# Teacher Guide

# Primary Source Set: Found Poetry 

![](media/image1.jpeg){width="4.947916666666667in" height="4.75in"}

[\[Walt Whitman, ... as a young man, dressed in rural attire for
frontispiece of Leaves of
Grass\]](http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?pp/ils:@filreq(@field(NUMBER+@band(ppmsca+07142))+@field(COLLID+cph)))\
<http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?pp/ils:@filreq(@field(NUMBER+@band(ppmsca+07142))+@field(COLLID+cph))>

*Out of the quarrel with others we make rhetoric; out of the quarrel
with ourselves we make poetry. \--W.B. Yeats*

**Why Use Primary Sources?**

The historical record is made up of factual evidence, but history
becomes meaningful for students only when they personally engage in
determining what that evidence reveals. Primary sources can help
students perform the critical thinking necessary for them to develop a
personal understanding of the past.

Primary sources are the raw materials of history---the documents and
objects left behind by the eyewitnesses and participants in past events.
Because they are incomplete and often come without solid information
about their historical context, they require that the student move from
making concrete observations to making inferences about the materials.
Primary sources encourage students to ask questions about point of view:
What is the intent of the speaker, of the photographer, of the musician?
How does that color one's interpretation or understanding of the
evidence?

It can be difficult for students to understand that we all participate
in making history every day, that each of us in the course of our lives
leaves behind primary source documentation that scholars years hence may
examine as a record of the past. The immediacy of first-person accounts
of events is compelling to most students and can provide a link between
the lives of people who lived long ago and students' own lives. Primary
sources thus help students relate in a personal way to events of the
past and come away with a deeper understanding of history as a series of
human events.

**"Retelling" History**

After you have engaged your students in analyzing and interpreting
historical primary source content, in synthesizing the information, and
in making personal connections with history, ask them to articulate
their understanding. Retelling history from one's own perspective can
help them make the learning their own. While there are many ways that
students can "retell" history, one very effective strategy is the
writing of "found" poetry. Using rich primary source texts, students
select words that allow them to retell the historical content in poetic
form.

Evocative images of an era, theme, or topic contribute to historical
understanding and can spark writing ideas. Careful observation and
analysis of an image will provide historic details and supportive
information, and may even offer rich language for the found poem. Have
your students use the tools provided in this Primary Source Set for
document analysis. Notations about objective and subjective observations
will be invaluable when they begin to retell history through their own
poems.

**Creating Found Poetry**

To create a found poem, students select words, phrases, lines, and
sentences from one or more written documents and combine them into a
poem. Raw material for found poems can be selected from newspaper
articles, speeches, diaries, advertisements, letters, food menus,
brochures, short stories, manuscripts of plays, shopping lists, and even
other poems. A set of Library text resources written by well-known
authors is provided in this Primary Source Set.

There is no single strategy for creating a found poem. The words and
phrases selected to make the poem depend upon the student's initial
purpose. Here are some strategies you may suggest to your students:

-   Analyze the source document(s) for understanding and retell the same
    story in poetic form.

-   Focus on the underlying issues of the source(s), then create a found
    poem that discusses the same issue but as it relates to today's
    world.

-   Focus on descriptive techniques by selecting words that bring vivid
    images to mind.

-   Select words and phrases that contain poetic effects such as
    alliteration and consonance.

-   Select words and phrases and use them creatively in any way that
    moves you.

When students have selected their words and phrases, they combine,
arrange, and rearrange them, considering not only the content and
meaning of the emerging poem but also its rhythm and line breaks.
Because writing found poetry is a personal process, students will
approach their work in various ways. Some students will use pencil and
paper. Others will cut out words and phrases from the printed source
document and physically arrange them on a desktop or blank sheet of
paper.

**Suggestions for Teachers**

# 

Teachers may find these Library of Congress primary source documents of
particular support to interdisciplinary teaching. This set provides
evidence of the writing process, as well as historical evidence about
persons, periods, and events.

-   The letter written by Helen Keller will astound students with
    Helen's ability to "see" the World's Columbian Exposition, despite
    her visual limitations. The image of this event will help your
    students to "see" what Keller describes.

-   Students can compare and contrast Walt Whitman's first notebook
    (#80) with later notebooks (#94 and #101). Students may consider how
    Whitman's writing and thinking changed in the years between the
    writing of these notebooks, and what might have caused these
    changes. Teachers may find the Collection Connection, [Poet at Work:
    Recovered Notebooks from the Thomas Biggs Harned Walt Whitman
    Collection](http://memory.loc.gov/learn/collections/ww/index.html),
    a useful resource.

-   Alice Paul's dedication to the cause of women's suffrage is well
    documented in a newspaper article, while an essay provides an
    opposing viewpoint and opportunity to consider this cause from
    different perspectives.

-   Langston Hughes' poem offers students a chance to view the process
    of his writing, not just the final product. Students can analyze
    Hughes' edits, consider why these changes may have been made, and
    think about what the poem would have said without these changes.
    Students may wish to find out more about the life of Booker T.
    Washington, as well.

-   Students can gain an appreciation of the Harlem Renaissance through
    a selection from the WPA Life Histories. Students may be surprised
    to learn that Zora Neale Hurston wrote for this project.

-   Zora Neale Hurston's play settings and character lists are rich in
    descriptive language. Students may wish to read Hurston's entire
    play after this introduction.

# Additional Online Resources

# General Library of Congress Links 

# [**Song of America Tour: Found Poetry**](http://www.loc.gov/creativity/hampson/workshop/found.html) http://www.loc.gov/creativity/hampson/workshop/found.html 

# [**Lyrical Legacy: 400 Years of American Song and Poetry**](http://www.loc.gov/teachers/lyrical/) http://www.loc.gov/teachers/lyrical/ 

**Lesson Plans**

[Enhancing a Poetry Unit With American
Memory](http://memory.loc.gov/learn/lessons/98/poetry/poem.html) (grades
7 -- 9)\
http://memory.loc.gov/learn/lessons/98/poetry/poem.html

[Sea Changes: A New England
Industry](http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/ndlpedu/lessons/00/sea/act5.html) -
Activity 5 (grades 7 -- 10)
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/ndlpedu/lessons/00/sea/act5.html

[The Source: Found Poetry and the American Life Histories
Collection](http://lcweb2.loc.gov/learn/community/am_newsletter/article.php?id=40&catname=teaching ideas)
[http://lcweb2.loc.gov/learn/community/am_newsletter/article.php?id=40&catname=teaching%20ideas](http://lcweb2.loc.gov/learn/community/am_newsletter/article.php?id=40&catname=teaching ideas)

**Links Outside the Library of Congress**

[Found Poems/Parallel
Poems](http://www.readwritethink.org/lessons/lesson_view.asp?id=33)\
http://www.readwritethink.org/lessons/lesson_view.asp?id=33

[A Bear of a Poem: Composing and Performing Found
Poetry](http://www.readwritethink.org/lessons/lesson_view.asp?id=835)
http://www.readwritethink.org/lessons/lesson_view.asp?id=835

[Found
Poetry](http://www.manassas.k12.va.us/round/ClassWeb/Slough/Poetry/found.htm)\
http://www.manassas.k12.va.us/round/ClassWeb/Slough/Poetry/found.htm

[Poetry Forge](http://www.poetryforge.org/teaching.htm)

http://www.poetryforge.org/teaching.htm

[Metaforix: How Technologies are Changing Your
World](http://www.metaforix.info/2004/03/found_poetry.htm)
http://www.metaforix.info/2004/03/found_poetry.html

[]{.mark}

[Found Poetry in the Papers of Thomas A.
Edison](http://www3.baylor.edu/BBR/HSB/EdisonPoetry.pdf)\
http://www3.baylor.edu/BBR/HSB/EdisonPoetry.pdf

# Citations: Found Poetry 

Teachers: Providing these primary source replicas without source clues
may enhance the inquiry experience for students. This list of citations
(Chicago Manual of Style) is supplied for reference purposes to you and
your students.

