10. Stories for Further Reading
CHITRA BANERJEE DIVAKARUNI, Clothes
NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE, The Birthmark
JAMES JOYCE, Eveline
JAMAICA KINCAID, Girl
IAN MCEWAN, The Use of Poetry
TIM O'BRIEN, How to Tell a True War Story
E. ANNIE PROULX, 55 Miles to the Gas Pump
MARK TWAIN, The Story of the Good Little Boy
JOHN UPDIKE, A & P
POETRY
The Elements of Poetry
11. Reading Poetry
Reading Poetry Responsively
Lisa Parker, Snapping Beans
Robert Hayden, Those Winter Sundays
John Updike, Dog's Death
The Pleasure of Words
William Hathaway, Oh, Oh
SAMPLE CLOSE READING: An Annotated Version of Oh, Oh
Robert Francis, Catch
A SAMPLE STUDENT ANALYSIS: Tossing Metaphors Together in “Catch”
Elizabeth Bishop, The Fish
Philip Larkin, A Study of Reading Habits
Robert Morgan, Mountain Graveyard
E. E. Cummings, l(a
Anonymous, Western Wind
Regina Barreca, Nighttime Fires
SUGGESTIONS FOR APPROACHING POETRY
Billy Collins, Introduction to Poetry
Poetry in Popular Forms
Helen Farries, Magic of Love
John Frederick Nims, Love Poem
Bruce Springsteen, You're Missing
Poems for Further Study
Alberto Ríos, Seniors
Li Ho, A Beautiful Girl Combs Her Hair
Peter Pereira, Anagrammer
Robert Frost, Design
Mary Oliver, The Poet with His Face in His Hands
12. Word Choice, Word Order, and Tone
Word Choice
Diction
Denotations and Connotations
Randall Jarrell, The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner
Word Order
Tone
Kathryn Howd Machan, Hazel Tells LaVerne
Martín Espada, Latin Night at the Pawnshop
Paul Laurence Dunbar, To a Captious Critic
Diction and Tone in Four Love Poems
Robert Herrick, To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time
Andrew Marvell, To His Coy Mistress
Ann Lauinger, Marvell Noir
Sharon Olds, Last Night
Poems for Further Study
Thomas Hardy, The Convergence of the Twain
David R. Slavitt, Titanic
Gwendolyn Brooks, We Real Cool
Joan Murray, We Old Dudes
Louis Simpson, In the Suburbs
Mary Oliver, Oxygen
Emily Dickinson, Some keep the Sabbath going to Church-
John Keats, Ode on A Grecian Urn
Poets at Play
Billy Collins, Taking Off Emily Dickinson's Clothes
Joan Murray, Taking Off Billy Collins's Clothes
(postcard) Billy Collins, To Joan Murray
13. Images
Poetry's Appeal to the Senses
William Carlos Williams, Poem
Walt Whitman, Cavalry Crossing a Ford
Theodore Roethke, Root Cellar
Matthew Arnold, Dover Beach
Jimmy Santiago Baca, Green Chile
Poems for Further Study
Amy Lowell, The Pond
William Blake, London
Emily Dickinson, Wild Nights-Wild Nights!
Wilfred Owen, Dulce et Decorum Est
Sally Croft, Home-Baked Bread
John Keats, To Autumn
Ezra Pound, In a Station of the Metro
14. Figures of Speech
William Shakespeare, From Macbeth (Act V, Scene 5)
Simile and Metaphor
Margaret Atwood, you fit into me
Emily Dickinson, Presentiment-is that long Shadow-on the lawn-
Other Figures
Edmund Conti, Pragmatist
Dylan Thomas, The Hand That Signed the Paper
Janice Townley Moore, To a Wasp
J. Patrick Lewis, The Unkindest Cut
Poems for Further Study
Gary Snyder, How Poetry Comes to Me
Ernest Slyman, Lightning Bugs
Judy Page Heitzman, The Schoolroom on the Second Floor of the Knitting Mill
William Wordsworth, London, 1802
Robert Frost, Fire and Ice
John Donne, A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning
Linda Pastan, Marks
Kay Ryan, Hailstorm
Elaine Magarrell, The Joy of Cooking
15. Symbol, Allegory, and Irony
Symbol
Robert Frost, Acquainted with the Night
Allegory
Edgar Allan Poe, The Haunted Palace
Irony
Edwin Arlington Robinson, Richard Cory
Kenneth Fearing, AD
