The Wonder of Poetry

"Poetry is the music of the soul, and above all of great and feeling souls." Voltaire

What is wonderful and moving about poetry and why do we read and write it?

I find Tom Schulman, in this excerpt from Dead Poets Society (one of my favorite movies), says it best:


In the movie there are several references to Walt Whitman and his poetry.

walt whitmanWalt Whitman (1819-1892) considered to be one of America's greatest and innovative poets, was both an inspired poet and a skilled craftsman.

In experimenting with his style he created a unique, daring free verse approach to poetry while remaining very much in control of it. He was known for continually adjusting, altering and rearranging his poems. His work Leaves of Grass was published in six distinctly different versions, the last of which he offered on his deathbed.

Here are two of his moving and thought provoking poems that are among my favorites.

O Me! O Life! questions our existence and purpose, while O Captain! My Captain! was written after the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, whom Whitman admired greatly.

O Me! O Life!

Of myself forever reproaching myself, (for who more foolish than I and who more faithless?)
O me, O life? Answer.


O Captain! My Captain!

O Captain! my Captain! our fearful trip is done,
But O heart! heart! heart!
O the bleeding drops of red,
Where on the deck my Captain lies,
Fallen cold and dead.

Here Captain! dear father!
This arm beneath your head!
It is some dream that on the deck,
You've fallen cold and dead.

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.

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