Dead Poets Poetry Workshop

Walt Whitman's poem "O Captain! My Captain!" was written a few months after the end of the American Civil War in 1865. It is a poem that can only be properly understood when the historical background is known. The imagery makes clear that Whitman's speaker is a sailor, and the poem conceivably could be read as the lament of an anonymous seaman for his "fallen" captain. But to read it this way would be to make too little of its significance. This becomes evident once we are aware that the year is 1865, that the assertion in the opening line, "our fearful trip is done," refers to the end of the long Civil War, and that the captain represents Abraham Lincoln, assinated on Good Friday of 1865. These historical facts impose certain constraints on how the poem and its allusions are to be understood. The ship in question becomes metaphorically a Ship of State, which Lincoln, as captain, has guided finally to port. The "prize" line two, peace and national unity, has been won; the nation is exultant; but Lincoln lies "cold and dead." The sailor who speaks, and who seems identifiable with Whitman himself, has weathered the worst with his captain, only to find himself in despair, incapable of drawing himself away from the fallen body.

1 Who in "Dead Poets' Society" associates himself with "Captain"?

2 Why do you think he does this and what, if any, links can you see between him and Lincoln?

3 Todd is perhaps most changed by the end of "Dead Poets' Society".

a) In what ways has he changed?
b) How has he weathered a storm but lost his captain?

c) Can you see him representing a Walt Whitman/Sailor type character? Explain.

4 a) What character dies in "Dead Poets' Society"?

4 b) In what ways has he, like Lincoln, died but still "seized the day" (Carpe Deum).

5 Walt Whitman is referred to throughout the film. Read this information about him and try to decide why John Keating might have found him a man to admire.

Whitman, Walt (1819-92), American poet, whose work boldly asserts the worth of the individual and the oneness of all humanity. His defiant break with traditional poetic concerns and style exerted a major influence on American thought and literature.

Whitman was born on May 31, 1819, near Huntington, New York, the second of a family of nine children. His father was a carpenter; the poet had a particularly close relationship with his mother. When he was four years old, his family moved to Brooklyn, where he attended public school for six years before being apprenticed to a printer. Two years later he went to New York City to work in printing shops, but returned to Long Island in 1835 and taught in country schools. In 1838-39 he edited a newspaper, the Long-Islander, at Huntington; becoming bored, he went back to New York City to work as a printer and journalist. There he enjoyed the theater, the opera, and—always an omnivorous reader—used the libraries. He wrote unoriginal poems and stories for popular magazines and made political speeches, for which Tammany Hall Democrats rewarded him with the editorship of various short-lived newspapers. For two years he edited the influential Brooklyn Eagle, but he lost his position for supporting the Free-Soil party. After a brief sojourn in New Orleans, Louisiana, he returned to Brooklyn, where he tried to start a Free-Soil newspaper. After several years spent at various jobs, including building houses, he began writing a new kind of poetry and thereafter neglected business.
In 1855 Whitman issued the first of many editions of Leaves of Grass, a volume of poetry in a new kind of versification, far different from his sentimental rhymed verse of the 1840s. Because he immodestly praised the human body and glorified the senses, Whitman was forced to publish the book at his own expense, setting some of the type himself. His name did not appear on the title page, but the engraved frontispiece portrait shows him posed, arms akimbo, in shirt sleeves, hat cocked at a rakish angle. In a long preface he announced a new democratic literature, “commensurate with a people,” simple and unconquerable, written by a new kind of poet, who was affectionate, brawny, and heroic, and who would lead by the force of his magnetic personality.
Whitman spent the rest of his life striving to become that poet. The 1855 edition of Leaves of Grass contained 12 untitled poems, written in long cadenced lines that resemble the unrhymed verse of the King James Version of the Bible. The best and longest, later entitled “Song of Myself,” was a vision of a symbolic “I” enraptured by the senses, vicariously embracing all people and places from the Atlantic to the Pacific oceans. No other poem in the first edition has the power of this poem, although “The Sleepers,” another visionary flight, symbolizing life, death, and rebirth, comes nearest.
Drum-Taps (1865, later added to the 1867 edition of Leaves) reflects Whitman's deepening awareness of the significance of the American Civil War and the hope for reconciliation between North and South; Sequel (1866) to Drum-Taps contains “When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd,” the great elegy for Abraham Lincoln, and his most popular work, “O Captain! My Captain!”
During the Civil War Whitman ministered to wounded soldiers in Union army hospitals in Washington, D.C. He remained there, working as a government clerk, until 1873, when he suffered a stroke that left him partially paralyzed. He then went to live with his brother George (1829-1901) in Camden, New Jersey, until 1884, when he bought his own house. He lived there, writing and revising Leaves of Grass, despite failing health, until his death on March 26, 1892.

