Dead Poets Society

I have finally managed to see a film I have been wanting to see for years. It is twenty years old this year and stars Robin Williams and Ethan Hawke.

Dead Poets Society is about a man who teaches English in a very unusual and liberal way at a very strict and academic boy's boarding school, and inspires them to think for themselves in the process.

I am so glad because even as just someone watching the film, you are learning about poetry as if you were one of the students.

Here's a poem referenced in Dead Poets Society. It has a very special meaning for the film.


O Captain My Captain
a poem by Walt Whitman



O Captain my Captain! our fearful trip is done,
The ship has weathered 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 ribboned 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 anchored 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.

From www.poetry-online.org