Found Poem Assignment

Found Poem Assignment

Lord of the Flies

A Found Poem is a poem that is created by using an existing literary work and creating a new poem from it. While the words used in the poem are not your own, the combination that you, the poet, uses to express your vision is original.

Choose a theme from William Golding’s novel Lord of the Flies, and create a found poem. Perhaps you want to focus on a symbol from the story like the fire, the conch, or the beastie. Perhaps you’d like to focus on a specific character like Jack, Ralph, Piggy or Simon. Or perhaps you’d like to focus on a theme like isolation, fear or chaos. Whatever direction you choose to go, choose passages, quotes, and words from Golding’s novel and arrange them in a way that is poetic and original.

Here is an example of a Found Poem using text from Louis Sachar’s novel Holes. This is from page 127 of the novel.

Passage from the novel:

There was a change in the weather. For the worse. The air became unbearably humid. Stanley was drenched in sweat. Beads of moisture ran down the handle of his shovel. It was almost as if the temperature had gotten so hot that the air itself was sweating. A loud book of thunder echoed across the empty lake. A storm was way off to the west, beyond the mountains. Stanley could count more than thirty seconds between the flash of lightning and the clap of thunder. That was how far away the storm was. Sound travels a great distance across a barren wasteland.

Found Poem:

There was a change

In the weather

For the worse.

The air became………humid.

Unbearably humid

Stanley was drenched

Beads of moisture ran down

The air itself………sweating

Thunder echoed

Across the empty lake.

A storm beyond the mountains.

Thirty seconds

Clap of thunder

Sound travels a great distance

Across a barren wasteland

Now try the same technique using Lord of the Flies. Your poem should have at least 15 lines, and no line should be more than five words long. Feel free to repeat a line or two if you think it will add to your poem. Your poem need not rhyme. Just be original!