Sometimes an email can arrive that has the power to take one’s breath away.I am not talking about an angry ex's email announcing the web site publication of a very compromising photo of you in an very uncompromising position.
No, I am addressing the transformative power of language when after reading the message, one is made silent in the screen's glow.
Somedays my self-esteem get hit a low point and last week was a banner week. But this poem provided just the shot I needed.
So today I want to share a simple little piece that has traveled from the hand of the poet through time and landed in this modern world…via an email.
TO A PUPIL
IS reform needed? is it through you?
The greater the reform needed, the greater the
Personality you need to accomplish it.
You! do you not see how it would serve to have eyes,
blood, complexion, clean and sweet?
Do you not see how it would serve to have such a
body and soul that when you enter the crowd an
atmosphere of desire and command enters with
you, and every one is impress'd with your
Personality?
O the magnet! the flesh over and over!
Go, dear friend, if need be give up all else, and
commence to-day to inure yourself to pluck,
reality, self-esteem, definiteness, elevatedness,
Rest not till you rivet and publish yourself of your
own Personality.
IS reform needed? is it through you?
The greater the reform needed, the greater the
Personality you need to accomplish it.
You! do you not see how it would serve to have eyes,
blood, complexion, clean and sweet?
Do you not see how it would serve to have such a
body and soul that when you enter the crowd an
atmosphere of desire and command enters with
you, and every one is impress'd with your
Personality?
O the magnet! the flesh over and over!
Go, dear friend, if need be give up all else, and
commence to-day to inure yourself to pluck,
reality, self-esteem, definiteness, elevatedness,
Rest not till you rivet and publish yourself of your
own Personality.
-Walt Whitman
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