Reading 12:- Dead Poet's Society- A Review!

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I came across this book- "Dead Poets Society"  in the year 2016 and since then, it has been so close to my heart. I guess, the cover page in itself is enough to make one feel elated. 

The protagonist- Mr. Keating makes my heart gleam with sunshine. His energetic recitation to the boys- "O Captain! My Captain!" fills me with enthusiasm where I in my study room with this book end up reciting- Yes, Mr. Keating- I will refer you as "O Captain! My Captain!" and nothing else, because you are the Captain of this beautiful Ship of Life in this book directing the minds.

Oh! this beautiful poem-

"Gather ye rosebuds while ye may,
Old time is still a flying.
And this same flower that smiles today
Tomorrow will be dying."

This exquisite and a lovely piece- "Gather ye rosebuds... I never get tired of reading and reciting it. 

This phrase- "Carpe Diem", its like everything in & around me signals me- "Go Girl, go and seize the day, seize every moment, seize the poetry, write your heart out and Live. Live & Breathe, breathe like this is it. Open your arms & dance under the sky as if who cares, laugh heartily, live & love & fly. Because its all about this phrase:- Carpe diem and who knows, this moment is actually the only one.

Because Mr. Keating says to his students- 

"We are food for worms, lads! Oh, Yeah, I actually imagine how am I going to be buried into soil, satiating hunger of all the micro-organisms, enriching them & paying back to Mother Earth, and this imagination can turn into reality like any time and its only this imagination that speaks to me- "I don't want to squander my dreams, because I can't.

What an inspiring friend & teacher Mr. Keating is! How much he feels within & means every word when he says:-

"Medicine, law, banking- these are necessary to sustain life. but poetry, romance, love, beauty? These are what we stay alive for! One reads poetry because one is a member of the human race.

I am here, my life exists and I may contribute a verse. We all may contribute a verse. But what will our verse be- is the question? And this question lets me wonder about the version of my verse. A verse that could suck the marrow out of life just as Thoreau says.

Oh! I realize now, how am I supposed to keep on with the flow of the book and not digress to my own world.

The book takes you to a  journey to a secret organization, that begins with the school boys' discovery of their Captain's Dead Poet Society. 

Wow! Its so thrilling and daunting to break the monotonous rules & discover oneself under the light of the sky glowing with stars. Live among the woods, tearing across the branches of trees, be dead & just Live and be at home.

Ah! this precious piece from Walden by Thoreau-

" I went to the woods because
I wanted to live deep and
suck out all the marrow of life!!
To put to rout all that was not life
And not, when I came to die,
discover that I had not lived."
I wished to live deliberately.

Oh! this is worth to be read aloud, to be read again & again & again until these lines get dissolved in one's blood and breathe.

How the entire class start composing their own version of poetry, dancing freely, living poetry beyond words is sufficient to draw one to this beautiful world of poetry. For poetry is not limited to words. It can be found in music, a photograph, in the way a meal is prepared- anything with the stuff of revelation in it. It can exist in the most everyday things but it must never, never be ordinary.

Keating's way of  relieving Todd of his deepest fears, can make one fall in love with him. Oh! Todd's first smile of confidence, discovering his treasure hidden within is worth a discovery.

Neil finding his "Carpe Diem" , he enjoying his moments of delightfulness but at the same time, it's  painful to see him being reprimanded by his father simply because he wants to live his newly discovered life. Just because he doesn't want to stick to old rules and live up to his father's dreams. 

The torture, humiliation and the tragedy met by Dead Poets Society is heartbreaking but the strength and will shown by them is commendable. The tribute paid to Mr. Keating- "O Captain! My Captain" is worth living for.

A journey worth to make through the book and raise oneself beyond "Tradition, Honor, Discipline, Excellence! To be free thinkers and not the conformers. To break old habits, free the mind of its mechanical behavior and fly!!

Thankyou for reading!!

Grab your copy here!

Note- the post is also posted in author's goodreads and medium profile.

The post contains affiliate link as well!!

 

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