E. E. Cummings, next to of course god america i
Stephen Crane, A Man Said to the Universe
Poems for Further Study
Bob Hicok, Making it in Poetry
Kevin Pierce, Proof of Origin
Carl Sandburg, Buttons
Wallace Stevens, Anecdote of the Jar
Jim Tilley, Richter 7.8
William Stafford, Traveling through the Dark
Alan Nowlan, The Bull Moose
Julio Marzán, Ethnic Poetry
James Merrill, Casual Wear
Robert Browning, My Last Duchess
William Blake, The Chimney Sweeper
16. Sounds
Listening to Poetry
John Updike, Player Piano
May Swenson, A Nosty Fright
Emily Dickinson, A Bird came down the Walk-
Galway Kinnell, Blackberry Eating
Rhyme
Richard Armour, Going to Extremes
Robert Southey, From The Cataract of Lodore
Sound and Meaning
Gerard Manley Hopkins, God's Grandeur
Poems for Further Study
Lewis Carroll (Charles Lutwidge Dodgson), Jabberwocky
Emily Dickinson, I heard a Fly Buzz-when I died
Robert Frost, Stoppy By Woods on a Snowy Evening
John Donne, Song
Paul Humphrey, Blow
Robert Francis, The Pitcher
Helen Chasin, The Word Plum
17. Patterns of Rhythm
Some Principles of Meter
Walt Whitman, From Song of the Open Road
William Wordsworth, My Heart Leaps Up
SUGGESTIONS FOR SCANNING A POEM
Timothy Steele, Waiting for the Storm
William Butler Yeats, That the Night Come
Poems for Further Study
Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Break, Break, Break
Alice Jones, The Foot
Rita Dove, Fox Trot Fridays
Robert Herrick, Delight in Disorder
Ben Johnson, Still to Be Neat
William Blake, The Lamb
William Blake, The Tyger
Carl Sandburg, Chicago
Robert Frost, Out, Out--
Theodore Roethke, My Papa's Waltz
18. Poetic Forms
Some Common Poetic Forms
A. E. Housman, Loveliest of trees, the cherry now
Robert Herrick, Upon Julia's Clothes
Sonnet
John Keats, On First Looking into Chapman's Homer
William Wordsworth, The World Is Too Much with Us
William Shakespeare, Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
William Shakespeare, My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun
Edna St. Vincent Millay, I will put Chaos into fourteen lines
Molly Peacock, Desire
Mark Jarman, Unholy Sonnet
X.J. Kennedy, The Purpose of Time is to Prevent Everything from Happening at Once
Villanelle
Dylan Thomas, Do not go gentle into that good night
Sestina
Florence Cassen Mayers, All-American Sestina
Epigram
Samuel Taylor Coleridge, What Is an Epigram?
A. R. Ammons, Coward
David McCord, Epitaph on a Waiter
Paul Lawrence Dunbar, Theology
Limerick
Anonymous, There was a young lady named Bright
Laurence Perrine, The limerick's never averse
Haiku
Matsuo Bash_, Under cherry trees
Carolyn Kizer, After Bash_
Sonia Sanchez, c'mon man hold me
Elegy
Theodore Roethke, Elegy for Jane
Brendan Galvin, An Evel Knievel Elegy
Ode
Percy Bysshe Shelley, Ode to the West Wind
Baron Wormser, Labor
Parody
Blanche Farley, The Lover Not Taken
Picture Poem
Elaine Mitchell, For
Perspective
Michael McFee, In Medias Res
19. Open Form
E. E. Cummings, in Just-
Walt Whitman, From I Sing the Body Electric
Louis Jenkins, The Prose Poem
Galway Kinnell, After Making Love We Hear Footsteps
Kelly Cherry, Alzheimer's
William Carlos Williams, The Red Wheelbarrow
Marilyn Nelson Waniek, Emily Dickinson's Defunct
Julio Marzán, The Translator at the Reception for Latin American Writers
Anonymous, The Frog
Julia Alvarez, Queens, 1963
Tato Laviera, AmeRícan
Peter Meinke, The ABC of Aerobics
(found poem) Donald Justice, Order in the Streets
Approaches to Poetry
20. A Study of Billy Collins: The Author Reflects on Five Poems
A Brief Biography
An Introduction to His Work
Billy Collins, How Do Poems Travel?
