𝐃𝐀𝐖𝐍 [𝐍𝐄𝐈𝐋 𝐏𝐄𝐑𝐑𝐘]

𝑠𝑒𝑝𝑡𝑒𝑚

𝓉𝒽ℯ 𝓉𝒾𝓂ℯ 𝒸𝒶𝓂ℯ for those in mr. keating's class to present their poems. for ophelia, it was simple. there was no secret meaning behind her poem, it simply contained flowery free verse. she thought it would be wiser for her to do something with no hidden message behind it.

ophelia had volunteered herself to go first in her class. it was just easier that way and she was able to get it over with. next was knox.

"to chris," he started. already ophelia had smiled fondly.
"i see a sweetness in her smile
bright light shines from her eyes
but life is complete; contentment is mine,
just knowing that..."
knox had paused and some of the boys began to laugh. ophelia wanted desperately to let him know that it was okay, that they were just being stupid and he was doing a wonderful job.
"just knowing that she's alive."

in defeat knox had crumpled up the paper he read the poem was on and walked to his desk. "sorry, captain. it's stupid."

"no, no. it's not stupid." keating assured, "it's a good effort. it touched on one of the major themes, love. a major theme not only in poetry but life."

keating looked around the room looking for a boy that was chuckling at knox's poem. "mr. hopkins, you were laughing. you're up." the boy trudged up to the front of the class to deliver his less than mediocre poem.

"the cat sat on the mat." he said obtusely and went back to his seat, taking about ten seconds to get up, deliver the "poem" and sit back down.

"congratulations, mr. hopkins. yours is the first poem to ever have a negative score on the pritchard scale." ophelia tried her best to laugh as loudly as she could — he deserved to be embarrassed. "we're not laughing at you, we're laughing near you."

"i'm definitely laughing at him," ophelia whispered to todd, causing him to chuckle along with her as mr. keating continued to speak.

the two continued to whisper back and forth until the captain said, "todd, step up. let's put you out of your misery."

taken aback, todd managed to stammer out, "i - i didn't do it. i didn't write a poem." and he thought that that would be the end of it, but mr. keating was different.

"mr. anderson thinks that everything inside of him is worthless and embarrassing. isn't that right, todd? isn't that your worst fear?" ophelia saw the look in todd's eyes as keating exposed him, these were things he kept deep down, away from the prying eyes of his peers, but now it was being laid out in the open to his entire class.

ophelia nearly wanted to cry for him, she saw the pain and embarrassment. she saw how he wanted to run back to his dormitory and hide there for the rest of his life. ophelia desperately wanted to wrap her arms around him and tell him that everything would be okay, but that would make everything worse.

"well, i think you're wrong." todd's head snapped up to look at keating, "i think you have something inside of you that is worth a great deal."

the captain walked his way back up to the front of the room to the blackboard, "'i sound my barbaric yawp over the rooftops of the world.' w.w. uncle walt again." he began to write out the word 'YAWP' in loud letters across the board.

"now, for those of you who don't know, a yawp is a loud cry or yell. now, todd, i would like you to give us a demonstration of a barbaric 'yawp.'" panic settled in his eyes once again, "come on. you can't yawp sitting down. let's go. come on. up."