Chanting The Square Deific

This is a reflection over "Chanting The Square Deific" by Walt Whitman. This is going to be analyze just the title itself for it has a lot of meaning to it. The first word which is "Chanting" means to shout or express loudly while a deific means divine or godlike. The mixture of the two means that Walt Whitman is showing the divine and Godlike qualities in something. In the first section of the poem he describes and refers to the square saying, "Out of the old and new, out of the square entirely divine,; Solid, four-sided, (all the sides needed,) from this side Jehovah; am I, " (Whitman) Here he explains the square as the whole and complete idea of the deific by saying it is a solid thing in which all pieces are needed. This refers to humans in a sense because humans are all much like a this because humans all have things that humans must have and without all the pieces humans may not survive. This would then make humans not complete.

In the first section he begins to describe himself but it isn't until the second section that he really begins to explain himself. He says he is affection and hope bringing, meaning is the brings happiness and purpose to those around him. He then goes on to say something that catches many eyes because of its shocking and blunt nature. This quote from the poem is, "Young and strong I pass knowing well I am destin'd myself to an; early death; ". This is very much an intense statement that definitely is a statement on how he sees himself and on what Whitman believes. Going on to say that although he will die the things he did in life will live on, little did he know that that was probably more true than he could have ever imagined.

In the third part it goes into a darker more demented state of mind, showing that Whitman felt he himself had a dark side. For example he says, "Defiant, I, Satan, still live, still utter words, in new lands duly; appearing, (and old ones also,)" (Whitman) He shows his dark side that is more demented and dark. This is not shown in the upper parts of the poem. At last he wraps in up bringing together the happier and the demented parts giving his whole personality in one final wrap up. This is used in many Whitman poems because he was such a spiritual man. A literary critic describes him by saying, "Whitman can never be classed, as Spinoza was by Schleiermacher, among "God-intoxicated" men; but he was early inebriated with two potent draughts—himself and his country" (Higginson)

Higginson, Thomas Wentworth. "Whitman." Contemporaries, 1899: 79–84. Quoted as "On the Poetry of Walt Whitman" in Bloom, Harold, ed. Walt Whitman, Classic Critical Views. New York: Chelsea House Publishing, 2007. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc. http://www.fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?ItemID=WE54&SID=5&iPin= CCVWaW047&SingleRecord=True (accessed April 3, 2012).



Whitman, Walt. "The Walt Whitman Archive." CHANTING THE SQUARE DEIFIC. (Leaves of Grass [1891-1892]) -. Creative Commons License. Web. 03 Apr. 2012. .