The Square Deific by Walt Whitman

GOD.

Chanting the Square Deific, out of the One advancing, out of the sides; / 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, / Old Brahm I, and I Saturnius am; / Not Time affects me -- I am Time, modern as any; / Unpersuadable, relentless, executing righteous judgments; / As the Earth, the Father, the brown old Kronos, with laws, / Aged beyond computation -- yet ever new -- ever with those mighty laws rolling, / Relentless, I forgive no man -- whoever sins dies -- I will have that man's life; / Therefore let none expect mercy -- Have the seasons, gravitation, the / appointed days, mercy? -- No more have I; / But as the seasons, and gravitation -- and as all the appointed days, that / forgive not, / I dispense from this side judgments inexorable, without the least remorse.

SAVIOUR.

Consolator most mild, the promised one advancing, / With gentle hand extended, the mightier God am I, / Foretold by prophets and poets, in their most wrapt prophecies and poems; / From this side, lo! the Lord CHRIST gazes -- lo! Hermes I -- lo! mine is / Hercules' face; / All sorrow, labour, suffering, I, tallying it, absorb in myself; / Many times have I been rejected, taunted, put in prison, and crucified -- and / many times shall be again; / All the world have I given up for my dear brothers' and sisters' sake -- for / the soul's sake; / Wending my way through the homes of men, rich or poor, with the kiss of / affection; / For I am affection -- I am the cheer-bringing God, with hope, and all- / enclosing charity; / Conqueror yet -- for before me all the armies and soldiers of the earth shall / yet bow -- and all the weapons of war become impotent: / With indulgent words, as to children -- with fresh and sane words, mine only; / Young and strong I pass, knowing well I am destined myself to an early death: / But my Charity has no death -- my Wisdom dies not, neither early nor late, / And my sweet Love, bequeathed here and elsewhere, never dies.

SATAN.

Aloof, dissatisfied, plotting revolt, / Comrade of criminals, brother of slaves, / Crafty, despised, a drudge, ignorant, / With sudra face and worn brow -- black, but in the depths of my heart proud as any; / Lifted, now and always, against whoever, scorning, assumes to rule me; / Morose, full of guile, full of reminiscences, brooding, with many wiles, / Though it was thought I was baffled and dispelled, and my wiles done -- but / that will never be; / Defiant I SATAN still live -- still utter words -- in new lands duly appearing, / and old ones also; / Permanent here, from my side, warlike, equal with any, real as any, / Nor time, nor change, shall ever change me or my words.

THE SPIRIT.

Santa SPIRITA,[1] breather, life, / Beyond the light, lighter than light, / Beyond the flames of hell -- joyous, leaping easily above hell; / Beyond Paradise -- perfumed solely with mine own perfume; / Including all life on earth -- touching, including God -- including Saviour and / Satan; / Ethereal, pervading all -- for, without me, what were all? what were God? / Essence of forms -- life of the real identities, permanent, positive, namely / the unseen, / Life of the great round world, the sun and stars, and of man -- I, the / General Soul, / Here the Square finishing, the solid, I the most solid, / Breathe my breath also through these little songs.

[Footnote 1: The reader will share my wish that Whitman had written / _sanctus spiritus_, which is right, instead of _santa spirita_, which is / methodically wrong.]