Read "To a Pupil" by Walt Whitman online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
1. Is reform needed? Is it through you? / The greater the reform needed, the greater the PERSONALITY you need to / accomplish it.
You! do you not see how it would serve to have eyes, blood, complexion, / clean and sweet? / Do you not see how it would serve to have such a Body and Soul that, when / you enter the crowd, an atmosphere of desire and command enters / with you, and every one is impressed with your personality?
2. O the magnet! the flesh over and over! / Go, dear friend! if need be, give up all else, and commence to-day to inure / yourself to pluck, reality, self-esteem, definiteness, elevatedness; / Rest not, till you rivet and publish yourself of your own personality.