{"id":1602,"date":"2014-08-14T12:16:00","date_gmt":"2014-08-14T12:16:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeiswhathappens.ca\/?p=1602"},"modified":"2026-01-15T17:09:22","modified_gmt":"2026-01-15T17:09:22","slug":"what-will-your-verse-be","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeiswhathappens.ca\/?p=1602","title":{"rendered":"What will your verse be…?"},"content":{"rendered":"

In my blog post yesterday, remembering Robin Williams, I referred to a passage from “Dead Poet’s Society” on the power of poetry. It’s worth repeating –<\/p>\n

“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. 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.”<\/span><\/p>\n

\n<\/object><\/div>\n

Trust Apple to have brought these lines to life. Yes, it’s a “commercial” for Apple’s iPad, but it does add some amazing visual imagery to the words and Keating’s comments on the poem, “O me! O life!”<\/p>\n

“To quote from Whitman, “O me! O life!… of the questions of these recurring; of the endless trains of the faithless… of cities filled with the foolish; what good amid these, O me, O life?” Answer: that you are here; that life exists, and identity; that the powerful play goes on and you may contribute a verse; that the powerful play <\/span>goes on <\/i>and you may contribute a verse. What will your verse be?”<\/span><\/p>\n

And it does remind us of the challenge of the poem, to add our own verse. Here’s the poem –<\/p>\n

\n

\nO Me! O Life!<\/h1>\n<\/div>\n

BY WALT WHITMAN<\/a><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\n
\nOh me! Oh life! of the questions of these recurring,<\/div>\n
\nOf the endless trains of the faithless, of cities fill\u2019d with the foolish,<\/div>\n
\nOf myself forever reproaching myself, (for who more foolish than I, and who more faithless?)<\/div>\n
\nOf eyes that vainly crave the light, of the objects mean, of the struggle ever renew\u2019d,<\/div>\n
\nOf the poor results of all, of the plodding and sordid crowds I see around me,<\/div>\n
\nOf the empty and useless years of the rest, with the rest me intertwined,<\/div>\n
\nThe question, O me! so sad, recurring\u2014What good amid these, O me, O life?<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

\n                                       Answer.<\/em><\/div>\n
\nThat you are here\u2014that life exists and identity,<\/div>\n
\nThat the powerful play goes on, and you may contribute a verse.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

At the moment my verse may just be this weblog and its pictures my visuals, however, I am working on refining and expanding the entries, albeit – slowly, very slowly – Maybe an iPad would speed things up \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

\n<\/a><\/div>\n

\nThe picture – Nuit Blanche 2013, where people come to contemplate (and capture) the visual verses of others.<\/p>\n

Have an awesome day!!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In my blog post yesterday, remembering Robin Williams, I referred to a passage from “Dead Poet’s Society” on the power of poetry. It’s worth repeating – “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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1603,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1602","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-poetry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeiswhathappens.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1602","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeiswhathappens.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeiswhathappens.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeiswhathappens.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeiswhathappens.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1602"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lifeiswhathappens.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1602\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1604,"href":"https:\/\/lifeiswhathappens.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1602\/revisions\/1604"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeiswhathappens.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1603"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeiswhathappens.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1602"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeiswhathappens.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1602"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeiswhathappens.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1602"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}