Athirst and Desert

Silent sentinels stand, thousands upon thousands.

Some leaning upon the pier-heads, tied to counters, nailed to benches, clinched to desks.

But look! Here come more crowds.

Pacing Straight for the water, bound for a dive.

And there they stand.

They come from lanes and alleys,

Streets and avenues.

North, East, South, West.

Here they all unite.

Does the magnetic needles of the compasses attract them tither?

Take any path you please.

One carries you down and leaves you there by a pool in the stream.

The most absent-minded of men in his deepest reveries.

Set his feet a-going.

And he will lead you to water.

If water there be in that region.

Athirst and desert are wedded forever.

A Reflection on Athirst and Desert

This week I wrote a found poem based off a passage of Moby Dick. The 19th century language was poetic and inspired me to write a poem only using certain words, phrases, and sections. In my opinion the poem I produced is poetic, and it sounds good even though it doesn't make any sense. The poem I produced isn't the best in the world, but it's good by my standards.

Deciding which words to put into my poem was difficult and tedious. It was taking a long time so I decided to take a different method. I took out a highlighter and highlighted all the words that caught my attention. I then took these words and put them together in order, and from then I refined my poem three times until I had my finished product. The message I hoped to communicate in my poem was that people are naturally drawn to water, and come from all over to see it. The literature I got it from is from the 19th century, and I find that the passage's message which I transferred to my poem is still the same. It conveyed that people are drawn to water which is still very true, some of the most popular vacation destinations are islands and beaches. That is why I kept the integrity of the image of the passage and put it in my poem.

I think I deserve an A on this assignment, because I put a lot of effort into it and think that it is one of my better works. I experimented with words to make it sound interesting, which was the longest step in making my poem. I edited my poem three times taking out words that interrupted the poem's flow. I think this made the poem more appealing to the ears. I broke the lines in my poem where I thought that there should be a pause to emphasize the poem's flow. The title I gave the poem is not totally effective in expressing the image of the poem, but it is from what I think is the most poetic line in my poem so I thought it deserved the place of title.