In Dead Poet’s Society, one theme that really struck me was the the purpose of poetry. In the movie, Mr. Keeting stated that humans write poetry because they need to do so, just as they need to eat breathe. The boys’ various individual journeys through the movie exemplify this. For example, when Neil began reading and composing poetry, he found his love for acting and decided to pursue it- he tried out for the play and got the leading role. Also, after Neil and his father fight over his decision to act in a play, when Neil sees his father enter the auditorium, he directs his final lines in the play to his father: “Give me your hands, if we be friends, And Robin shall restore amends.” In saying these lines to his father, Neil conveys how he wants to settle his differences with his father. Similarly, Knox wrote a love poem to Chris to explain to her how much he loved her. In both of these situations, poetry provided these boys with a way of navigating and properly expressing their emotions- in other words, they needed poetry to live their lives to the fullest.

On a personal note, I’m a very hard score science kind of guy. I never paid too much attention in English class and I never really appreciated the importance of literature and poetry. To me, literature was mainly just an easy A for my GPA or a freshman writing seminar that I needed to take. But this movie was a powerful reminder of why literature is so significant- we as humans need poetry to understand ourselves and the world around us. I began to recognize all the different ways in which poetry had impacted me. The nursery rhymes or the Dr. Seuss books I grew up with are all forms of poetry. The Ramayana, an ancient Hindu text that has profoundly impacted me, is poetry. The College Dropout by Kanye West is also a form of poetry.