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
Preface to Leaves of Grass, 1855
No comments:
Post a Comment