Poetry in Movies:

"A listing of the appearance of recognizable, often canonical, poems, or excerpts from poems, in mainly American and British sound films."

I still remember taking a summer class in 20th-century German lit when I was first-year student. There were ten of us registered and eager to read Mann, Weiss, Wolf, and Grass in 30+-degrees-celsius weather. We were hardcore. We were the converted. The instructor mis-read us, however. He had a whole "poetry is cool" thing worked out for our benefit. We read lyrics by The Tragically Hip and Sarah McLachlan and discussed alliteration and assonance. Then, the instructor broke out the Rilke. "The Panther," to be exact and showed us a clip from Awakenings during which Robin Williams' character sits in front of caged panther and reads the poem. We all humoured the instructor because he meant well. He wanted us to love poetry but as we gathered outside the Bronfman building after class it became obvious that we didn't need converting. He had had us at "Rilke."

(link via:Tingle Alley)