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Walt Whitman and His Strange Obsession With God

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Walt Whitman and His Strange Obsession With God
Myberson Saint-Pierre
American Literature 1865-1914
English 3040
Prof. Rosa Soto
November 27, 2012
Walt Whitman and His Strange Obsession With God

Walt Whitman was an egotistical, self-absorbed, wild heretic. “I celebrate myself, and sing myself” (Songs of Myself 1). Multiple times in his books and essays he claims to be better than the masses. “I am as bad as the worst, but, thank God, I am as good as the best” (Preface to a Leaves of Grass). Henceforth I ask not good fortune. I myself am good fortune (Songs of the Open Road). Walt Whitman is often thought of as an atheist, but I’m not buying it. In my opinion Whitman deep down believed that there was a God, and not only did he believe that there was a God, he believed himself to be better than God. That’s why it’s nearly impossible to read a Whitman book or poem without seeing some sort of reference to God. I don’t believe in the tooth fairy and that’s about the only quote you’ll get from me regarding the tooth fairy. If I ever end up writing any form of literature I will rarely make, if any, references to the tooth fairy. Whitman claims to not believe in God but you’ll find thousands of quotes of him regarding God. It’s like when one of your friends says that they don’t like a person, yet they never stop talking about that person, it’s safe to say that subconsciously they like that person. Since Whitman won’t stop ranting about God I’m going to say and aim to prove that he subconsciously believed in God, tried to get others to not believe in God, thought of himself as God and that he was better than God. Walt Whitman believed himself to be holy and divine. “Divine am I inside and out, and I make holy whatever I touch or am touch’d from, The scent of these arm-pits aroma finer than prayer, This head more than churches, bibles, and all the creeds.” The adjective for the word divine is: of, from, or like God or a god. So it’s no mistake that Whitman chose the words divine and holy to define him. Whitman
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