6
Read this poem that is referred to in the film by John Keating. Why is this poem referred to in the film?

O Me! O Life!

O me! O life! of the questions of these recurring,
Of the endless trains of 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.

7 Keating wants his students to make their lives "extraordinary". What do you think he means by that exactly?

8 Read this section (52) of Whitman's poem: Song of Myself
The spotted hawk swoops by and accuses me, he complains of my gab and my loitering.
I too am not a bit tamed, I too am untranslatable,
I sound my barbaric yawp over the roofs of the world.

What links can you make with the film from this extract?

9 Read these poems. The first is by Walt Whitman and the second Robert Frost.

A March in the Ranks Hard-Prest, and the Road Unknown

A March in the Ranks Hard-Prest, and the Road Unknown
A route through a heavy wood with muffled steps in the darkness,
Our army foil'd with loss severe, and the sullen remnant retreating,
Till after midnight glimmer upon us the lights of a dim-lighted building,
We come to an open space in the woods, and halt by the dim-lighted building,
'Tis a large old church at the crossing roads, now an impromptu hospital,
Entering but for a minute I see a sight beyond all the pictures and poems ever made,
Shadows of deepest, deepest black, just lit by moving candles and lamps,
And by one great pitchy torch stationary with wild red flame and clouds of smoke,
By these, crowds, groups of forms vaguely I see on the floor, some in the pews laid down,
At my feet more distinctly a soldier, a mere lad, in danger of bleeding to death, (he is shot in the abdomen),
I stanch the blood temporarily, (the youngster's face is white as a lily,)
Then before I depart I sweep my eyes o'er the scene fain to absorb it all,
Faces, varieties, postures beyond description, most in obscurity, some of them dead,
Surgeons operating, attendants holding lights, the smell of ether, the odor of blood,
The crowd, o the crowd of the bloody forms, the yard outside also fill'd,
Some on the bare ground, some on planks or stretchers, some in the death-spasm sweating,
An occasional scream or cry, the doctor's shouted orders or calls,
The glisten of the little steel instruments catching the glint of torches,
These I resume as I chant, I see again the forms, I smell the odor,
Then hear outside the orders given, Fall in, my men, fall in;
But first I bend to the dying lad, his eyes open, a half-smile he gives he me,
Then the eyes close, calmly close, and I speed forth to the darkness,
Resuming, marching, ever in darkness marching, on in the ranks,
The unknown road still marching.

The Road Not Taken

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveller, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I -
I took the one less travelled by,
And that has made all the difference.

Keating often refers to woods "I went to the woods because..." and paths in life "the lesser road least travelled".
9 a) What is the "Road Unknown" to Whitman? You may be able to think of a number of answers to this.
9 b) Neil Perry reaches a metaphorical fork in his career path. He decides not to travel on. Draw a diagram to illustrate his roads not taken.
9 c) If you imagine your own life as walking a road can you identify any points along it where you have had to think hard about the road to take? What about your future? Which roads do you intend to take that will make "all the difference"? Draw a diagram to illustrate your roads taken in the past and in the future.

10 John Keating says:
"Words and ideas can change the world"
Can you think of any words or ideas that support this statement?

11 He also says:
"We read and write poetry because we are members of the human race" & "Poetry, beauty, romance and love are what we stay alive for"
What do you think he meant by these statements?

