Instructions: Walt Whitman was an American poet who lived from 1819 to 1892. Take a few moments to read the excerpt below from the preface to Walt Whitman’s poem Leaves of Grass. The poem is filled with mottos telling what Whitman thought people should do to live a good life.
“This is what you shall do: love the earth and sun and the animals, despise riches, give alms to everyone 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…re-examine all you have been told at school or church or in any book, dismiss what insults your own soul, and your very flesh shall be a great poem.”
With a pen or pencil, underline the things Whitman says “you shall do” that align with your values and beliefs and put a question mark by those things that don’t align with your values and beliefs. Then look again and circle the mottos that you live by. If you are in a group, talk about which of these mottos you try to live by, and what other mottos you would include in your own sense of meaning and purpose in life.
