The Great Gatsby

goals - For my literature class we were assigned to write a "Found" poem. This is where you only use words and phrases from a certain text. Ours was to be from the Great Gatsby and written on the topic of the American Dream. I would like to share what I came up with right here: I had a moment there before I realized. You can't repeat the past. Gatsby’s wonder when he first picked out the green light, to him the light was an extraordinary gift for hope. He could hardly fail to commensurate the greatest of all human dreams. His dream must have seemed so close. He knew he had a big future in front of him. He was very generous, people liked him when he smiled. But he was uneasy. What foul dust floated in the wake of his dreams. His heart was in a constant, turbulent riot. A doubt had occurred to him as to the quality of his present happiness. There must have been moments when his dreams tumbled short of his imagination. It was lonely. But life was beginning over again with the summer. I remember much later when he told me, His real name was James Gatz. As a little boy his parents were unsuccessful, So as a seventeen-year-old he had invented the meretricious Jay Gatsby. He turned out all right at the end. To me, he was a matter of infinite hope He had come a long way. James Gatz’s destiny eluded me then. Gatsby believed in the green light. He did not know that his dream was already somewhere back behind him. I had a moment there before I realized.