Found Poem

A found poem is made by selecting words and/or phrases from books, newspapers, and short stories, putting them together, and creating a new piece highlighting and enhancing the meaning of the text. My found poem “Horror Homicide” is based on “Lamb to the Slaughter” by Roald Dahl. In my poem, I explore conflicts in the short story.

Story Summary + Conflicts

In this story, there are two primary characters, Patrick and Mary Maloney. Clear traditional protagonists and antagonists aren’t really portrayed in the story, for example at the beginning of the story, Mary is depicted as a lonely but loving wife to her husband, Patrick, however, when Patrick suddenly wants to leave her (external conflict), Mary’s intentions shift (internal conflict, Mary is conflicted on what to do. Her frustration infects her.) In my poem the beginning conveys the shift in Mary’s intentions, for example, “Mary Maloney was waiting for her husband” captures Mary’s initial portrayal as a loving wife, then to set the tone I picked out some ominous words like “quietly”, “alone”, and “unusual”. As the conflict arises the “lamb chop” is first introduced, “bewildered eyes” and “dazed horror” show Mary’s reaction to the shocking news of her husband wanting to leave her, leading to her getting consumed by her emotions (internal conflict, Mary is conflicted about what she should do in this situation), her emotions drive her to not feel anything as she goes to get the lamb leg and eventually murder Patrick. The murder is shown in “she swung”, “he crashed”, and “I’ve killed him” (external conflict, Mary murders Patrick). Mary is once again conflicted (internal conflict), because once she processes the murder she is afraid of what the police will do to her baby since she is pregnant, so she starts planning, She creates an alibi and then calls the police on herself pretending to have just gotten home, this is shown in “she put on her brightest smile” and “policemen”. Another conflict in the story is Mary and the investigating police officers, they arrive at her house to investigate Patrick’s death, believing that Mary is innocent. Mary covers her tracks and manipulates the police officers, which brings more tension and suspense into the story. Finally, Mary thinks about how she is going to get rid of the murder weapon (internal conflict), She then comes to the conclusion to trick the officers into eating the lamb. Once Mary succeeds she giggles unremorsefully. Throughout the story the reader is faced with a moral dilemma, Patrick’s betrayal creates sympathy for Mary, which conflicts with the reader’s desire to see Mary get arrested for her crimes, because of their understanding of Mary’s situation.

Design Choices

I picked the colour red for the background as red symbolises life, blood, anger, and passion, which I thought would best represent the story. The huge lamb leg in the middle of the page is of course a reference to the murder weapon. The last line of text “Mary Maloney began to giggle” is in a different font than the other words. I chose this font, because I think it gives off a bloody and creepy vibe, which is quite suitable for this line, since this line further highlights how Mary is unremorseful to her husband’s death. 

Additional Links

Roald Dahl’s website 

Wikipedia page on Lamb to the slaughter

Goodreads page on Lamb to the slaughter

Types of conflict in literature