John Green Reads Poetry

John: So, we just have to pause briefly to commemorate the life of Harper Lee, author of “To Kill a Mockingbird”. Harper Lee, who wrote, “There are just some kind of men who– who’re so busy worrying about the next world, they’ve never learned to live in this one…” And who wrote, “Mockingbirds don’t do one thing but make music for us to enjoy. They don’t eat up people’s gardens, don’t nest in corncribs, they don’t do one thing but sing their hearts out for us. That’s why it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird.” And Harper Lee who also wrote the single greatest line of dialogue in American literature, “Miss Jean Louise, stand up. Your father’s passin’.”
 
John: Hank, she was one of my favorite writers, especially when I was a young person. And when my son was born, we gave him the middle name Atticus, partly because of the historical Atticus, but partly because of Atticus Finch the great hero in the novel ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’. And, uh, my publisher, Julie Strauss-Gabel, after Henry was born, sent Harper Lee, uh, some copies of my books, and uh Ms. Lee very kindly sent one of them back: a first printing of “Looking for Alaska,” that she signed on the title page, “Welcome to the world Henry Atticus, Harper Lee.” 
 
Hank: I feel like that was our short poem already. I hope you don’t have another one, because –
 
John: But I have a short poem about dog death. …

“There are just some kind of men who– who’re so busy worrying about the next world, they’ve never learned to live in this one…”

— Miss Maudie Atkinson (Chapter 5)

“Mockingbirds don’t do one thing but make music for us to enjoy. They don’t eat up people’s gardens, don’t nest in corncribs, they don’t do one thing but sing their hearts out for us. That’s why it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird.”

— Miss Maudie Atkinson (Chapter 10)

“Miss Jean Louise, stand up. Your father’s passin’.”

— Reverend Sykes to Jean Louise “Scout” Finch (Chapter 21)