Billy Collins, Osso Buco
Billy Collins, On Writing “Osso Buco”
Billy Collins, Nostalgia
Billy Collins, On Writing “Nostalgia”
Billy Collins, Questions About Angels
Billy Collins, On Writing “Questions About Angels”
Billy Collins, Litany
Billy Collins, On Writing “Litany”
Billy Collins, Building With Its Face Blown Off
Perspectives on Billy Collins
Michael Meyer Interviews Billy Collins, On “Building with Its Face Blown Off”
Billy Collins, Draft Manuscript page of “Busy Day”
SUGGESTED TOPICS FOR LONGER PAPERS
QUESTIONS FOR WRITING ABOUT AN AUTHOR IN DEPTH
21. A Thematic Case Study: Humor and Satire
Fleur Adcock, The Video
John Ciardi, Suburban
Howard Nemerov, Walking the Dog
Linda Pastan, Jump Cabling
Peter Schmitt, Friends with Numbers
Martín Espada, The Community College Revises its Curriculum in Response to
Changing Demographics
Thomas Lux, Commercial Leech Farming Today
X.J. Kennedy, On a Young Man's Remaining an Undergraduate for Twelve Years
An Collection of Poems
22. Poems for Further Reading
William Blake, Infant Sorrow
Robert Burns, A Red, Red Rose
George Gordon, Lord Byron, She Walks in Beauty
Lucille Clifton, this morning (for the girls of eastern high school)
Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Kubla Khan: or, a Vision in a Dream
Emily Dickinson, Because I could not stop for Death-
Emily Dickinson, He fumbles at your Soul
Emily Dickinson, I felt a Funeral in my Brain
Emily Dickinson, I started Early-Took my Dog
Emily Dickinson, My Life had stood-a Loaded Gun
John Donne, The Apparition
John Donne, The Flea
T.S. Eliot, The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock
Robert Frost, The Road Not Taken
Thomas Hardy, Hap
Gerard Manley Hopkins, Pied Beauty
A. E. Houseman, To an Athlete Dying Young
Langston Hughes, Harlem
Ben Jonson, To Celia
John Keats, La Belle Dame sans Merci
John Keats, Written in Disgust of Vulgar Superstition
Emma Lazarus, The New Colossus
John Milton, When I consider how my light is spent
Christina Georgina Rossetti, Some Ladies Dress in Muslin Full and White
Sigfried Sassoon, They
William Shakespeare, That time of year thou mayst in me behold
William Shakespeare, When, in disgrace with Fortune and men's eyes
Percy Bysshe Shelley, Ozymandias
Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Ulysses
Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Tears, Idle Tears
Walt Whitman, When I Heard the Learn'd Astronomer
William Carlos Williams, This Is Just to Say
William Wordsworth, A Slumber Did My Spirit Seal
William Wordsworth, The Solitary Reaper
William Wordsworth, Mutability
William Butler Yeats, Leda and the Swan
DRAMA
The Study of Drama
23. Reading Drama
Reading Drama Responsively
SUSAN GLASPELL, Trifes
A SAMPLE CLOSE READING: An Annotated Section of Trifes
Elements of Drama
JOAN ACKERMANN, Quiet, Torrential Sound
Drama in Popular Forms
LARRY DAVID, “The Pitch,” a Seinfeld Episode
24. Sophocles and Greek Drama
Theatrical Conventions of Greek Drama
Tragedy
SOPHOCLES, Oedipus the King
25. William Shakespeare and Elizabethan Drama
Shakespeare's Theater
The Range of Shakespeare's Drama: History, Comedy, and Tragedy
A Note on Reading Shakespeare
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE, Othello The Moor of Venice
26. Henrik Ibsen and Modern Drama
Realism
Theatrical Conventions of Modern Drama
HENRIK IBSEN, A Doll House
A Collection of Plays
27. Plays for Further Reading SHARON COOPER, Mistaken Identity
DAVID HENRY HWANG, Trying to Find Chinatown
JANE MARTIN, Rodeo
JANE ANDERSON, The Reprimand
NILAJA SUN, No Child
CRITICAL THINKING AND WRITING
28. Reading and the Writing Process
The Purpose and Value of Writing about Literature
Reading the Work Closely
Annotating the Text and Journal Note Taking
Annotated Text
Journal Note
Choosing a Topic
Developing a Thesis
Arguing about Literature
Organizing a Paper
Writing a Draft
Writing the Introduction and Conclusion
Using Quotations
Revising and Editing
QUESTIONS FOR WRITING: A REVISION CHECKLIST
Types of Writing Assignments
29. Writing about Fiction
From Reading to Writing
Questions for Responsive Reading and Writing
A SAMPLE STUDENT ANALYSIS: John Updike's “A&P” as a State of Mind
30. Writing about Poetry
From Reading to Writing
QUESTIONS OF RESPONSIVE READING AND WRITING
Explication
A SAMPLE PAPER IN PROGRESS
Mapping the Poem
John Donne, Death Be Not Proud
Asking Questions about the Elements
A SAMPLE FIRST RESPONSE
Organizing Your Thoughts
A SAMPLE INFORMAL OUTLINE
The Elements and Theme
Final Paper: The Use of Conventional Metaphors for Death in John Donne's “Death Be Not Proud”
A SAMPLE STUDENT EXPLICATION
Emily Dickinson, There's a Certain Slant of Light
A Reading of Emily Dickinson's “There's a Certain Slant of Light”
31. Writing about Drama
From Reading to Writing
Questions for Responsive Reading and Writing
A SAMPLE STUDENT COMPARISON: The Struggle for Women's Self-Definition in Ibsen's A Doll House and Colette's “The Hand”
32. The Literary Research Paper
Choosing a Topic
Finding Sources
Electronic Sources
Evaluating Sources and Taking Notes
Developing a Thesis and Organizing the Paper
Revising
Documenting Sources and Avoiding Plagiarism
The List of Works Cited
Parenthetical References
A SAMPLE STUDENT RESEARCH PAPER: How the Narrator Cultivates “A Rose for Emily”
Glossary of Literary Terms
Index of First Lines
Index of Authors and Titles
Index of Terms