This is what you shall do:
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 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 . . .
Leaves of Grass (1865)
by
Walt Whitman
