01.05.2012, 15:13
Individuality
TO be original is to brave disgrace.
The many reign - the various few are naught.
All in one favoured pattern must be wrought,
Lopped, squeezed, repressed, the noble with the base
The whole smoothed down to one unfeatured face;
Religion, genius, instinct, fancy, thought,
All to one narrow mould and fashion brought,
One middle level of dull commonplace
Break out, my honest brother, brave and strong,
Thou that dost keep a living conscience still!
Give thy true thought to unconventioned speech!
Sink not dear Self in the one-liveried throng,
But sprout and spread like growing tree at will,
And thine own individual stature reach.
TO be original is to brave disgrace.
The many reign - the various few are naught.
All in one favoured pattern must be wrought,
Lopped, squeezed, repressed, the noble with the base
The whole smoothed down to one unfeatured face;
Religion, genius, instinct, fancy, thought,
All to one narrow mould and fashion brought,
One middle level of dull commonplace
Break out, my honest brother, brave and strong,
Thou that dost keep a living conscience still!
Give thy true thought to unconventioned speech!
Sink not dear Self in the one-liveried throng,
But sprout and spread like growing tree at will,
And thine own individual stature reach.