Fervor.

How should we read? Slowly, with love, openness, and with our inner ear cocked. Then we should reread, reread, reread, and do so aloud as often as possible. As a boy of eight, I would walk about chanting Housman's and William Blake's lyrics to myself, and I still do, less frequently yet with undiminished fervor. Why should we engage in this apparently solitary activity? To increase our wit and imagination, our sense of intimacy -- in short, our entire consciousness -- and also to heal our pain. Until you become yourself, what benefit can you be to others.

Harold Bloom