Fiction can have as significant an impact on our values as non-fiction may, for they portray eventual outcomes of living according to a set of values, good or bad, constructive or destructive. By observing others move through life based on a set of choices informs our future decisions. Think of the simple role of Aesop's fables. Consider the far-reaching wisdom of Jesus' parables.
Poetry may seem even more remote from such life decisions, but the values and vision for life expressed in poetry can have a huge impact on our life. I recall Nelson Mandela's growth from reading the poem Invictus. That impact inspired the biographical film by the same title (starring Morgan Freeman and Matt Damon).
Invictus
Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the Pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.
In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.
Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.
It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll.
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.
By William Ernest Henley
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