Poems Inspired by Lord of the Flies

by Ethan Pennington

I love teaching William Golding’s allegorical novel Lord of the Flies at the end of a school year. It is immensely gratifying listening to students apply what they have learned as readers to recognize the rich mythological and religious allusions tucked within the novel. Found poetry is a perfect format for students to creatively demonstrate their understanding of a story.
Found poetry is a form in which writers lift words, phrases, and even whole lines of text from another source, and organize them in a way to amplify a theme, or reveal a new interpretation. Ninth grader Jack Gaffigan arranged lines to emphasize the setting and theme of isolation in the novel. Harrison Geiling chose lines that focused on the metaphorical beast that the boys in the novel fixate on throughout their journey. 

 
“Isolation,”  found poem, Lord of the Flies
by Jack Gaffigan
 
Here on the other side of the island,
The filmy enchantments of mirage
Could not endure the cold ocean water.
The hard horizon, chipped blue.
No progress.
The momentous rise and fall of a whole ocean.
The ceaseless, bulging passage of the deep sea waves.
Wave after wave,
The remoteness of the sea numbed his brain.
Wave after wave,
The infinite size of this water.
Wave after wave,
This was the divider, the barrier.
Wave after wave,
faced by the brute obtuseness of the ocean,
the miles of division,
one was clamped down,
one was helpless,
one was condemned,
one was
isolated.

“The Beast,” found poem, Lord of the Flies by Harrison Geiling

The sky was dark
Filled with bright stars
A slight figure was falling
A parachute opened up widely
Feet and legs dangled in the sky
The winds blew faster
The figure was swiftly gliding
It then blew towards the high mountains
Covered with flowers and beautiful plants
Its feet still moving.
 
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