The Meaning Behind the Desiderata Poem
Inspirational writing at its finest
For as long as I can remember, I’ve enjoyed the Desiderata prose poem. It was really popular in the ’60s and the ’70s and a ton of posters were sold of it. For a long time, there was a legend that it had been found on an old piece of parchment in St Paul’s Church in Baltimore and that the poem itself dated from the late 1600s.
But that was not the case. Desiderata was written by a gentleman named Max Ehrmann from Terra Haute, Indiana, about 1927. He was a lawyer, turned poet, and wrote a fair amount of other works, but the Desiderata poem is his most famous work.
The poem is full of magnificent language and is a great example of the New Thought philosophy that was popular in the early part of the 20th century. Sometimes the language of the poem is so majestic that it’s difficult to understand.
I’ve written this story to show some of the meaning of the Desiderata poem in plainspoken language. The poem is one of my all-time favorite pieces of writing. I’ve had it in my possession in one form or another for almost 50 years. I love it.
The words of the original poem below are in regular print. My interpretation of the meaning is in the more stylized print. After the poem, I’ve added some answers to questions people often have about the…
