Sylvester Stallone and Talia Shire in Rocky (1976)
POEM: "Success is counted sweetest" First Stanza:
Success is counted sweetest
By those who ne'er succeed.
To comprehend a nectar
Requires sorest need.
To celebrate this new, acclaimed film: Imagine that you are stranded on an island, literal or, because we're talking about poetry, metaphorical, and you are given only two representatives of arts and entertainment: one poem by Emily Dickinson and one film. Which movie, from the list below, and thematically related Dickinson poem, would you choose?
POEM: "Success is counted sweetest" First Stanza:
Success is counted sweetest
By those who ne'er succeed.
To comprehend a nectar
Requires sorest need.
POEM (title and most relevant line): "After great pain, a formal feeling comes –"
POEM: "Fame is a fickle food" Sample Lines:
Fame is a fickle food
Upon a shifting plate
Whose table once a
Guest but not
The second time is set
POEM: "Crumbling is not an instant's Act" Closing Stanza:
Ruin is formal — Devil's work
Consecutive and slow —
Fail in an instant, no man did
Slipping — is Crashe's law —
POEM: "I dwell in Possibility –" Closing Lines:
The spreading wide my narrow Hands
To gather Paradise –
POEM (entire poem): In this short Life that only lasts an hour How much - how little - is within our power
POEM: "'Hope' is the thing with feathers—" First Stanza:
'Hope' is the thing with feathers—
That perches in the soul—
And sings the tune without the words—
And never stops—at all—
POEM: "Much Madness is divinest Sense - " Sample Lines:
Much Madness is divinest Sense -
To a discerning Eye -
...
Assent - and you are sane -
Demur - you’re straightway dangerous -
And handled with a Chain -
POEM: Wild nights - Wild nights! Closing Stanza:
Rowing in Eden -
Ah - the Sea!
Might I but moor - tonight -
In thee!
POEM: "Because I could not stop for Death -" Famous Opening Lines:
Because I could not stop for Death –
He kindly stopped for me –
(In the poem, the speaker is dead but we don't know that until after we've read the entire poem. In the movie, well, you know...)