In 1865, Walt Whitman commemorated the American Civil War with a slim poetry collection, Drum-Taps, but before he could distribute the book, it became “incomplete” when Abraham Lincoln was assassinated in April of that year. Whitman knew that he could not honor the war’s legacy without recognizing the sacrifice of the Commander-in-Chief, and so retained the books until he could print Sequel to Drum-Taps and sew in these final pages to round out the volume. As in Drum-Taps, not all the poems in Sequel relate battles or muse on militaristic themes; one such poem is “Chanting the Square Deific,” a surprising broadening of Trinitarian theology by the introduction of Satan as third person of a Quaternity and the gender inversion of the Holy Spirit as “Santa Spirita,” thereby introducing femininity into the traditionally masculine triad. Reading the poem in dialogue with his more famous Lincoln elegy, “When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d,” reveals a condensed theology and its application: Whitman’s theological “Squaring” of Father, Son, Satan, and Santa Spirita, reinforcing the quaternity of lilac, star, hermit thrush, and memory that helps him articulate his—and his nation’s—grief over its loss.

1865 年，沃尔特·惠特曼 (Walt Whitman) 用一本薄薄的诗集Drum-Taps 纪念美国内战，但在他分发这本书之前，当亚伯拉罕·林肯 (Abraham Lincoln) 于当年 4 月被暗杀时，它就变得“不完整”。惠特曼知道，如果不承认总司令的牺牲，他就无法纪念战争的遗产，因此保留了这些书籍，直到他可以印刷《鼓点续集》并缝制最后几页以完善整卷。就像在Drum-Taps 中一样，不是Sequel中的所有诗歌将战斗或关于军国主义主题的沉思联系起来；其中一首诗是“唱方神”，通过将撒旦作为四合一的第三人称和圣灵的性别反转作为“Santa Spirita”引入了三位一体神学的惊人扩展，从而将女性气质引入了传统的男性三合会. 阅读这首诗与他更着名的林肯挽歌“当丁香花在门前绽放时”的对话，揭示了一种浓缩的神学及其应用：惠特曼的父亲、儿子、撒旦和圣诞老人​​的神学“平方”，加强了丁香、星星、画眉隐士和记忆的四重奏，这些记忆帮助他表达了他——以及他的国家——对失去它的悲痛。