Carpe Diem! - Dead Poets Society

source: walkinthedust.wordpress.com

“Carpe Diem!”

A famous quote means “Seize the Day!” brought by the movie, Dead Poets Society, which is released in 1989. This movie is a British movie with the sets, a boarding-school life off boys from 7-18 years old.

Dead Poets society is a group formed by Prof. John Keating (an English teacher in Welton Academic) and his friends, when they were in high school (Welton Academic). As mentioned in the movie, this group is dedicated to sucking the marrow out of life. They gathered in an old Indian cave and take turns in reading poetry from Thoreau, Whitman and Shelley.

Why the group named ‘Dead Poets Society’? I think, this name comes from the sentence that usually be read in the beginning of the group’ meetings; “sucking the marrow out of life”. These meetings is held at nights, the boys went to the cave and brought a flashlight as it’s the symbolism of the ideology “to live deliberately”. The symbolic of freedom. The freedom of thought, individualism and the rejection of conformity and traditionalism. They were insipired by Henri David Thoreau, who went to the woods because he wanted to live in free, feeling the life itself, and see life from any different point of view. To live the life in the moment, to put aside all differences, all fears, all worries and just go for it.

In this movie, Keating's students who was bored of school rules and their parents, brought Dead Poets Society alive. Even they knew that this group was banned by the school. 

I think that the most relate theme is “Dealing with increased feelings of independence and rebellion”. Because this film tells a story of some men who rebel school’s rules and also rebel their parents’ will, and the feelings becomes more powerful after they believed in the word “carpe diem”. 

This movie helped me changed my mind that poetry have power that can expand people's mind. Also, I got some a new poem I like from this movie.
I like the poem from Alfred Lord Tennyson read by Niell in the first meeting.

     “Come my friends. Tis not too late to seek a newer world. For my purpose hold to sail beyond the sunset. And though we are not now that strength which in old days moved Earth and Heaven. That which we are, we are; one equal temper of heroic hearts made weak by time and fate, but strong in will... to strive, to seek, to find, and to yield."


I like the poem from the very first time I heard it read. It’s like a high spirit of willing to seek many new challenging experiences. And I feel conscious hearing it.