Seized by the Day

I sat alone in the living room, popcorn bowl in hand, and watched as John Keating—the fictitious teacher portrayed by Robin Williams in Dead Poets Society—taught Robert Herrick’s poem, “To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time.” The iconic scene culminated in Keating’s grand soliloquy. Asking the students to face the school trophy case, to gaze into the eyes of those who’d gone before them, Keating said, “[Those] boys are now fertilizing daffodils. But if you listen real close, you can hear them...