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Kim, Sookyung. “Walt Whitman’s Messianic Prophetic Role as a Poet in His Poems.” Modern Studies in English Language & Literature. 38.2 (2012): 45-64. Walt Whitman hoped his readers could regain their divine nature through his role as a messianic prophet in his poems. He had religious purpose to make his readers awakened spiritually. For his prophetic vision, Whitman took Jesus Christ as his role model in his poems because Christ loved all the people regardless of gender, race, class. So Whitman imagined himself walking the old hills of Judea with the beautiful gentle God by his side. Whitman assumed himself as a healer for his readers in his poem as a messiah because Christ cured the sick physically and spiritually. Christ is the embodiment of universal love beyond all kinds of religions. Whitman wanted to free his readers from the pressure of religious institutions such as Puritanism. He celebrated common people’s divinity as a prophetic poet in his poems. (Woosong University)