O Me! O Life! Poetry so good, Apple uses it to inspire you...

Back in first semester, our young STEMM scholars memorized 5-6 poems. One of them was the following, "O Me! O Life!" by Walt Whitman. At the time it was one of the more challenging poems to memorize: it was clunky, it didn't rhyme, it had a lot of "of's," yadda, yadda, yadda. But it had at its heart, the question, that we all must ask: What good am I, little tiny me, amid all this noisy chaotic mess of life? 

Even better? It had an answer: 

"That you are here—that life exists and identity,

That the powerful play goes on, and you may contribute a verse."

Two days ago, a bright young scholar (that's you John!) came up to me, ecstatic, saying, "Ms. Witham! They used that Walt Whitman poem, "O Me! O Life!" in a commercial for the iPad! I couldn't believe it! I knew it!"

Here is the commercial, and an article about how it will give you chills: http://business.time.com/2014/01/13/apples-latest-ad-is-probably-going-to-give-you-chills/

The commercial is narrated by the one and only Robin Williams, with echoes reverberating from his speech in Dead Poets Society (Which is required viewing for February, scholars--get a copy!). Those echoes span miles, years, heartbreaks, barbaric YAWPS, to remind us why poetry matters. 

Thanks to John D. and SaraJoy S. for bringing the commercial to my attention, and to a certain VHS parent who told me that the moment of poetic recognition made her wonder: 

Has she written her verse?

Have you?

O Me! O Life!

By Walt Whitman (1819-1892)

Oh me! Oh life! of the questions of these recurring,

Of the endless trains of the faithless, of cities fill’d with the foolish,

Of myself forever reproaching myself, (for who more foolish than I, and who more faithless?)

Of eyes that vainly crave the light, of the objects mean, of the struggle ever renew’d,

Of the poor results of all, of the plodding and sordid crowds I see around me,

Of the empty and useless years of the rest, with the rest me intertwined,

The question, O me! so sad, recurring—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.