Just in time for the cerebral celebration of World Poetry Day on March 21, a totally subjective list of five times when poetry stole the show in some film favorites. Searching for other examples? Be sure to check out the partial list of poetry in movies compiled by the Academy of American Poets.
Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994)
Although everyone loves a good wedding, it was a funeral scene that stole the show in this Hugh Grant and Andie MacDowell romantic comedy. Following the sudden passing of his partner Gareth (played by Simon Callow), a distraught Matthew (John Hannah) struggles to find the right words to complete his moving and humorous eulogy. He turns “to the words of another splendid bugger,” W.H. Auden to articulate his sense of loss, specifically to Auden’s “Funeral Blue.” The result is a spectacular and powerful scene perfect for teaching the power of rhyming couplets, the fundamentals of the quatrain form, end-stopped lines, and alliteration. More than anything, it is a scene that captures heartbreak and grief with an eloquence that reaffirms our collective sense of humanity.
Dead Poet’s Society (1989)
A cliché choice, to be sure, but it is still hard to beat John Keating’s (Robin Williams) recitation of Walt Whitman's “O Me! O Life” to a classroom full of wide-eyed adolescents. And his prefatory comments are perfect for any teacher looking for some inspiration for an “Intro to Poetry” moment: “We don't read and write poetry because it's cute. We read and write poetry because we are members of the human race. And the human race is filled with passion. And medicine, law, business, engineering, these are noble pursuits and necessary to sustain life. But poetry, beauty, romance, love, these are what we stay alive for.”
Hannah and Her Sisters (1986)
The scene has been set: Elliot (Michael Caine) is infatuated with his sister-in-law Lee (Barbara Hershey). Unable to tell her directly (for obvious reasons), he arranges to bump into her at the Pageant Book & Print Shop, where he insists on buying her a copy of e.e. cummings’ Complete Poems: 1894-1962. His reason is anything but smooth confidence personified: "I read a poem of you and thought of his last week. A poem of his and thought of you." Still, his send-off is clear: "Don't forget the poem on page 112, it reminded me of you." The poem: “somewhere I have traveled gladly beyond.” No additional commentary is necessary.
Il Postino (1994)
Yes, Michael Radford’s adaptation of Antonio Skármeta’s novel Ardiente paciencia (1985) is a lush, gorgeously filmed romance set on the island of Procida off the coast of Naples. And yes, it boasts a theme song that has graced many weddings (my own included). However, the movie's real star is the poetry and poetics of Pablo Neruda, who has been exiled to the island for his communist beliefs. Neruda, of course, offers a wonderful insight into the role of poetry in the world and, for the classroom, into how teachers and students should approach a poem: "When you explain poetry, it becomes banal. Better than any explanation is the experience of feelings that poetry can reveal to a nature open enough to understand it.” This movie also offers a master class in metaphor, the “carrying over” of meaning to illuminate (or obscure) likenesses or similarities between two different things or ideas. For example: “Your laugh is a sudden silvery wave.”
Wit (2001)
Technically a TV movie adaptation of Margaret Edson’s about an English professor (Emma Thompson) diagnosed with terminal ovarian cancer, Wit eloquently tackles seventeenth-century poetry, specifically the nineteen Holy Sonnets of John Donne. One poem in particular, "Death, be not proud" weaves elegantly through the movie, providing great opportunities for classroom discussion of metaphysical conceits, punctuation, and "life, death, soul, God, past present.”
Honorable Mentions:
Edgar Allan Poe, since appearances of “The Raven,” “Ulalume,” and “Annabel Lee” could constitute an article of their own.
Charles Bukowski, whose poetry defines several great bar scenes in otherwise forgettable movies.
Emily Dickinson, mostly for Sophie’s Choice (1982) but also for cameos elsewhere.
A River Runs Through It (1992) for a great scene in which father and son recite lines from Wordsworth's “Odes: Intimations of Immortality.”
Bull Durham (1988) for some valiant efforts with Blake’s The Marriage of Heaven and Hell as well as Thomas Gray’s “Elegy (Written in a Country Churchyard)” and Whitman’s “I Sing the Body Electric.”
Apocalypse Now (1979) for its affection for T.S. Eliot.