What’s Poetry For or What’s Life For Should I Say?

Have you ever written any poems? What were they about? What made you write them?

What is poetry for? How does it connect with us, our life and life in general? Do you agree with the following point of view? It is a video of  a small part from the film “Dead Poets Society”,(1989).

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Here’s the poem “O ME! O LIFE!” which is part of the collection Leaves of Grass [1867] by Walt Whitman

O ME! O LIFE!

O ME! O life!…of the questions of these recurring;
Of the endless trains of the faithless—of cities fill’d with 
         the foolish; 
Of myself forever reproaching myself, (for who more fool-
         ish 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 will contribute a 
         verse.

 Vocabulary:
Recurring – happening over and over again; re-occuring
Reproaching – speaking to someone with disapproval
Vainly – without success
Mean – of little worth
Plodding – slow
Sordid – dirty

How does poetry give meaning to life in this particular poem? In what ways do we all “contribute our verse” do you think?

Two brief analysis suggestions of this poem follow:

a presentation

a video

Take a quiz on the poem

Source of the poem:The Walt Whitman Archive,  licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License