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Poetry as an Introduction to Lord of the Flies

The Shell

And then I pressed the shell The Man in the Dead Machine
Close to my ear,
And listened well. High on a slope in New Guinea
the Grumman Hellcat
And straightaway, like a bell, lodges among bright vines
Came low and clear as thick as arms. In 1943,
The slow, sad murmur of far distant seas, the clenched hand of a pilot
Whipped by an icy breeze glided it here
Upon a shore where no one has ever been.
Wind-swept and desolate.
In the cockpit, the helmeted
It was a sunless strand that never bore skeleton sits
The footprint of a man, upright, held
Nor felt the weight by dry sinews at neck
and shoulder, and webbing
Since time began that straps the pelvic cross
Of any human quality or stir, to the canvas cover
Save what the dreary winds and wave incur. of the parachute.

And in the hush of waters was the sound Or say that the shrapnel
Of pebbles, rolling round: missed him, he flew
Forever rolling, with a hollow sound: back to the carrier, and every
And bubbling seaweeds, as the waters go, morning takes the train, his pale
Swish to and fro hands on his black case, and sits
Their long cold tentacles of slimy grey; upright, held
There was no day; by the firm webbing.

Nor ever came a night Donald Hall

Setting the stars alight
To wonder at the moon;
Was twilight only, and the frightened croon;
Smitten to whimpers, of the dreary wind

And waves that journeyed blind…

And then I loosed my ear—O it was sweet
To hear a cart go jolting down the street.

James Stephens
I Stood Upon A High Place
I stood upon a high place,
And saw, below, many devils
Running, leaping,
And carousing in sin.
One looked up, grinning,
And said. “Comrade! Brother!”
Stephen Crane
We Wear the Mask
We wear the mask that grins and lies
It hides our cheeks and shades our eyes,
This debt we pay to human guile;
With torn and bleeding hearts we smile,
And mouth with myriad subtleties.
Why should the world be overwise,
In counting all our tears and sighs?
Nay, let them only see us, while
We wear the mask.
We smile, but, O great Christ, our cries
To thee from tortured souls arise.
We sing, but ih the clay is vile
Beneath our feet, and long the mile;
But let the world dream otherwise,
We wear the mask!
Paul Laurence Dunbar
Huntress
Come, blunt your spear with us,
our pace is hot
and our bare heels
in the heel-prints--
we stand tense—do you see--
are you already beaten
by the chase?
We lead the pace
for the wind on the hills,
the low hill is spattered
with loose earth--
our feet cut into the crust
as with spears.
We climbed the ploughed land,
dragged the seed from the clefts,
broke the clods with our heels,
whirled with a parched cry
into the woods:
Can you come,
Can you come,
can you follow the hound trail,
can you trample the hot froth?
Spring up--sway forward—
follow the quickest one,
aye, though you leave the trail
and drop exhausted at our feet.
H.D.
Questions on “The Shell”

1. Describe the speaker of this poem and provide direct evidence for your
description.
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2. Create a list of the poem’s key words. Use this list to help you uncover the poem’s
tone.
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3. What is the poem saying about civilization?

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Questions on “The Man in the Dead Machine”

4. Analyze the poem’s title.

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5. Explain the irony in the poem’s last stanza.

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Question on “I Stood Upon a High Place”

6. Paying particular attention to the poet’s diction, what do you think is the overall
theme of this poem? Why?
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Questions on “Huntress”

7. Describe the speaker of this poem and provide direct evidence for your

description.

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Questions on “We Wear the Mask”

8. Analyze the poem’s title. What does the poet mean by “mask”?

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9. What is the poet’s tone? What specific words convey this tone?

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