English 11 AP:
Found Poetry in Transcendentalism ______/ 60 pts.
Found poems are constructed from various passages of existing prose. One discovers a “found" poem embedded in text and then recasts it into a new genre. While the found poems may be considered original verse, their words, themes and sequencing are invented from various passages from other authors.
To create your own found poem, select words, phrases and lines from passages by Emerson and/or Thoreau. Arrange and format their words to make them even more poem-like. Organize the language you discovered so as to enhance or improve it. Make it interesting, poetic, vivid! You might place key words at the ends or beginnings of lines or break up words that otherwise would go together in a prose piece, such as dividing “white clouds” onto two separate lines in order to emphasize imagery or to appeal to the ear. Words may be dropped but not added. This is editing at its extreme: writing without composing. Do not change words unless you need to alter for tense or agreement (subject-verb or pronoun-antecedent).
As you choose your text(s), be sure to record complete information for your sources.
Hint: read aloud as you choose your text and then again as you arrange your lines! Rely on your ear for the right sound combinations as you create a rhythm you like. Word-processing your rough draft may facilitate the task.
The process
_____ Chooses suitable text from the prose – NOT their POETRY! -- of Emerson and/or Thoreau
_____ Utilizes textbook material or seeks other writings
_____ Employs more than one source, as appropriate
_____ Composes at least 20 lines of free verse
_____ Adds no words to the original text
_____ Changes words only for tense, subject-verb or pronoun-antecedent agreement
_____ Appropriately combines ideas into sensible phrases or sentences
_____ Maintains a consistent point of view
_____ Shows proper meaning and emphasis through line arrangement and sequencing
_____ Composes an original title
_____ Folds this sheet around poem and reflection on date both are due
Final copy format (30 pts.)
_____ Creates a neat and attractive project
_____ Uses 8 ½” x 11” white unlined paper
_____ Word processes or prints neatly in black ink
_____ Makes text as large as page allows for legibility
_____ Illustrates or enhances with suitable border or graphic that complements poem
_____ Edits for spelling
_____ Observes conventional punctuation rules
_____ Proofreads and prepares error-free copy
_____ Places your name and block on the back in the bottom right corner
_____ Acknowledges original author
Works cited page (10)
_____ Uses MLA format to cite sources and to create a Words Cited page
3- paragraph reflection (20 pts.)
_____ Word-processes in MLA format (double space!)
_____ Writes about literature in the present tense
_____ Describes your process (rereading? annotating aphorisms? searching Internet?)
_____ Explains text selections and how they relate to your purpose
_____ Identifies elements such as
§ tone
§ theme (your purpose)
§ connotative language
§ literary devices
§ vivid imagery
§ sounds
_____ Explains your choice of illustration or embellishment
_____ Reveals your intended audience if you have one
William Faulkner’s Nobel Prize Banquet Speech (Dec. 10, 1950)
http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1949/faulkner-speech.html
The poet’s voice
Need not merely be
The record of man;
It can be one of
The props,
The pillars
To help him
Endure
And prevail.
Passage from Holes by Louis Sachar :
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 boom 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
For the worse.
The air became humid;
Beads of moisture ran down
The handle of his shovel.
It was almost as if
The air itself was sweating.
Thunder echoed
Across the empty lake –
A storm beyond the mountains.
Thirty seconds between the flash
And the thunder.
Sound travels a great distance
Across a barren wasteland.
From http://www.readwritethink.org/files/resources/lesson_images/lesson33/foundparallelpoems.pdf
Found poem from chapter 22 of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
They don’t fight with courage
That’s born in them
But with courage that’s borrowed.
The idea of you thinking
You had pluck enough!
You raise a yell,
And hang onto that coattail,
And come raging up here.
You think you are brave.
Your mistake is
You didn’t fetch your mask.
You’re afraid to back down --
Afraid you’ll be found out.
Now the thing for you to do
Is crawl in a hole --
You don’t like trouble and danger.
Now leave;
I know you clear through.