# Poetry & Movies Collide **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 16, 2012, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poetry-movies-collide/609699 "2012-01-16T15:56:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![well\_he\_s\_back](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/3ab097/32.png) [@well\_he\_s\_back](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/well_he_s_back)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2012, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poetry-movies-collide/609699/1 "2012-01-16T15:56:17Z")
It doesn’t happen often, but sometimes poems are recited in films, to _good_ effect. Most well-known example is probably the Auden poem featured in “3 Weddings and a Funeral”. I also like the moment in the movie “In Her Shoes” when Cameron Diaz recites Cummings’ lovely poem “I Carry Your Heart.” Any others? ---
**Author:** ![Sigmagirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c89c15/32.png) [@Sigmagirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sigmagirl)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2012, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poetry-movies-collide/609699/2 "2012-01-16T16:06:07Z")
In _Gunga Din_, when an actor playing Rudyard Kipling gives a eulogy by reciting the poem he just wrote about the regimental water-carrier. ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2012, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poetry-movies-collide/609699/3 "2012-01-16T16:20:25Z")
The poem _Invictus_ read by Morgan Freeman in the movie of the same name. ---
**Author:** ![koeeoaddi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/koeeoaddi/32/408_2.png) [@koeeoaddi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/koeeoaddi)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2012, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poetry-movies-collide/609699/4 "2012-01-16T16:32:39Z")
The line _“nobody,not even the rain,has such small hands”_ from an e.e. cummings poem was featured in _Hannah and Her Sisters_. Also, Rudyard Kipling’s _My Boy Jack_ was read at the end of the movie (or was it a Masterpiece Theater?) of the same name. ---
**Author:** ![vdgg81](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/3d9bf3/32.png) [@vdgg81](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vdgg81)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2012, 11:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poetry-movies-collide/609699/5 "2012-01-18T11:34:09Z")
> [@jjimm](#): > > The poem _Invictus_ read by Morgan Freeman in the movie of the same name. I hated that scene, I truly did. I guess because poetry just isn’t so popular these days, most folks don’t know how to read it anymore. Morgan Freeman just murders the prosody of the poem. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2012, 12:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poetry-movies-collide/609699/6 "2012-01-18T12:33:44Z")
The film _Breaker Morant_ has them repeating some of the poems Morant actually wrote. For all the vitriol against “Disneyfication”, the Disnrey version of _Alice in Wonderland_ actually quotes more of Lewis Carroll’s parody poems than any other film version. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2012, 12:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/poetry-movies-collide/609699/7 "2012-01-18T12:41:44Z")
well he’s back writes: \> Most well-known example is probably the Auden poem featured in “3 Weddings \> and a Funeral”. Man, you’ve really got to complain to your local movie theater about their playing edited versions of films.