Into that kind of thing? Check out the rest of his schhhtuff. “She Walks In Beauty” is a short, lyrical poem loaded with impressionistic imagery. “She Walks In Beauty” (1814/5) by George Gordon, Lord Byron- Keating often refers to or channels the Romantics, and Byron was Romantic Poet Extraordinaire.
I have this particular collection of Frost poems, and have had many hours of happy reading because of it. This poem’s genius is in its articulation of how we make choices, and how we think about fate and destiny. Not that that’s a bad thing- it’s just that there’s so much more to Frost. “The Road Not Taken” (1916) by Robert Frost- Again, another one of those texts that you probably had to read a gazillion times in high school and/or college. (And his “Civil Disobedience” essay? Fan-frickin’-tastic). Walden, though, is not just a journal of how Thoreau lived in the woods it is also a philosophy of life, a political and socio-economic exploration of what drove him to seek solitude and self-sufficiency. Walden (1854) by Henry David Thoreau- Keating quotes one of Walden’s most famous lines, both to his students and in his DPS handbook Five Centuries of Verse: “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.” Just as Thoreau wished to rid himself of the chains of modern life, Keating encourages his students to shake off the shackles of tired maxims and rote learning and express themselves freely. Only at the end of the film is it used more appropriately, when Keating’s students pay homage to him while standing on their desks as he takes his final leave of them. “O Captain! My Captain!” (1865) by Walt Whitman- Whitman’s poem is dedicated to Abraham Lincoln (the “Captain”), but in DPS, John Keating suggests that his students call him “Captain.” And while Keating quotes the poem as if it is a triumphant piece, it’s actually a lamentation for the assassinated president at the end of the Civil War. After all, Puck’s words about forgiveness are just as applicable to Neil’s difficult situation with his father in 1959.
It’s as whimsical and fun as only a Shakespeare play can be, and when Neil performs as Puck in DPS, we realize just how timeless the bard’s words really are. Good stuff.Ī Midsummer Night’s Dream (1590-96) by William Shakespeare- If you haven’t seen this performed a dozen times or read it for class a million times, I heartily suggest that you get to it. Want MOAR Tennyson? Well, you’re in luck, cause this biography by John Batchelor ( Tennyson: To Strive, To Seek, To Find) just came out late last year and I read it and now I’m recommending it. So get thee to a library or bookstore and grab a copy of Tennyson’s poems, because if you like “Ulysses,” you’ll like his other dramatic monologues, and much of the rest of his poetry. “Ulysses” (1833) by Alfred, Lord Tennyson- Remember that scene where the guys are in the cave for the first time, reviving the “Dead Poets Society?” And Neil reads those lines from “Ulysses?” *swoooooons* This is my favorite poem, guys, because it’s so lyrical, and despairing yet hopeful, and just so perfect.
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