Todd’s worst fear is that his life has no meaning, and therefore, he has no verse to contribute. For example, after the first day of class, Todd writes “Carpe Diem” on his paper, dreaming of what it would be like if he, too, could contribute a verse and be great like those in the picture. His insecurity gets the better of him, though, and he throws out the paper believing he has nothing to contribute. Later, in class, after being asked to write a poem, Todd tells Keating he never completed the assignment after he spent many hours writing and revising his poem only to have thrown it away before class. This is a prime example of Todd’s struggle between romanticism and realism, where Todd begins dreaming of future possibilities and ways of expressing himself only to have his realistic expectations crash down on him and diminish his thoughts of potential greatness.

Keating sees through Todd’s fear and first makes him yawp, and later makes him say whatever comes to mind. This is the beginning of the change in Todd.

“I close my eyes and this image floats beside me
The sweaty-toothed madman with a stare that pounds my brains
His hands reach out and choke me
And all the time he’s mumbling
Truth, like a blanket that always leaves your feet cold.
You push it, stretch it, it will never be enough
Kick it beat it, it will never cover any of us.
From the moment we enter crying, to the moment we leave dying, it will just cover your face as you wail and cry and scream.”

In this poem, Todd is saying that the madman is passion, but passion (the blanket) is not enough, it leaves you cold and exposed. Through your whole life, passion only is shown on your face when you wail and scream and cry. You need it to a certain extent because as Keating said, “the human race is filled with passion” and also that passion is the reason to stay alive, but just following your passions is not enough. You need to be able to control your passions and not let them control you.

Another possible interpretation from a response I received is:

“Todd’s poem, inspired by Whitman’s picture, could be a symbol for the attempt to balance romanticism and rationalism. Forgive me if I don’t remember it correctly if I mess up and if my memory does effect this ignore it. It has been a while. Truth being a blanket that only covers you partially always keeping your feet cold. The blanket is the attempt to balance rationalism and romanticism. No matter how you stretch it one way or the other something is exposed. The feet are symbolizing Todd’s rationalism and the head represents his romanticism. As his rational side was the one that had always won out before that was the one most exposed to criticism, thus being cold. I would argue that Todd slowly throughout the movie began to movie the to cover more of his rational side and uncover some of his romantic side in an attempt to balance the two.”

Todd is the only one in this movie that understood this message that Keating was trying to teach. Neil let his passions take control of his life and it drove him to suicide. Nwanda let his passions get out of hand and it led to his expulsion. Knox also followed his passions and although he did get to be with Chris in the end, he sacrificed his relationship with his family and the Dansburry’s

- See more at: http://www.antiromantic.com/todd-anderson/#sthash.tRSi6mmZ.dpuf