“This is what you shall do; Love the earth and sun and the animals, despise riches, give alms to every one that asks, stand up for the stupid and crazy, devote your income and labor to others, hate tyrants, argue not concerning God, have patience and indulgence toward the people, take off your hat to nothing known or unknown or to any man or number of men, go freely with powerful uneducated persons and with the young and with the mothers of families, read these leaves in the open air every season of every year of your life, re-examine all you have been told at school or church or in any book, dismiss whatever insults your own soul, and your very flesh shall be a great poem and have the richest fluency not only in its words but in the silent lines of its lips and face and between the lashes of your eyes and in every motion and joint of your body.”
~ Walt Whitman (1819-1892) ~ Preface to Leaves of Grass, 1855
Do you think the poetry of poets such as Whitman, Thoreau, and Emerson is outdated, or are the concepts classic, and like “the little black dress”, never go out of style? They are the basics of life, and speak to the fundamental principles that humanity aspires to, over and over again.
Whitman speaks here (in a very eloquent way) of love, compassion, connectedness, humility, courage, determination, discernment, independence of thought, knowing and being true to one’s self.
If these principles have gone “out of style” at the moment, perhaps it’s time to bring them back…
Susan L Hart / Author 