I was going to add this to the Kudos thread but thought it would be good to have a separate thread.
I loved this poem by Charlotte Perkins Gilman when I first read it and it seemed relevant to lots of things in life but now I have re-read it I think it is very relevant to PhD life. Hope you like it.
An Obstacle
Charlotte Perkins Gilman
(1860-1935)
I was climbing a mountain path
With many things to do,
Important business of my own,
And other people’s too,
When I ran against a Prejudice,
That quite cut off the view,
My work was such as could not wait,
My path quite clearly showed,
My strength and time were limited,
I carried quite a load,
And there that hulking Prejudice
Sat all across the road.
So I spoke to him politely,
For he was huge and high,
And begged that he would move a bit
And let me travel by.
He smiled, but as for moving! –
He didn’t even try.
And then I reasoned quietly
With that colossal mule:
My time was short—no other path—
The mountain winds were cool.
I argued like a Solomon,
He sat there like a fool.
Then I flew into a passion,
And I danced and howled and swore,
I pelted and belabored him
Till I was stiff and sore,
He got as mad as I did---
But he sat there as before.
And then I begged him on my knees,
I might be kneeling still
If so I hoped to move that mass
Of obdurate ill-will—
As well invite the monument
To vacate Bunker Hill!
So I sat before him helpless,
In an ecstasy of woe—
The mountain mists were rising fast,
The sun was sinking slow—
When a sudden inspiration came,
As sudden winds do blow.
I took my hat, I took my stick,
My load I settled fair,
I approached that awful incubus
Win an absent-minded air—
And I walked directly through him,
As if he wasn’t there!
