Titanic Found Poetry

Found Poetry 

According to Poets.org Found Poems are defined as follows:

Found poems take existing texts and refashion them, reorder them, and present them as poems. The literary equivalent of a collage, found poetry is often made from newspaper articles, street signs, graffiti, speeches, letters, or even other poems. 

A pure found poem consists exclusively of outside texts: the words of the poem remain as they were found, with few additions or omissions. Decisions of form, such as where to break a line, are left to the poet.

Titanic is our jumping off point for more than just research.  To that end, my students are also using Titanic as the subject for their poetry unit.  First, we are writing "Found Poems" using text from Titanic Book One * Unsinkable by Gordon Korman.  Here is the sample poem students were given as a model.

The Unsinkable Titanic

A flash of color among the endless waves (p.1)

Dark water, light swells (p. 1)

The Titanic was more than a steamship (p.1)

A Floating City (p. 1)

The ship beneath their feet moved effortlessly through the water (p.168)

A Surge of confidence and pride that the maiden voyage could not be in better hands. (p. 168)

A message from the shipping lanes (p.170)

Ice has been reported (p. 170)

The horizon was dotted with distant bergs (p.2)

Something was wrong (p. 150)

The Collision was so sudden, so shocking  (p. 142)

How could so much become so little? (p. 2)

The unsinkable Titanic (p. 3)

Credit:  Found Poem created with text from Titanic Book One * Unsinkable by Gordon Korman

Here are a few of our student poems:

Mistress of the Sea

A floating city (p.1)

Neither a millionaire’s mansion nor a king’s palace was more lavishly appointed than this mistress of the sea (p. 11)

She was a dazzling sight (p.11)

No force of nature could destroy this floating wonderland (p. 53)

The first class dining salon was so huge so fancy so gorgeous (p. 54)

The carpets so plush so thick you sink down to your ankles (p. 42)

The unsinkable Titanic (p. 6)

The mistress of the sea (p.11)

By B.H.

Credit:  Found Poem created with text from Titanic Book One * Unsinkable by Gordon Korman

Magnificent Vessel

This magnificent vessel (p.168)
As good as a letter of introduction from King George (p.30)
Cut the waves (p.168)
Glittered in the morning sun (p. 44)
A marvel of engineering (p. 60)
Lay at the bottom of the sea (p1)
there (p.55)
the rest of the world simply did not exisit (p.77)

By T.W.

Credit:  Found Poem created with text from Titanic Book One * Unsinkable by Gordon Korman

The Criteria which students were to use:
Poem must have at least a minimum of eight lines 

Page numbers must be given at the end of each line
Poems title must come from the text

Poem must pertain to the Titanic
Poem must have also include an image
Poem must be created using Titanic Book One * Unsinkable by Gordon Korman

What do you think of found poetry?  Have you used/written Found Poems?  Let us know!

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