This is a monologue from Robin Williams' character in the movie "Dead Poet's Society":
We don't read and write poetry because it's cute. We read and write poetry because we are members of the human race. And the human race is filled with passion. And medicine, law, business, engineering, these are noble pursuits and necessary to sustain life. But poetry, beauty, romance, love, these are what we stay alive for. To quote from Whitman, "O me! O life!... of the questions of these recurring; of the endless trains of the faithless... of cities filled with the foolish; what good amid these, O me, O life?" Answer. That you are here - that life exists, and identity; that the powerful play goes on and you may contribute a verse. That the powerful play *goes on* and you may contribute a verse. What will your verse be? 
3 comments:
I absolutely love this quote and I completely agree with it.
However, I am totally bummed when I read hadith like this:
"That a man's belly be full of pus is better for him than its being full of poetry"
- Muslim, Al-Jami as-sahih 7: 125-126
We need a Khalid Abou El-Fadl or some other learned person to put this in perspective because I think this kind of mentality holds back the Muslim community from expressing itself to its fullest potential.
Well said Nabeela!!! Beautiful beautiful- I now need to work on my 'verse'...
Nabeela, this all reminds me of how the Prophet, Peace Be Upon Him's enemies apparently used to call him a 'poet'.
I used to wonder about that when I was a child, i.e. did that make poetry evil? I suppose it alluded to the fact that it being allegorical was therefore inferior to simple facts.
But poetry and literature HAVE always had their rightful place in understanding the human condition so we can make sense of the 'facts'.
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