The Philanderer

Golden Shovel Poetry is a style of verse created by Terrance Hayes. This form of found poetry allows the writer to take a favorite poem and use it to make something original. I experimented with found poetry last year when I wrote Blank Verse poems. Since I have a small booklet of William Blake poems on my shelf that I’ve planned to reread, I decided to start the month of July playing with the words written by this Romantic Era poet. Blake didn’t receive much recognition in his life. Some people thought he was insane. I will call this first poem The Philanderer.

The rules for writing a Golden Shovel Poem and The Philanderer

While researching this style of poetry created by Terrance Hayes, there seem to be four simple rules. You can use as many lines of the poem as you want, and the poem will end with you being your creation. I find this idea interesting. Written below are the three simple rules.

1). Choose a poem that you like. I will use poems by William Blake in my July poetic adventure.

2)Use each word in the line or lines as the end word in your poem. Make sure they stay in order.

3) Construct an entire poem around them. The meaning doesn’t have to be the same.

4) Give the original poet credit who wrote the line or lines you used.

In this poetic adventure, I will stick to using poems written by William Blake. This small poem I will call The Philanderer. The word end words of each line were from Blake The Tyger.

The Philanderer

I can’t remember when
The moon shined so brightly, the
Brilliance of the stars
Overhead threw
Light down
From their
Sparkling spears
The thunder and
Lightning water’d
The land from heaven
As if  comfort came with
Shedding their
Salty tears


I saw what you did
I know that he
Seduced you with a smile
I once was his
It was a brilliant piece of work
When he promises to
Never allow me to see
I know what he did
It had to be he
The one who
Always made
Promises with the
Talent to torture the Lamb
When there was a lie to make
Me wonder about thee. 

Who is Molly Shea?

Molly Shea is an accomplished fictional short story writer from Indiana who writes short stories and novels about a fictional town called Tecumseh.  To read more of her short stories and adventures, click here.

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