Poems from Dead Poets Society

Here is a list of links to poems from the movie Dead Poets Society, which we watched in some classes as a demonstration of people your age enjoying and being inspired by poetry, not to mention a talented teacher who brings the poems "to life."


These three are fair game for your poetry essay, and you can find them elsewhere on this site:

Sonnet 18, Shakespeare
--when Nuwanda woos the ladies

"Ulysses," excerpt, Tennyson
--read by Neil at one of the DPS meetings

"Oh Me, Oh Life," Whitman
--quoted by Mr. Keating in one of his lessons

The rest are for your interest only, in case you'd like to read the full poems:

"To the Virgins to Make Much of Time"
when Mr. Keating teaches about carpe diem

"O Captain, My Captain" - Whitman
when Mr. Keating introduces himself

"The Ballad of William Bloat"
chanted at a Society meeting

"The Congo"
chanted at a Society meeting

"The Road not Taken" - Frost
referred to in a Keating lesson

"She Walks in Beauty"
when Nuwanda woos the ladies

excerpt from the nonfiction prose book Walden - Thoreau
"I went to the woods because I wanted to live deliberately..." (the lines written on the title page of Neil's book and used to open the meetings)