Poetry in Movies
Not sure why, but I was thinking about famous poems that have been written into the plotlines of movies. If a poem is used as an essential plot point, it’s the equivalent to “product placement”—like using the Starbucks brand in the Austin Powers series. So I did a Google search and found this partial yet substantial list created by Stacey Harwood from the Michigan Quarterly Review.
Sure, you can find lots of Shakespeare on the big screen, but what about Jane Kenyon or Pablo Neruda? So in no particular order, here’s a sampling of movies I like that feature poetry. (I’m staying away from obvious movie choices such as Shakespeare in Love and Poetic Justice.)
Arnold, Matthew
"Dover Beach"
The Anniversary Party, 2001
Auden, W. H.
"Funeral Blues"
Four Weddings and a Funeral, 1994
Bishop, Elizabeth
"One Art"
In Your Shoes, 2005
Coleridge, Samuel Taylor
"Kubla Khan"
Citizen Kane, 1941
cummings, e. e.
"i carry your heart with me"
In Your Shoes, 2005
"somewhere i have never travelled gladly beyond"
Hannah and Her Sisters, 1986
Dickinson, Emily
"Because I could not stop for Death"
Crimes and Misdemeanors, 1989
"'Hope' is the thing with feathers"
Quiz Show, 1994
"We never know how high we are"
Seabiscuit, 2003
Eliot, T. S.
"The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock"
Apocalypse Now, 1979
Frost, Robert
"Nothing Gold Can Stay"
The Outsiders, 1983
Ginsberg, Allen
"Howl"
Hairspray, 1988
Keats, John
"When I Have Fears that I May Cease to Be"
Brief Encounter, 1945
The Track of the Cat, 1954
Kenyon, Jane
"Let Evening Come"
In Her Shoes, 2005
Neruda, Pablo
"The Dead Woman"
Truly Madly Deeply, 1991
Various poems
Il Postino, 1994
Shakespeare, William
Hamlet, Act 2, Scene 1 ["To be or not to be"]
Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, 1991
Henry IV, Part 1
My Own Private Idaho, 1991
Julius Caesar, Act I, Scene 2 ["The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars"]
Intolerable Cruelty, 2003
Good Night and Good Luck, 2005
Sonnet #116 ["Let me not to the marriage of true minds"]
Sense and Sensibility, 1995
"Venus and Adonis" ["Dismiss your vows, your feigned tears"]
Intolerable Cruelty, 2003
Thomas, Dylan
"Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night"
Back to School, 1986
Dangerous Minds, 1995
Whitman, Walt
"I Sing the Body Electric"
Bull Durham, 1988
Sure, you can find lots of Shakespeare on the big screen, but what about Jane Kenyon or Pablo Neruda? So in no particular order, here’s a sampling of movies I like that feature poetry. (I’m staying away from obvious movie choices such as Shakespeare in Love and Poetic Justice.)
Arnold, Matthew
"Dover Beach"
The Anniversary Party, 2001
Auden, W. H.
"Funeral Blues"
Four Weddings and a Funeral, 1994
Bishop, Elizabeth
"One Art"
In Your Shoes, 2005
Coleridge, Samuel Taylor
"Kubla Khan"
Citizen Kane, 1941
cummings, e. e.
"i carry your heart with me"
In Your Shoes, 2005
"somewhere i have never travelled gladly beyond"
Hannah and Her Sisters, 1986
Dickinson, Emily
"Because I could not stop for Death"
Crimes and Misdemeanors, 1989
"'Hope' is the thing with feathers"
Quiz Show, 1994
"We never know how high we are"
Seabiscuit, 2003
Eliot, T. S.
"The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock"
Apocalypse Now, 1979
Frost, Robert
"Nothing Gold Can Stay"
The Outsiders, 1983
Ginsberg, Allen
"Howl"
Hairspray, 1988
Keats, John
"When I Have Fears that I May Cease to Be"
Brief Encounter, 1945
The Track of the Cat, 1954
Kenyon, Jane
"Let Evening Come"
In Her Shoes, 2005
Neruda, Pablo
"The Dead Woman"
Truly Madly Deeply, 1991
Various poems
Il Postino, 1994
Shakespeare, William
Hamlet, Act 2, Scene 1 ["To be or not to be"]
Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, 1991
Henry IV, Part 1
My Own Private Idaho, 1991
Julius Caesar, Act I, Scene 2 ["The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars"]
Intolerable Cruelty, 2003
Good Night and Good Luck, 2005
Sonnet #116 ["Let me not to the marriage of true minds"]
Sense and Sensibility, 1995
"Venus and Adonis" ["Dismiss your vows, your feigned tears"]
Intolerable Cruelty, 2003
Thomas, Dylan
"Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night"
Back to School, 1986
Dangerous Minds, 1995
Whitman, Walt
"I Sing the Body Electric"
Bull Durham, 1988
Comments
I’m hosting the Ringing of the Bards poetry blog carnival, June 16. If you’d like to be included, leave a comment here or email me at tielansari @ gmail dot com any time through June 15.
Any style is welcome, but I’m particularly showcasing formal poetry this time around.
Don’t forget to come back and see the carnival!
you've been tagged! hope you can join in!! http://neverending-growth.blogspot.com/2007/06/8-random-facts.html
They told me Francis Hinsley,
they told me you were hung,
with red protruding eyeballs
and black protruding tongue.
I wept as I remembered how often you and I
had laughed about Los Angeles
and now tis here you’ll lie.
Here, pickled in formaldehyde
and painted like a whore,
shrimp pink, incorruptible–
not lost, but gone before.