[spoilers] Sir Harry Pearce - Return of the Jedi (#3)

[Silktie]

I would say that the show uses poetry to allow a character (Harry) who's had to close himself off emotionally to be able to survive in the job, to vocalise his feelings in times of great emotion. With his daughter, the poem allows him to express his love for her, which we know Harry has been unable to vocalise himself. And in season 8, the quote from Ode to Joy allows him to show to Ruth that he still cares a great deal for humanity, and is moved by the cruel things the human race can do to each other.

I don't think it's necessarily the poetry that makes him cry, but rather the people he is with in those scenes. His daughter and Ruth are the two people he probably loves most in this world, thus it is natural that he would want them to know what he really feels. But he doesn't know how to say it in his own words, thus the use of the poems in those two situations.