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Unread 06-26-2018, 04:14 PM
Mark McDonnell Mark McDonnell is offline
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Join Date: May 2016
Location: Staffordshire, England
Posts: 4,420
Default Novel into verse (Renamed ''Things That Scared You Shitless as a Child... or Since"

Brief explanation: Mark's brilliant "Novel into Verse", below, was impossible to match, so the thread swung into a new direction. Let's have some fun with it!
Jayne


I teach secondary/high school English (11 - 16 year olds). We were reading bits of 'To Kill A Mockingbird' last year — didn't have time for the whole book because it unfortunately isn't actually on the syllabus. I wrote this for the students, as a little synopsis thing really, and I quite enjoyed writing it. Has anyone else done this sort of thing? As a drill? Or an amusement? (I realise mine isn't exactly funny...)



To Kill a Mockingbird

This tired old town of Southern grace
holds hidden secrets at its core.
You don't walk past the Radley place,
you run to reach your own front door.

Through eyes of childhood, worlds unfold,
Boo Radley's presence stalks the night.
His shadow makes your blood run cold.
Let's drag him blinking to the light!

So Scout and Jem and little Dill
conceive their schemes with wild surmise,
while Atticus observes them still,
through widowed heart and kindly eyes.

In summer evening sidewalk games
the children exorcise their fears.
A shadow of the truth remains
through pantomime of haunted years.

But greater crime infests the town,
exposes rotten heart and bone.
The girl grows up, a man's sent down,
condemned by race and skin alone.

She thinks of Tom, she thinks of Boo,
their innocence had beat them down.
And Atticus's words ring true,
she sees beyond the tired old town:

"In shooting bluejays take your part
But don't forget this thing you've heard.
Because they sing from purest heart
'Tis sin to kill a mockingbird".

Last edited by Mark McDonnell; 06-26-2018 at 04:27 PM.
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