TEN DEAD POETS

Excrement

Maggie sat in between Evelyn and Charlie at breakfast. Evelyn was next to Neil. All the other boys along with Maggie and Evelyn were joking and discussing homework and tests. She looked down the table at Todd, he wasn't engaged in any conversation. In fact, he never looked up from his food. Evelyn leaned over to Neil and told him to convince Todd to come to the study group tonight.

"I always try to convince him. He never wants to," he said and looked back at his waffles.

"Please," Evelyn pleaded. Neil heard the earnestness in her voice and looked at her.

He looked into her deep blue eyes for a few seconds before answering, he then smiled, "Okay. This time I'll really convince him."

"Thank you," she said and gave Neil a huge grin before returning to her food. At that moment, Neil didn't think he'd ever seen anything so purely innocent and beautiful in his entire life. He kept his eyes on her profile for a minute longer than he expected to.

After breakfast was over, Evelyn noticed Todd get up from the table relatively quickly. She told Maggie that she'd see her in class and got up to follow Todd. She caught him just before he turned the corner towards Chemistry.

"Hey Todd!" She said.

He turned around, eyes wide, "Uh hi, Evelyn," he said quietly.

"How are you doing?"

"Alright," he said. He didn't look in Evelyn's direction. Evelyn was desperate to connect with him.

"That trig quiz was pretty brutal huh?" She said.

"Yeah, I left a question blank," he admitted.

"Was it the last one?"

He finally turned to make eye contact with her, "Yeah."

"I left that blank too!"

"Really?" He smiled.

"I had no idea what it was asking, it was so confusing."

"Agreed," They smiled. They both felt relieved in different ways.

"Todd, can I sit with you at dinner tonight?"

"Don't you want to sit with Maggie or one of the other guys?" She shook her head and smiled. Todd smiled back, "Okay."

"C'mon let's get to Chem before we're late," Evelyn said. They walked to class together.

—

"Gentlemen, open your text to page twenty-one of the introduction. Mr. Perry, will you read the opening paragraph of the preface, entitled 'Understanding Poetry'?"

Neil opened his book and began to read, "Understanding Poetry, by Dr. J. Evans Pritchard, Ph.D. To fully understand poetry, we must first be fluent with its meter, rhyme, and figures of speech. Then ask two questions: One, how artfully has the objective of the poem been rendered, and two, how important is that objective. Question one rates the poem's perfection, question two rates it's importance. And once these questions have been answered, determine the poem's greatest becomes a relatively simple matter." Mr. Keating began to write and draw on the chalkboard.

Evelyn looked up from her book with a confused look on her face. She had never heard poetry described in such a robotic and dull way. It made her a bit angry.

Neil kept reading, "If the poem's score for perfection is plotted on the horizontal of a graph, and it's importance is plotted on the vertical, then calculating the total area of the poem yields the measure of it's greatness," Keating continued drawing the graph of the chalk board. Cameron was copying it into his notebook, "A sonnet by Byron might score high on the vertical, but only average on the horizontal. A Shakespearean sonnet, on the other hand, would score high both horizontally and vertically, yielding a massive total area, thereby revealing the poem to be truly great. As you proceed through the poetry in this book, practice this rating method. As your ability to evaluate poems in this matter grows, so will — so will your enjoyment and understanding of poetry." At this point, both Maggie and Charlie, being in the back of class, were completely zoned out and bored by this introduction to poetry, until Mr. Keating spoke to the class.