Saturday, November 14, 2015

Found Poem (Chapter 5 of The Scarlet Letter)

I wrote created this found poem from Chapter Five to capture what I think to be the essence of it. In my opinion, it is a powerful illustration of the life of isolation Hester is being forced to live. As I read this chapter, I highlighted key words and formatted them into the following poem:


the scarlet letter

                         condemned her.

(Woman's frailty and sinful passion may seem marvelous, irresistible, and inevitable)

She hid
   
             did not flee.

In this little, lonesome dwelling, a mystic shadow of suspicion

With a strange, contagious

                                           FEAR characterized sin.

She stood apart
 
                         a martyr.

The insidious whispers

were

red-hot with infernal fire.



I staggered the lines of my poem to mimic the sense of Hester's disconnect from Boston in this chapter. Even though the people still let her embroider for them, they see her as a pariah and treat her as such. In writing this poem, I found that paying attention to Hawthorne's diction can reveal much about his tone towards the Puritans and towards Hester. You definitely see sympathy for Hester and ridicule of the Puritans for perpetuating nonsensical, extremist Christian beliefs. Based on Hawthorne's characterizations, who do you think he believes is the real "sinner" here?

I hope you liked this poem and remember: pay attention to the words!




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