was an interesting piece of literature because Whitman claims there is a fourth being in the accepted Trinity of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  Whitman believes that the fourth is called the Soul, or at least that is what I gathered from the poem.  Although the whole idea that there is four members of the once known Trinity did not make sense to me because I am so fixed on the three since that is what I grew up believing and always have, I did understand that Whitman thought highly of himself.  So highly that in this poem he related himself to God.  The first time I read the poem it made no sense to me actually because I was unable to make the connection that Whitman was referring to himself as God.  Another thing that I noticed about this poem is Whitman has four stanza's in the poem and there are four different figures that he is talking about.  Each stanza talks about a different one of these figures and each stanza goes into detail about it.

To me, if someone were to relate themselves to God, I would say blasphemy because no one is good enough to be related to God. This is exactly what Walt Whitman did though in this poem. Whitman said, "Relentless I forgive no man, whoever sins dies, I will have that man’s life; Therefore let none expect mercy, have the season, gravitation, the appointed days, mercy? No more have I" which shows that when he says I, he is inferring that this is something God would say, but that he is saying it because he is God which is false.(Whitman) According to Christianity, God was the one who created the universe and everything in it and God is the one who knows everything about everyone and God is the one that can strike you dead for saying your as good as Him.  The only person that I would say is worthy of being like God is Jesus and Jesus didn't even say he was like his Father.  Jesus is the only human to never cuss and the only human to never sin.  Every single person on this earth has sinned before because we were born into a sinful world and it is unavoidable.  If you claim to have never sinned you are wrong and until I find someone that has never sinned, no one is worthy of claiming to be as close to God as Walt Whitman did in his poem "Chanting the Square Deific".

Whitman, Walt. "Chanting The Square Deific." The Walt Whitman Archive. Web. 03 Apr. 2012

Since my internet was not working when I wrote this blog and I finally got it to work now, I decided that before I post this blog online I would look up a literary criticism since I was able to now.  I didn't have it factored in in my blog, but after reading this criticism the poem does make a lot more sense.

Oliver, Charles M. "'Chanting the Square Deific'." Critical Companion to Walt Whitman: A Literary Reference to His Life and Work, Critical Companion. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2005. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc.