Desiderata by Max Ehrmann : Poem Recommendation

‘Go placidly amid the noise and haste,

and remember what peace there may be in silence.’

The New Year comes with a demand for something new, something different. So, here I am, not with a Book review but with a poem recommendation. The poem came to me as part of my course syllabus, and I was completely taken up by it at its very first reading.

Desiderata…..the title itself has a click. A Latin word meaning ‘desired things’, it prepares the reader, right from the start, for what’s going to follow isn’t going to be something very easy. But relax, there are no Latin words in the poem, the poem is in plain English, only the sense is deep and the teachings simple. Not easy, but simple.

The poem comes with a calm acceptance of who we are yet gently convinces us to bring about a small but significant change in ourselves. Ehrmann has chosen a very realistic rather than an idealistic approach for writing this poem (something entirely different for the self-help genre) as he agrees that ‘the world is full of trickery’ but still inspires us to not allow this to ‘blind you to what virtue there is’.

A perfect little guide for our personal, social, professional, psychological, and spiritual life, it gives us a reassuring touch, something many of us require today.

A beautiful aspect of the poem is how it is peppered with qualifiers like ‘but, as far as possible, especially…’ which is due to the fact that life is a great complexity that can not be reduced to an absolute.

A didactic poem, Ehrmann claimed to have written ‘this bit of prose’ for himself as a journal entry ‘because it counsels those virtues I felt most in need of’.

A perfectly crafted go-to book, the first part from stanzas 1 to 3 talks about how we should deal with the people around us and prevent ourselves from being influenced by anyone around us, and the second part from stanzas 4 to 7 focuses on our relationship with the self and our spiritual pursuits.

The poem acts like a soothing balm to our mind, easing it of all the stress and tension this continuous running brings to our mind, giving us a moment to pause and reflect.

A wonderful treasury of powerful life-enriching mantras, the poem has something for everyone.

A must-read, Desiderata comes with a sure promise of awakening its readers to a new way of living, certainly providing you with at least one change you bring about in yourself. Available to access all across the web, the poem can be a sublime start to a new year, a year in which we choose to be happy, no matter what! For, as Desiderata says,

                        “Be cheerful,                                                    Strive to be happy.”