Poetry allows the realization and ability to verbalize what we think, what we know, and what we feel.

Poetry is an imaginative awareness of experience expressed through meaning, sound, and rhythmic language choices so as to evoke an emotional response. When I watched this movie, it made me wonder how Mr. John touched the lives of boys with the use of poetry. It always moved me the way these students stood up for this man and how he, in turn, made such an impact in their lives. In the movie, Mr. Keating encouraged students to see things in a different perspective, as the poets viewed life from their own so he wanted them to dare to have their own perception of life. These boys were taught to think freely - for themselves. To live life seeing what is pure, good, and true, knowing that it is out there yet within their grasp, if only they would "seize the day." It is so enlightening, so beautiful a concept once applied to real life. We ought to value this freedom, because taking Neil as an example; he was without freedom of expression - his pain and drudgery all locked up inside led him to decide to end his life prematurely. I think he would have died anyway, in the absence of self-expression - being unable to hope or to live his life the way he wanted to. He failed. How important it is to see... to stand, just as the others realized in the end. In the movie, Mr. Keating encouraged students to see things in a different perspective, as the poets viewed life from their own so he wanted them to dare to have their own (perception of life). These boys were taught to think freely - for themselves. To live life seeing what is pure, good, and true, knowing that it is out there yet within their grasp, if only they would "seize the day." It is so enlightening, so beautiful a concept once applied to real life. Neil, who dreams of being an actor, continue to join in the play despite the objections of his father and Knox fall in love with a girl named Chris, that used his newfound love of poetry to court Chris.

Reading from these dead poets - learning from their works permit their feelings and ideas and ideals to live on. Although tints of idealism have been known to cause its own disasters, I admire how this idealism presented is brought into the light of reality, "as there is time for daring so is there time for caution." Being in a world filled with the harsh realities of trials and pain, we are made to realize that we are still FREE - free to feel, to think, to be unique - to be ourselves. This ought to make us grateful for life despite the suffering - as we look forward to the silver lining behind every dark cloud, giving us strength for today, hope for tomorrow, endurance for the pain, courage for the hardships, and fulfillment in the end.