"Come my friends,
‘Tis not too late to seek a newer world
for my purpose holds to sail beyond the
sunset.
And though we are not now that strength
which in old days
Moved earth and heaven; that which we
are, we are;—
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong
in will.
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to
yield." — Alfred Lord Tennyson
"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?" — Dead Poet’s Society
"We have not touched the stars,
nor are we forgiven, which brings us back
to the hero’s shoulders and a gentleness that comes,
not from the absence of violence, but despite
the abundance of it. The lawn drowned, the sky on fire,
the gold light falling backward through the glass
of every room. I’ll give you my heart to make a place
for it to happen, evidence of a love that transcends hunger.
Is that too much to expect? That I would name the stars
for you? That I would take you there?" — Richard Siken, Snow and Dirty Rain
"If the people will to live,
Providence is destined to favorably respond,
And night is destined to fold,
And the chains are certain to be broken.
And he who has not embraced the love of life
Will evaporate in its atmosphere and disappear." — The Will of Life, an Arabic poem and chant of protesters in recent revolutions in Egypt and Tunisia
