Thursday, April 26, 2012

Desiderata

I've always loved the poem, Desiderata - and I think I'm not alone. I had a poster of this poem for many years in my home, and I was just speaking to my neighbour, who said she kept a poster of this poem in her office for many years.

It was believed for awhile that this poem had been discovered in a chuch in Baltimore in 1692, however it is now known that a poet and lawyer, by the name of Max Ehrman wrote it sometime around 1927.

Ehrman lived from 1872, to 1945, in Indiana. He is said to have wanted to write a humble poem which might do good.

There was a mixup, about the origin of the poem because a pastor, found a copy of this poem sometime in the 1950 's and it was printed on a paper with the name of St. Mary's Church, Baltimore, founded in 1692.

In spite of the small mixup, I do think this poem has influenced many people in a positive way.

According to The Free Dictionary, "desiderata" is the plural of the word "desideratum", and means "the essentials of a good life", and "Something considered necessary or highly desirable".

I think it's a lovely, gentle instruction - and I never grow tired of reflecting on it.

I enjoyed this video using Desiderata - maybe you will too! :)






8 comments:

Geraldine said...

this is lovely Brenda, thanks for the good reminders too...


PS: I've removed the security words from my blogs as they were such a pain to decipher at times. No problems at all since then. FYI

Anonymous said...

It is a classic, that is for sure. Thanks for reminding me of it. Strange how we need that once in a while.
Wishing you a wonderful weekend, Brenda.

Geraldine said...

This one is for the kitties:

http://www.takeahappybreak.com/2012/04/chuckle-from-mr-cheddar-wishful.html

for some reason, this post didn't show up in Reader, even though it's published.

Happy Weekend, G :<)

PS: I sent you a few chuckles via email today!

Mullin Avenue Workshop said...

Geraldine,
Thanks for checking in. This is one of my favourite inspirational pieces, and I was interested to learn some of the story behind it. It's really inspiring also to me, to see how from a humble wish to do good, this poet/lawyer was able to be a good influence on so many over the years.

Well, Herbert, Arthur, and I will definitely take a look over at Take a Happy Break, we always like a good chuckle! :)
Have a lovely weekend.
P.S.
I sent you a pretty lenghthy reply to your e-mails.
Brenda

Mullin Avenue Workshop said...

Sandy,
It's always nice to see you've dropped by.
I'm glad you enjoyed this.
I love the piece, and also really like the video, so thought it would be nice to share here.

Wishing you a good weekend as well. It sounds like cooler temperatures all over, my son told me it snowed in Montreal - and here the temps are in 1 to 5 C,and we're having a rainy weekend it looks like.

How is the weekend looking there?
Thanks again, for your comment.:)
Brenda

Mullin Avenue Workshop said...

Just an added comment here - I was thinking of the period of history when this was published 1927, just as the good times of the roaring twenties was soon to give way to the stock market collapsing, and the advent of the "dirty thirties" and the depression. Listening once more - the phrase of "with all it's sham drudgery and broken dreams" was a good way to describe some of people's experiences, perhaps. But I think as well this piece has a timelessness to it, as it fits with our present time, and really there are always difficulties to overcome no matter what time in history one finds oneself.
Brenda

The Boston Lady said...

Brenda, I too have always loved this poem, but never knew it's origins. The video rendition was beautiful and did it justice, I think. I was just reading your last comment and agree about the timelessness of it. We can all draw inspiration and hope from it's message. Ann

Mullin Avenue Workshop said...

Ann,
It's so nice to see you've dropped by!
Thanks for your comment here, yes I do think this has a timelessness - I wish Max Erhman could have know the influence his poem has had, and how his wish to "do some good" was so successful!
Brenda