28/02/2015
Desiderata is a 1927 prose poem by American writer Max Ehrmann (1872–1945). It is Latin meaning "Desired Things".
Largely unknown in the author's lifetime, the text became widely known after a Reverend included Desiderata in a compilation of devotional materials for his congregation in 1956, and after Les Crane's “spoken-word recording” of Desiderata (the lead track on his 1971 Warner Bros. album Desiderata).
When US Democratic presidential hopeful Adlai Stevenson died in 1965, a guest in his home found the Desiderata near his bedside and discovered that Stevenson had planned to use it in his Christmas cards. This contributed further to the poem becoming widely known.
In response to his Government's losing its majority in the Canadian federal election, 1972 Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau quoted the Desiderata by reassuring the nation that "the universe is unfolding as it should."
In 2010, a bronze statue of Ehrmann sitting on a park bench was unveiled in Terre Haute, Indiana, his hometown. On a nearby walkway, some lines of the poem are also available to be read by passers-by.
More recently in 2012, actor Morgan Freeman, when interviewed by Oprah Winfrey, expressed how deeply the poem 'Desiderata' shaped his life.
