Gods
Lover divine and perfect Comrade,Waiting content, invisible yet, but certain,Be thou my God.
Thou, thou, the Ideal Man,Fair, able, beautiful, content, and loving,Complete in body and dilate in spirit,Be thou my God.
O Death, (for Life has served its turn,)Opener and usher to the heavenly mansion,Be thou my God.
Aught, aught of mightiest, best I see, conceive, or know,(To break the stagnant tie--thee, thee to free, O soul,)Be thou my God.
All great ideas, the races’ aspirations,All heroisms, deeds of rapt enthusiasts,Be ye my Gods.
Or Time and Space,Or shape of Earth divine and wondrous,Or some fair shape I viewing, worship,Or lustrous orb of sun or star by night,Be ye my Gods.
Words in this poem
- opener n.
- One who, or that which, opens.
- mansion n.
- A dwelling place, -- whether a part or whole of a house or other shelter. [OF. mansion, F. maison, fr. L. mansio a staying, remaining, a dwelling, habitation, fr. manere, mansum, to stay, dwell; akin to Gr. Manse, Manor, Menagerie, Men]
- aught n.
- Property; possession. [AS. , fr. agan to own, p. p. ahte.]
- rapt n.
- An ecstasy; a trance. Bp. Morton. [From F. rapt abduction, rape, L. raptus, fr. rapere to seize and carry off, to transport; or fr. E. rapt, a. See Rapt, a., and Rapid.]
- wondrous adv.
- In a wonderful or surprising manner or degree; wonderfully. [OE. wonders, adv. (later also adj.). See Wonder, n., and cf. -wards.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Gods is in the public domain. This text is taken from Leaves of Grass, Project Gutenberg ebook #1322; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Walt Whitman, Gods, in Leaves of Grass (1855–1892), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1322, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/whitman-leaves/gods.html, id L03924.
Form and metre
Gods is 21 lines in 6 stanzas. 89% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 8.3 syllables. 7 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending.
Measured by Laurel's pipeline, not copied from a handbook: how stress and metre are counted, how rhyme is lettered, how a drifted rhyme is found. Where the dictionary cannot confirm a rhyme the letter is withheld, not guessed.
Rhyme words, stanza by stanza
The word that ends each line, lettered by the rhyme it makes; a dash is a line whose rhyme the dictionary could not confirm.
- 3 AA- turnA · mansionA · god
- 6 AA--- spaceA · wondrousA · worship · night · gods
Scansion, line by line
Each line with its syllable count and the stresses the words themselves fix: / stressed, ˘ unstressed, · a syllable the word leaves free and the metre decides. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Lover divine and perfect Comrade, | 9 | /˘˘/·˘//· |
| Waiting content, invisible yet, but certain, | 12 | /˘/˘˘/˘˘··/˘ |
| Be thou my God. | 4 | ···· |
| Thou, thou, the Ideal Man, | 6 | ···˘/· |
| Fair, able, beautiful, content, and loving, | 11 | ·/˘/˘˘/˘·/˘ |
| Complete in body and dilate in spirit, | 11 | ˘/·/˘·˘/·/˘ |
| Be thou my God. | 4 | ···· |
| O Death, (for Life has served its turn,) | 8 | ········ |
| Opener and usher to the heavenly mansion, | 13 | /˘˘·/˘··/˘˘/˘ |
| Be thou my God. | 4 | ···· |
| Aught, aught of mightiest, best I see, conceive, or know, | 13 | ···/˘˘···˘/·· |
| (To break the stagnant tie--thee, thee to free, O soul,) | 12 | ···/˘······· |
| Be thou my God. | 4 | ···· |
| All great ideas, the races’ aspirations, | 12 | ··˘/˘·/˘·˘/˘ |
| All heroisms, deeds of rapt enthusiasts, | 12 | ·/˘·˘···˘/˘· |
| Be ye my Gods. | 4 | ···· |
| Or Time and Space, | 4 | ···· |
| Or shape of Earth divine and wondrous, | 9 | ····˘/·/˘ |
| Or some fair shape I viewing, worship, | 9 | ·····/˘/˘ |
| Or lustrous orb of sun or star by night, | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| Be ye my Gods. | 4 | ···· |
The reader shows the same poem with its rhymes coloured and a stress row above each line, the notes beside their stanzas, and any word's definition on a tap; the analysis page takes the whole book apart. How every part of this site was made.