Raphael -
And share him I do!! I figure if I can turn on at least one kid a year to Keats, I'll die (preferably in Hampstead. . . ) a happy person. Believe it or not, "Bright Star" has actually helped do this very thing. The DVD was released here in January, and since then, I've had several students tell me they've rented and watched it. Of course, talking Keats up all the time, posting quotes from his letters and poems around the room and on the outside of my classroom door, and hanging the movie poster over my computer in my room has helped some, as well!!
Funny thing happened today in 5th period. We were wrapping up our study of Edgar Poe's "Annabel Lee" when one of my delightful students raised his hand and offered this insight (now, you must read this with a Western North Carolina mountain "twang"!!): "Ms. Norman, there's not a whole lotta difference between you and the poem's speaker 'cept you're obsessed with Keats and he's obsessed with his 'girlfriend.'" I had to laugh! I expect what helped that 12 year old boy make that connection was the story I told the class much earlier in the school year about visiting the Protestant Cemetery last summer and lying down on the grass next to Keats's grave. Needless to say, they thought I was crazy. Maybe I am; maybe I don't care. . .