![](media/image2.jpeg){width="0.78125in" height="0.78125in"}Keller,
Helen. *Helen Keller to Mabel Hubbard Bell, August 20, 1893.* Letter.
From Library of Congress, *The Alexander Graham Bell Family Papers
1862-1939.*
<http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ampage?collId=magbell&fileName=124/12400303/bellpage.db&recNum=0>

![](media/image3.jpeg){width="0.78125in" height="0.78125in"}"Helen
Keller." Photograph. n.d. From the Library of Congress Prints and
Photographs Online Catalog. http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/ggbain.12478

![](media/image4.jpeg){width="0.78125in" height="0.78125in"}Johnston,
Frances Benjamin. **"**\[Exposition grounds, World\'s Columbian
Exposition**,** Chicago.\]**"** Photograph. \[1893.\] From the Library
of Congress Prints and Photographs Online Catalog.
http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/cph.3c04795

![](media/image5.jpeg){width="0.78125in" height="0.78125in"}"\[Walt
Whitman, half-length portrait, seated, facing left, wearing hat and
sweater, holding butterfly.\]" Photograph. Philadelphia: Phillips &
Taylor, \[1873.\] From the Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
Online Catalog. http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/cph.3b24247

![](media/image6.jpeg){width="0.78125in"
height="0.78125in"}"\[Washington, D.C. Patients in Ward K of Armory
Square Hospital.\]" Photograph. \[August 1865.\] From the Library of
Congress, *Selected Civil War photographs, 1861-1865.*
http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/cwpb.04246

![](media/image7.jpeg){width="0.78125in" height="0.78125in"}Whitman,
Walt. *Notebook LC #80 \[Earliest and Most Important Notebook\].* n.d.,
images 25-31. From the Library of Congress, *Poet at Work: Walt Whitman
Notebooks 1850s-1860s.*
<http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ampage?collId=whitman&fileName=wwhit080.data&recNum=0>

![](media/image8.jpeg){width="0.78125in" height="0.78125in"}Whitman,
Walt. *Notebook LC#94 \[1862\].* 1862, images 20, 24, 26, 40, 43b, 44a.
From the Library of Congress, *Poet at Work: Walt Whitman Notebooks
1850s-1860s.*
<http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ampage?collId=whitman&fileName=wwhit094.data&recNum=0>

![](media/image9.jpeg){width="0.78125in" height="0.78125in"}Whitman,
Walt. *Notebook LC# 101 \[Hospital Notebook\].* n.d, images 2, 4, 6, 8,
12, 18. From the Library of Congress, *Poet at Work: Walt Whitman
Notebooks 1850s-1860s.*
<http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ampage?collId=whitman&fileName=wwhit101.data&recNum=0>

![](media/image10.jpeg){width="0.78125in"
height="0.78125in"}Philadelphia Tribune. *Alice Paul Talks.* January
1910. From the Library of Congress, *Miller NAWSA Suffrage Scrapbooks,
1897-1911, Scrapbook 1909-1910.*
http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.rbc/rbcmil.scrp6014202

![](media/image11.jpeg){width="0.78125in" height="0.78125in"}"\[Alice
Paul, full-length portrait, standing, facing left, raising glass with
right hand.\]" Photograph. Harris & Ewing, September 3, 1920. From the
Library of Congress, *By Popular Demand: "Votes for Women" Suffrage
Pictures, 1850-1920.*
<http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/suffrg:@field(NUMBER+@band(cph+3a21383))>

