Gumshoe Poetry

Abstract

When I introduce T.S. Eliot’s “The Wasteland” to students for the first time, I often approach it as an example of found text collage. In conjunction with their reading of Eliot, I ask students to write a poem where each line is taken from a different textual source they find in their homes. They are instructed to think about why they are ordering the pieces the way they do, and to annotate the poem with footnotes. This assignment makes Eliot’s seemingly impenetrable text more accessible, in that it shifts the focus of inquiry from “what does it mean” to “how was it made.” More specifically, it allows students to actively understand the relation of form to content; in writing their found poems, they discover that we are surrounded by all kinds of texts, and that these texts communicate differently when placed in a variety of formal contexts. Students in my undergraduate creative writing classes often see their personal experiences as being the only material appropriate for writing poems. The study of found poetry shows that self-expression comes just as much from “how you say it” as it does from “what you say.”

Art isn’t made, it’s in the world almost unseen but found existent there.

—William Bronk, “Biographical Note”¹

I just want to get off this frozen star.

—Raymond Chandler, The Little Sister ²