ADVANCED ENGLISH 3-4
Ms. LeCren, La Jolla High School Name:________________________________________
Period:____ Date:______________________________
Writing Assignment (Found Poem) for Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
Directions: Write a found poem based on the novel Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe and on the poem
"The Second Coming" by William Butler Yeats based on the following directions.
Title
First, create a title. What is a theme from the novel
that you would like to explore and display for others? Remember that a theme is not a topic. I can say
that one topic in the novel is the idea of fathers and
sons. But the theme is a "bumper sticker" statement
about that topic. My example might be: Relationships between fathers and sons are cyclical (what
goes around, comes around--as in Unoka is lazy and
passive, so Okonkwo reacts to that by being organized and prosperous; yet Okonkwo is violent and
controlling, and Nwoye reacts to that by being passive
and giving up his culture for Christianity.) Once you
figure out what your theme is, create a title that will
reflect that theme. For instance, if you give your poem
the title "Violence is a Blood-Dimmed Tide" then the
poem might focus on the consequences of the violent
acts in the novel.
Content
Poems don't have to rhyme. But this poem has to use
lines from Things Fall Apart and from "The Second
Coming." The definition of a found poem is that it
uses "found" text. Arrange the phrases in a meaningful order. Your arrangment should help the reader
understand your theme. And, just for fun, try using at
least one Ibo word in your poem. There is a dictionary of Ibo words in the back of your novel. You may
not use any of your own words except for the title.
You have permission to adjust verb tenses (the novel
is written in past tense; the poem in present tense.)
The meaning of your found poem should reflect the
thematic aspect of the novel that your title represents.
Format
The poem can be typed, or artistically presented (suitable for posting on the bulletin board.) Try to keep it
to one side of one page. The lines that you take from
the novel should be followed by page numbers (parenthetical references). The lines taken from the poem
should also have a parenthetical reference (Yeats). See
the example above.
Turning and Turning in the Widening Gyre:
Fathers and Sons
by Carole LeCren
Unoka
Quite incapable of thinking about tomorrow (4)
Loved the good fare and the good fellowship (4)
Turning and turning
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity (Yeats)
efulefu
Okonkwo
A young man whose father had no yams (20)
At a very early age
Fending for his father's house (20)
Okonkwo's prosperity was visible in his household (13)
A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun (Yeats)
Vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle (Yeats)
inyanga
Nwoye
Always wondered (31)
His father wanted him to be a man (46)
Burst into tears (49)
Something had given way inside him
It descended on him again, this feeling, when his father
walked in, that night after killing Ikemefuna (53)
Surely some revelation is at hand (Yeats)
The Second Coming is at hand...a vast image (Yeats)
osu
Fathers and sons
what widening rough beast[s] (Yeats)
umunna
Scoring Rubric: Found Poem (6 points)
❐ title reflects a theme in the novel
❐ uses lines from the novel in the poem
❐ uses lines from "The Second Coming"
❐ uses at least one Ibo word
❐ the text of the poem is tied to the theme
chosen as the title
❐ is creatively and insightfully written