![](media/image12.jpeg){width="0.78125in" height="0.78125in"}Root,
Elihu. *Address, Hon. Elihu Root before New York Constitutional
Convention, 1894.* Pamphlet. New York: N.Y. State Association Opposed to
Woman Suffrage, August 15, 1894. From the Library of Congress, *Miller
NAWSA Suffrage Scrapbooks, 1897 --1911, Scrapbook 1908-1909.*
http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.rbc/rbcmil.scrp5011401

![](media/image13.jpeg){width="0.78125in" height="0.78125in"}Delano,
Jack, photographer. "Chicago, Illinois. Good Sheperd Community Center.
Mr. Langston Hughes at a rehearsal at of his new play." Photograph.
April 1942. From Library of Congress, *America from the Great Depression
to World War II: Photographs from the FSA-OWI 1935-1945.*
http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/fsa.8d03175

![](media/image14.jpeg){width="0.78125in" height="0.78125in"}Hughes,
Langston. *Drafts of Langston Hughes\'s poem \"Ballad of Booker T.,\" 30
May-1 June 1941.* Manuscript*.* May 30 -- June 1, 1941. From Library of
Congress, *Words and Deed in American History: Selected Documents
Celebrating the Manuscripts Division's First 100 Years, Langston Hughes
Collection.*
<http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ampage?collId=mcc&fileName=024/page.db&recNum=0>

![](media/image15.jpeg){width="0.78125in" height="0.78125in"}Hubert,
Levi C. *\[The Whites Invade Harlem.\]* Manuscript. December 12, 1938.
From Library of Congress, *Life Histories: WPA Federal Writers Project
1936-1940.*
<http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ampage?collId=wpa2&fileName=21/2107/21070806/wpa221070806.db&recNum=0>

![](media/image16.jpeg){width="0.78125in" height="0.78125in"}Hughes,
Langston and Zora Neale Hurston. *The Mule-Bone: A Comedy of Negro Life
in Three Acts: Setting.* Manuscript. January 1931, pages 3-4. From the
Library of Congress, *The Zora Neale Hurston Plays at the Library of
Congress.* http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.mss/mhurston.0103

![](media/image17.jpeg){width="0.78125in" height="0.78125in"}Zora Neale
Hurston(?), three-quarter-length portrait, standing, facing front.
Photograph. Summer 1935. From Library of Congress, John and Ruby Lomax
1939 Southern States Recording Trip.
[http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/ppmsc.00600]{.underline}

![](media/image18.jpeg){width="0.78125in" height="0.78125in"}Hurston,
Zora Neale. *Polk County: A Comedy of Negro Life on a Sawmill Camp with
Authentic Negro Music in Three Acts: Setting I-III.* Manuscript.
December, 1944, images 6-8. From the Library of Congress, *The Zora
Neale Hurston Plays at the Library of Congress.*
http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.rbc/mhurston.0301

![](media/image19.jpeg){width="0.78125in" height="0.78125in"}Hurston,
Zora Neale. *Polk County: A Comedy of Negro Life on a Sawmill Camp with
Authentic Negro Music in Three Acts: Characters IV-VI.* Manuscript.
December, 1944, images 9-11. From the Library of Congress, *The Zora
Neale Hurston Plays at the Library of Congress.*
http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.rbc/mhurston.0301

Forman, S. E., and Marjorie Shuler. "Important Legislation in the United
States Affecting Women and Children." Graph. *The Women Voter's Manual.*
New York: The Century Co., 1918. From the Library of Congress, *Votes
for Women: Selections from the national American Women Suffrage
Association Collection, 1848-1921.*
<http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ampage?collId=rbnawsa&fileName=n7111//rbnawsan7111.db&recNum=2>

Note:

> Above item is included in the "untitled section" of the Women Voter's
> Manual. Bibliographic record for the entire document will be found at
> http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.rbc/rbnawsa.n7111

*Bushnell.* \["The Sky is Now Her Limit."\] Cartoon. *New York Times
Current History.* New York: New York Times Co., October 1920, Page 142.
From the Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Online Catalog.
http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/ppmsca.02919