The Dead Poet Society Questions.

What is the movie saying about poetry?

Through the movie "The Dead Poets Society" poetry is viewed as a form of expression of life, and everyone has a different perspective for it. At the beginning of the movie Mr. Keating, an English teacher, makes his students read a stanza of a poem, which he relates to "Carpe Diem" in other words "seize the day", he tells his students that they should live their lives to the fullest and make them extraordinary. With this introduction to poetry, students start to develop different behaviors, one of the student, Neal, decides that he's going to seize the day, to follow his biggest dream, acting. On the other hand, Knox is risking his life just to see the girl he loves, he also follows his dream to be with her. Mr. Keating and poetry influenced the students in many ways, from the understanding that poetry can't be taught with graphs and math, to finding their own voice and speak for themselves.

What do you think about poetry? How is it similar and different than the movie's view of poetry?

In my opinion, I think I can connect to Todd, I've always had trouble making up poems. Somehow they never seemed to come out like I wanted them to be and most of them ended up in the garbage. There was always something missing in them, they were incomplete. Imagination is the key of poetry, and it can be expressed with anything. I used to worry about whether it rhymed or not, and if it didn't I would just start over. Now I have a different perspective of poetry, it's not only a couple of lines that rhyme, but a story told through a different fantasy, a fantasy that makes me wonder how they came up with them, but the answer will always be: "Use your imagination and anything is possible" and this movie showed me this. Not everything needs to rhyme, just let your imagination guide you when you start and you'll end up with a wonderful piece of poetry, even if you only talk about a cat, or your grampa.