Whitman as the American Bible

Whitman as the American Bible

It is strongly believed that Walt Whitman intended to create a new American Bible, knowing or not knowing the fact that he was the American Bible himself. He felt a divine presence in himself and considered himself as a poet-prophet. He endeavored to be the leader of mankind towards a perfect form of life, truth, and eternity. Contrary to the traditional mystics who usually expressed themselves through abstract terms, he used concrete terms to portray his mystical ideas. Moreover, while for other previous mystics, the purgation of the self occurred with the denial and the mortification of the physical body and the rejection of the physical world, Whitman inverted this to the acceptance and praise of the body, as a means of purification. In his Song of Myself, Whitman stated that everything and every individual was perfect and as the unseen is proved by the seen, he felt no need to hide anything. He considered love as a kelson of the creation, binding all together and creating unity in diversity. He did not give God a higher rank out of reach of mankind. He placed the body, the soul, God and the Self on an equal pedestal (Sharma 69). He always sought the spiritual through the material and that helped him create a democratic mysticism available to everybody everywhere. He was not a materialist though. In fact, his mysticism did not negate the material world turning the mystic to a secluded one. On the contrary, he invited everybody including the mystic to be an active member in a democratic society. For him, evil was unreal because God was imminent and present everywhere. He tried to awaken one s self and soul to see and find the divinity latent and inherent in everything and in the ordinary life of man. His mysticism did not make a secluded man out of one but an awakened self out of him. This Self was a universal self like Emerson s Over-soul. To conclude, Whitman s own life and thought can be taken as a new version of American Bible encouraging everybody to value the divinity and the Bible present within him.

It is strongly believed that Walt Whitman intended to create a new American Bible, knowing or not knowing the fact that he was the American Bible himself. He felt a divine presence in himself and considered himself as a poet-prophet. He endeavored to be the leader of mankind towards a perfect form of life, truth, and eternity. Contrary to the traditional mystics who usually expressed themselves through abstract terms, he used concrete terms to portray his mystical ideas. Moreover, while for other previous mystics, the purgation of the self occurred with the denial and the mortification of the physical body and the rejection of the physical world, Whitman inverted this to the acceptance and praise of the body, as a means of purification. In his Song of Myself, Whitman stated that everything and every individual was perfect and as the unseen is proved by the seen, he felt no need to hide anything. He considered love as a kelson of the creation, binding all together and creating unity in diversity. He did not give God a higher rank out of reach of mankind. He placed the body, the soul, God and the Self on an equal pedestal (Sharma 69). He always sought the spiritual through the material and that helped him create a democratic mysticism available to everybody everywhere. He was not a materialist though. In fact, his mysticism did not negate the material world turning the mystic to a secluded one. On the contrary, he invited everybody including the mystic to be an active member in a democratic society. For him, evil was unreal because God was imminent and present everywhere. He tried to awaken one s self and soul to see and find the divinity latent and inherent in everything and in the ordinary life of man. His mysticism did not make a secluded man out of one but an awakened self out of him. This Self was a universal self like Emerson s Over-soul. To conclude, Whitman s own life and thought can be taken as a new version of American Bible encouraging everybody to value the divinity and the Bible present within him.