12 Read this information below and answer the questions below:
Keats, John (1795-1821), English poet, one of the most gifted and appealing of the 19th century and a figure of the romantic movement.
Keats was born in London, October 31, 1795, the son of a livery-stable owner. He was educated at the Clarke School, Enfield, and at the age of 15 was apprenticed to a surgeon. Subsequently, from 1814 to 1816, Keats studied medicine in London hospitals; in 1816 he became a licensed apothecary but never practiced his profession, deciding instead to be a poet.
Early Works
Keats had already written a translation of Vergil's Aeneid and some verse; his first published poems (1816) were the sonnets “Oh, Solitude if I with Thee Must Dwell” and “On First Looking into Chapman's Homer.” Both poems appeared in the Examiner, a literary periodical edited by the essayist and poet Leigh Hunt, one of the champions of the romantic movement in English literature. Hunt introduced Keats to a circle of literary men, including the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley; the group's influence enabled Keats to see his first volume published, Poems by John Keats (1817). The principal poems in the volume were the sonnet on Chapman's Homer, the sonnet “To One Who Has Been Long in City Pent,” “I Stood Tip-Toe upon a Little Hill,” and “Sleep and Poetry,” which defended the principles of romanticism as promulgated by Hunt and attacked the practice of romanticism as represented by the poet George Gordon, Lord Byron.
Keats's second volume, Endymion, was published in 1818. Based upon the myth of Endymion and the moon goddess, it was attacked by two of the most influential critical magazines of the time, the Quarterly Review and Blackwood's Magazine. Calling the romantic verse of Hunt's literary circle “the Cockney school of poetry,” Blackwood's declared Endymion to be nonsense and recommended that Keats give up poetry.
Last Works
In 1820 Keats became ill with tuberculosis. The illness may have been aggravated by the emotional strain of his attachment to Fanny Brawne (1801-65), a young woman with whom he had fallen passionately in love. Nevertheless, the period 1818-20 was one of great creativity. In July 1820, the third and best of his volumes of poetry, Lamia, Isabella, The Eve of St. Agnes, and Other Poems, was published. The three title poems, dealing with mythical and legendary themes of ancient, medieval, and Renaissance times, are rich in imagery and phrasing. The volume also contains the unfinished poem “Hyperion,” containing some of Keats's finest work, and three poems considered among the finest in the English language, “Ode to a Grecian Urn,” “Ode on Melancholy,” and “Ode to a Nightingale.”
In the autumn of 1820, under his doctor's orders to seek a warm climate for the winter, Keats went to Rome. He died there February 23, 1821, and was buried in the Protestant cemetery. Some of his best-known poems were posthumously published; among them are “Eve of St. Mark” (1848) and “La belle dame sans merci” (The Beautiful Woman Without Mercy; first version pub. 1888). Keats's letters, praised by many critics as among the finest literary letters written in English, were published in their most complete form in 1931; a later edition appeared in 1960.
Although Keats's career was short and his output small, critics agree that he has a lasting place in the history of English and world literature. Characterized by exact and closely knit construction and by force of imagination, his poetry gives transcendental value to the physical beauty of the world. His verbal music is well suited to the unique combination of romantic sentiment and classical clarity his work expresses.

What is it about John Keats that the screen-writer wanted the audience to associate with John Keating?

13 What season (or seasons) are evoked in Peter Weirs film "Dead Poets' Society". When does the film start (what images symbolise this well) and when does it end. Did you notice this during the film or was it quite subtle? What poem by John Keats evokes this season so brillantly too?

14 "Picnic at Hanging Rock" & "Witness" (with Harrison Ford) are other Peter Weir films. If you have seen them what season does he use in them to create mood for the film? What, for example, have the other farmers been doing at the end of the film "Witness" when they come over the hills to witness the corrupt policeman? Why could that be seen as symbolic?

15 At the beginning of the film "Dead Poets' Society" banners are bought into the chapel bearing the words Discipline, Tradition, Honor, and Excellence. The light of knowledge is then lit and the headmaster makes his speech. The four pillars are seen in a different light by the students. What do they call them?

16 The students also refer to Welton Academy by a different name. What is it and why is it symbolic of the way they see the place?

17 "Understanding Poetry" by J Evans Pritchard is described as "excrement" by Keating. Why?

18 Keating wants to encourage "Free Thinking". What do you think he meant by this?

19 Read this poem and answer the question below it.

To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time

Gather ye rosebuds 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, the 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.

Robert Herrick (1591-1674)

19 a) What other poem(s) do you associate with this one?

19 b) Why does Keating link this poem with a latin phrase. What is the phrase?

20 Which characters do you feel represent "REALISM". Realism: term used to characterise works concerned with the representing the world as it is rather than as it ought to be. The names themselves may give this away.

Mr Pitts, Cameron Meeks, Mr Noland, Knox Overstreet, Chris Haywood, Charlie Dalton (Newanda), Todd Anderson, Neil Perry, Chet Dandenberry, Mr McAlistair,

Activities
Writing Letters (and writing replies to letters)
1 John Keating to Mr Noland offering his resignation
2 Neil Perry's suicide letter to his parents
3 Todd a term later writing to Mr Keating (now working in London)
Review A friend of yours who has not seen the film is going to the video store to get out "Dead Poets' Society". He/She wants to know what the film is really about. What do you tell them?
Magazine Article What ever happened to Knox, Charlie and Todd 10 years after the events seen in the film (they are now 27)? Welton Academy students working on the school magazine go to find out and interview them for an article. Write the article in any way that you find interesting.

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