Dead Poets Society Chapter 4

Dead Poets Society

Chapter 4

“If you listen real close, you can hear them whisper their legacy to you. Go on, lean in. Listen, you hear it? ---- Carpe -- hear it? – Carpe, Carpe Diem, seize the day boys, make your lives extraordinary.”

1. What do we learn about the teachers?

Describe:

-     The chemistry teacher: The chemistry teacher is a bit stern when it comes to homework. On the first day of school he handed out huge textbooks to all the students. He started off saying: “Each student would pick three lab experiments from the project list and report on one every five week” and into the bargain that the first twenty problems at the end of the Chapter 1 should be done for tomorrow as homework.

-     The Latin teacher: Mr. McAllister has a Scottish brogue. On the first day of school he began to teach the boys in Latin-nouns. He seemed to be a quite good teacher that the boys could learn something from, although his class seemed to be a bit long-drawn-out.

-     The Math teacher: Dr. Hager was also more on the stern side and he was not a teacher that you could just play around with. He told the class that if anyone ended up failing to turn in a homework assignment, it would go beyond their final grade and ended the sentence of with: “Let me urge you now not to test me on this point”.

2. Describe the English teacher Mr. Keating – how is he different than the other teachers? Mr. Keating is a very odd teacher. All of the other teachers came in to the class and immediately started off the lessons with something school related which seems very uninteresting and boring for the students. Mr. Keating was complete opposite. He came into the class first of all with an odd manner and second of all, very silent and was just starring out of the window with absolutely no eye contact with any of the students who sat in the class; Already after the first minutes he got the student's full attention and got them thinking. Following, he got the students out of the class and into the honor-room as if he was trying to show or proof something to the students - He knew how to get the students real attention, which is a perfect competence to be a good teacher. In addition, he seems to be extremely special, outwardly almost kind of a gaily personality.

3. Translate the following words into Danish

English	Engelsk
Dismay	Forfærdelse, fortvivlelse, modløshed
Recitation	Fremsigelse
Blackboard	Tavle
Strolling	Omrejsende, omvandrende
Piercingly	Gennemtrængende
Scholars	Forsker
Stanza	Strofe, vers
Peruse	Gennemlæse, studere grundigt
Iota	Tøddel
Deity	Guddommelig
Squander	Forspilde
Hesitantly	Usikkerhed, ubeslutsom
Fertilizing	Gødende
Daffodil	Påskelilje

  

4. "To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time" by Robert Herrick (17^th century)

What does the poem on page 25 mean?

“Gather ye rosebuds while ye may,

Old Time is still a flying:

And this same flower that smiles today,

Tomorrow will be dying.”

You can read the poem in its full length here: http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/175882

(“Gather Ye Rosebuds While Ye May”, 1909 by John William Waterhouse - inspired by the 17th century poem "To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time" by Robert Herrick).

We think the poem is about love. It is about taking the chance before it is too late. The rose is a symbol for any other living creature, you need to take care of a rose, for it to grow and when the time comes, it will eventually die. The rose is a metaphor for a human, if you do not take care of yourself and let yourself blossom, you will die. It is the same for all living things, from a flower to a person. You can only blossom if you let yourself grow and in order to grow you need to take care of yourself. 

You can read the poem in its full length here: http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/175882

5. Who was Walt Whitman? Walt Whitman are known as the most successful poets in American history, more specifically known by his assigned name ‘The father of free verse’.

Poem: “O Captain! My Captain”, Walt Whitman: http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/174742

What is the poem about and to whom is it written? The poem treat of a captain that unluckily dies. This poem is concerning to Abraham Lincoln, who was the president of the United States, he was known as a leader because of the leadership he had before he died - Abraham is considered as one of the biggest and most important presidents USA has ever had. In 1865 the Shakespeare-actor John Wilkes Booth murdered him under a stage play at Ford Theatre.

Why do you think Mr. Keating tells the students that they may call him "O Captain! My Captain!" (if they feel daring)? Because Keating is the ‘leader’ of the class, they must do what he orders them to do.