DEAD POETS SOCIETY

"Dead Poets Society" directed by Peter Weir, written by Tom Schulman, starring Robin Williams.

English Teacher Mr.Keating says:

“No matter what anybody tells you, words and ideas can change the world." (...) We don't read and write poetry because is cute, we read and write poetry because we are members of the human race, and the human race is filled with passion. (...) Poetry, Beauty, Romance, Love is what we stay alive for. Uncle Withman: "Oh me! Oh life! of the questions of these recurring, Of the endless trains of the faithless, of cities fill’d with the foolish, -What good amid these, O me, O life? Answer. That you are here—that life exists and identity. That the powerful play goes on, and you may contribute a verse"... What will your verse be?"

In this post we are going to read and understand some of the poems and authors mentioned in this movie from 1989.
Watch the movie and read with care the following texts. We will comment in class what poetry is and why we need it, in my opinion more than ever.

While you watch the movie, please, take notes of the scenes and sentences that call your attention, included photography. During the reading of the texts make sure you search for the meaning of the words you don't know in Wordreference.

1. "She Walks in Beauty"- LORD BYRON

She walks in beauty, like the night

Of cloudless climes and starry skies;

And all that’s best of dark and bright

Meet in her aspect and her eyes;

Thus mellowed to that tender light

Which heaven to gaudy day denies.

One shade the more, one ray the less,

Had half impaired the nameless grace

Which waves in every raven tress,

Or softly lightens o’er her face;

Where thoughts serenely sweet express,

How pure, how dear their dwelling-place.

And on that cheek, and o’er that brow,

So soft, so calm, yet eloquent,

The smiles that win, the tints that glow,

But tell of days in goodness spent,

A mind at peace with all below,

A heart whose love is innocent!

2. "To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time"- ROBERT HERRICK

Gather ye rose-buds while ye may,

Old Time is still a-flying;

And this same flower that smiles today

Tomorrow will be dying.

The glorious lamp of heaven, the sun,

The higher he’s a-getting,

The sooner will his race be run,

And nearer he’s to setting.

That age is best which is the first,

When youth and blood are warmer;

But being spent, the worse, and worst

Times still succeed the former.

Then be not coy, but use your time,

And while ye may, go marry;

For having lost but once your prime,

You may forever tarry.

3. Excerpt from Walden- HENRY DAVID THOREAU

(...) I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. I did not wish to live what was no life, living is so dear; nor did I wish to practice resignation, unless it was quite necessary. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan-like as to put to rout all that was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave close, to drive life into a corner, and reduce it to its lowest terms, and, if it proved to be mean, why then to get the whole and genuine meanness of it, and publish its meanness to the world; or if it were sublime, to know it by experience, and be able to give a true account of it in my next excursion. (...)

4. Excerpt from Ulysses – ALFRED LORD TENNYSON

(...) Come, my friends,

‘T is not too late to seek a newer world.

Push off, and sitting well in order smite

The sounding furrows; for my purpose holds

To sail beyond the sunset, and the baths

Of all the western stars, until I die.

It may be that the gulfs will wash us down:

It may be we shall touch the Happy Isles,

And see the great Achilles, whom we knew.

Tho’ much is taken, much abides; and tho’

We are not now that strength which in old days

Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are;

One equal temper of heroic hearts,

Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will

To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.

5. "The Congo"- VACHEL LINDSAY

(...)

THEN I had religion, THEN I had a vision.

I could not turn from their revel in derision.

(More deliberate. Solemnly chanted.)

THEN I SAW THE CONGO,

CREEPING THROUGH THE BLACK,

CUTTING THROUGH THE FOREST WITH A GOLDEN TRACK.

(...)

6. "Sonnet XVII" – SHAKESPEARE

Who will believe my verse in time to come,
If it were filled with your most high deserts?
Though yet heaven knows it is but as a tomb
Which hides your life, and shows not half your parts.

If I could write the beauty of your eyes,
And in fresh numbers number all your graces,
The age to come would say 'This poet lies;
Such heavenly touches ne'er touched earthly faces.'

So should my papers, yellowed with their age,
Be scorned, like old men of less truth than tongue,

And your true rights be termed a poet's rage

And stretched metre of an antique song:

But were some child of yours alive that time,
You should live twice, in it, and in my rhyme.

7. Quotes - WILLIAM BLAKE

“He who bind himself to a joy

Does the winged life destroy;

But he who kisses it as it flies

lives in Eternity’s sun-rise.”

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“I see everything I paint in this world, but everybody does not see alike,”

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“The tree which moves some to tears of joy is in the eyes of others only a green thing that stands in the way.”

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“As a man is, so he sees. As the eye is formed, such are its powers.”

Dead Poets Society- O Captain my Captain!

8. O Captain! My Captain! - WALT WHITMAN

O Captain! my Captain! our fearful trip is done,
The ship has weather’d every rack, the prize we sought is won,
The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting,
While follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel grim and daring;
But O heart! heart! heart!
O the bleeding drops of red,
Where on the deck my Captain lies,
Fallen cold and dead.
O Captain! my Captain! rise up and hear the bells;
Rise up—for you the flag is flung—for you the bugle trills,
For you bouquets and ribbon’d wreaths—for you the shores a-crowding,
For you they call, the swaying mass, their eager faces turning;
Here Captain! dear father!
This arm beneath your head!
It is some dream that on the deck,
You’ve fallen cold and dead.
My Captain does not answer, his lips are pale and still,
My father does not feel my arm, he has no pulse nor will,
The ship is anchor’d safe and sound, its voyage closed and done,
From fearful trip the victor ship comes in with object won;
Exult O shores, and ring O bells!
But I with mournful tread,
Walk the deck my Captain lies,
Fallen cold and dead.

9. "O Me! O Life!" - WALT WHITMAN

Oh me! Oh life! of the questions of these recurring,
Of the endless trains of the faithless, of cities fill’d with the foolish,
Of myself forever reproaching myself, (for who more foolish than I, and who more faithless?)
Of eyes that vainly crave the light, of the objects mean, of the struggle ever renew’d,
Of the poor results of all, of the plodding and sordid crowds I see around me,
Of the empty and useless years of the rest, with the rest me intertwined,
The question, O me! so sad, recurring—What good amid these, O me, O life?
Answer.
That you are here—that life exists and identity,
That the powerful play goes on, and you may contribute a verse.
10. "Song of Myself" (1892)- WALT WHITMAN

Poem 31

I believe a leaf of grass is no less than the journey-work of the stars,

And the pismire is equally perfect, and a grain of sand, and the egg of the wren,

And the tree-toad is a chef-d’œuvre for the highest,

And the running blackberry would adorn the parlors of heaven,

And the narrowest hinge in my hand puts to scorn all machinery,

And the cow crunching with depress’d head surpasses any statue,

And a mouse is miracle enough to stagger sextillions of infidels.

I find I incorporate gneiss, coal, long-threaded moss, fruits, grains, esculent roots,

And am stucco’d with quadrupeds and birds all over,

And have distanced what is behind me for good reasons,

But call any thing back again when I desire it.