Carlmont’s poetry club, the Dead Poets Society, prides itself on taking the name of the well-known Robin Williams movie. Both students in Carlmont and the movie are able to express themselves through their poetry. The Dead Poets Society is a place where students are able to share their poems with other students and perform them on the Studio Theater stage where they meet every Monday.
Shea Roland, a junior and current club president, said, “In Dead Poets Society, we read poems out loud and we also workshop them! It’s fun and makes a creative environment.”
Roland sees Dead Poets Society as an outlet to hear other students poetry to see what they have to share. The former president of the Dead Poets Society, Julia Clark, passed on her leadership to Roland this year.
Clark said, “I went to Dead Poets Society because I loved the performance aspect of poetry. I loved taking words on a page and performing it and that’s what Dead Poets Society is all about!”
Every meeting, they gather and read the poetry that the members have written over the week or one that they had found from a past year or grade.
Dead Poets Society also enjoys all types of poetry as long as the poem is meaningful or written by a student.
Clark said, “I enjoy reading poetry with a lot of imagery and that paints a picture, and I also enjoy slam poetry. I like to write free verse or slam poetry.”
Dead Poets Society is heavily influenced by the drama department. Sometimes during meetings, members will perform bits and pieces from skits and plays they are working on in their drama class for the members who are in a different class or not in drama.
Clark said, “We have a lot of drama kids, but people who love to write, people who have something to say who maybe feel like they are silenced in other places, but feel like they can speak and have a voice in the club are in our club.”
Poetry is an easy way for students to express themselves in Carlmont, whether they’re a member of the Dead Poets Society or not.
Savanna Rose Dillon, a senior, said, “I write a lot of emotional poetry because it’s easier to write about something that you felt or see personally. I write better when I’m writing about something bad because I can reach such an intense feeling, but when something is so happy and I feel good about it, my poems don’t turn out as well because the intensity of the emotion affects how the writing turns out.”
The Dead Poets Society meets Mondays during lunch in the Studio Theater.
