S.E. Hinton's The Outsiders, adapted for screen.
In the movies, the characters are always reciting lines of poetry to each other. Take The Outsiders. Here, Ponyboy recites Robert Frost's Nothing Gold Can Stay. And he's a teenager! OK, OK, it does take place in the sixties, and there are plenty of baby boomers out there who may have had to memorize poetry by rote while in school. Here, our character says he memorized it because he never understood what Robert Frost meant. I doubt I'd be able to memorize anything I couldn't understand.
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
More current, is the setting for the film, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, which takes its title from Alexander Pope's poem, Eloisa to Abelard . The theme of the film is based upon this poem, and here, Kirsten Dunst's character recites a couple of lines of it in order to show off a little bit-- inappropriately charming her boss.
Does reciting poetry still happen in real life? Did it ever? And for what purpose? Not counting song lyrics or limericks, I've never been anyplace, outside of a college course, where someone volunteered a few verses of prose.
Showing off, or not, being able to recite a poem in its completion, in public --is impressive. But I bring this up because unless I start now, I will probably never live either of these scenes in real life (well, at least for Kirsten Dunst's, let's hope not). I was never made to memorize poetry in school, and although I enjoyed reading, and was fairly studious, I never took it upon myself to do this. It's a little sad in a way, but then again, why would I?
Showing off, or not, being able to recite a poem in its completion, in public --is impressive. But I bring this up because unless I start now, I will probably never live either of these scenes in real life (well, at least for Kirsten Dunst's, let's hope not). I was never made to memorize poetry in school, and although I enjoyed reading, and was fairly studious, I never took it upon myself to do this. It's a little sad in a way, but then again, why would I?
