DESIDERATA · Les Crane · 1972

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This track was a number 8 hit on the Billboard™ Hot 100 in 1972. The original work was written by Max Ehrmann back in 1906, and was copyrighted under the title “Go Placidly Amid the Noise and Haste” in 1927.

In the 1950s a funny thing happened. A Baltimore clergyman used it in a collection of material for the congregation of Old St. Paul’s Church. The booklet’s letterhead — “Old St. Paul’s Church, Baltimore, A.D. 1692″ — caused readers to believe that the poem itself had been discovered in that church in 1692.

Desiderata began circulating outside of the church and increased in popularity. A copy of the poem was found on Adlai Stevenson’s bedside table when the famous Democratic politician died in 1965, and Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry kept a copy in his office. You could buy it in book stores and poster shops all over the country. I remember seeing it in stores throughout the ’60s and ’70s, along with color posters of all the zodiac signs. It was often printed on parchment-like paper, and almost always cited the source of the wisdom as “Found in Old St. Paul’s Church, Baltimore, Dated 1692.”

Throughout the sixties and into the seventies, folks would buy the little prints and marvel at the wisdom they thought to be hundreds of years old. I bought some of them and “antiqued” them and decoupaged them. The photo on the left, below, is one that I created. Interestingly, the one in the picture on the right is from a Google search I just did. Very similar!

a typical Desiderata print

Eventually, Les Crane (a TV talk show host from San Francisco), got a copy of Desiderata and recorded it as a spoken word piece. It became a pop hit. But the wisdom from the ages, that we all thought was in the public domain, turned out to be a copyrighted work. So royalties had to be shared with the Ehrmann family. It was an ironic development in light of the poem’s admonition to “exercise caution in your business affairs.”

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Max Ehrmann

Desiderata

Go placidly amid the noise and haste,
and remember what peace there may be in silence.
As far as possible without surrender
be on good terms with all persons.
Speak your truth quietly and clearly;
and listen to others,
even the dull and the ignorant;
they too have their story.

Avoid loud and aggressive persons,
they are vexations to the spirit.
If you compare yourself with others,
you may become vain and bitter;
for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself.
Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans.

Keep interested in your own career, however humble;
it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time.
Exercise caution in your business affairs;
for the world is full of trickery.
But let this not blind you to what virtue there is;
many persons strive for high ideals;
and everywhere life is full of heroism.

Be yourself.
Especially, do not feign affection.
Neither be cynical about love;
for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment
it is as perennial as the grass.

Take kindly the counsel of the years,
gracefully surrendering the things of youth.
Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune.
But do not distress yourself with dark imaginings.
Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness.
Beyond a wholesome discipline,
be gentle with yourself.

You are a child of the universe,
no less than the trees and the stars;
you have a right to be here.
And whether or not it is clear to you,
no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.

Therefore be at peace with God,
whatever you conceive Him to be,
and whatever your labors and aspirations,
in the noisy confusion of life keep peace with your soul.

With all its sham, drudgery, and broken dreams,
it is still a beautiful world.
Be cheerful.

Strive to be happy.

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