An Introduction to Literature

Detailed Table of Contents Preface Letter to Students Part I READING, THINKING, AND WRITING CRITICALLY ABOUT LITERATURE 1. Reading and Responding to Literature What Is Literature? Literature as Performance: Robert Frost, The Span of Life Significance Two Poems about Immigration: Robert Frost,Immigrants Robert Frost, Immigrants Pat Mora,Immigrants Two Contemporary Short Stories Lydia Davis, Childcare Lydia Davis, City People Thinking About a Classic Story Luke, The Parable of the Prodigal Son Stories True and False: Grace Paley, Samuel What's Past Is Prologue Jamaica Kincaid, Girl Tobias Wolff, Powder James Merrill, Christmas Tree 2. The Pleasures of Reading--and of Writing Arguments about Literature The Open Secret of Good Writing Emily Wu, The Lesson of the Master Getting Ready to Write A Student Writes: From Jottings to a Final Draft Will Berger, Less Is More: Characterization in "The Lesson of the Master" The Student's Analysis Analyzed A Second Short Story, and a Student's Analysis Tobias Wolff, Say Yes A Sample Student Essay: Bob Williams, He's the Problem The Analysis Briefly Analyzed Three Poems Diane Ackerman, Pumping Iron Anonymous, Tweed to Till William Blake, The Clod and the Pebble Two Additional Stories Katherine Mansfield, Miss Brill Toni Cade Bambara, The Lesson 3. More about Writing About Literature: From Idea to Essay Why Write Arguments about Literature? Getting Ideas: Pre-Writing. Annotating a Text. Brainstorming for Ideas for Writing Kate Chopin, The Story of an Hour Focused Free Writing Listing and Clustering Developing an Awareness of the Writer's Use of Language Asking Questions Keeping a Journal Arguing at a Thesis. Writing a Draft Sample Draft of an Essay on Kate Chopin's "The Story of an Hour" Lynn Crowe, Ironies in an Hour Revising a Draft Peer Review The Final Version A Brief Overview of the Final Version Explication. A Sample Explication William Butler Yeats, The Balloon of the Mind Explication as Argument Comparison and Contrast: A Way of Arguing Review: How to Write an Effective Essay Additional Reading Kate Chopin, Ripe Figs William Stafford, Traveling through the Dark Lorna Dee Cervantes, Refugee Ship Jose Armas, El Tonto del Barrio Part II FICTION 4. Approaching Fiction: Responding in Writing. Ernest Hemingway, Cat in the Rain Responses: Annotations and Journal Entries. A Sample Essay by a Student: Bill Yanagi, Hemingway's American Wife 5. Stories and Meanings: Plot, Character, Theme. Aesop, The Vixen and the Lioness W. Somerset Maugham, The Appointment in Samara Anonymous, Muddy Road Anton Chekhov, Misery Kate Chopin, Desiree's Baby Alice Walker, Everyday Use Margaret Atwood, Happy Endings William Carlos Williams,The Use of Force 6. Narrative Point of View Participant (or First-Person) Points of View Non-participant (or Third-Person) Points of View The Point of a Point of View John Updike, A & P Grace Paley, A Man Told Me the Story of His Life Jean Rhys, I Used to Live Here Once Anonymous, The Judgment of Solomon Ambrose Bierce, An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge Katherine Anne Porter, The Jilting of Granny Weatherall 7 Allegory and Symbol A Note on Setting Nathaniel Hawthorne, Young Goodman Brown John Steinbeck, The Chrysanthemums Eudora Welty, A Worn Path Gabriel Garcia Marquez, A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings: A Tale for Children D. H. Lawrence, The Horse Dealer's Daughter Shirley Jackson, The Lottery 8. Students Writing about Stories Prompts for Writing about Plot, Character, Point of View, Setting, Symbolism, Style, and Theme Fiction into Film Asking Questions, Thinking Critically, Making Comparisons Film as a Medium Film Techniques Theme Comparing Filmed and Printed Stories Getting Ready to write Drafting an Essay Checklist: Getting Ideas for Writing Arguments about Film Your Turn: Thinking about Filming Fiction Seven Students Write about Short Stories Anne Geraghty Thinks about Character in Poe's "The Cask of Amontillado" Notes. The Final Version of the Essay: Anne Geraghty, Revenge, Noble and Ignoble Gender Criticism: A Response to "The Judgment of Solomon" A Sample Essay: Anne McCauley, How Wise Was Solomon A Feminist Reading of James Thurber's "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty" Working Toward a Thesis: Journal entries Developing the Thesis: List Notes Sample Draft: Susan Levy, "Walter Mitty Is No Joke" A Note on Reading against the Grain A Skeptical Look at the Parable of he Prodigal Son Steve Scipione, "The Parable of the Shrewd Son" Talking about Setting as Symbolic: Notes and an Essay on Kate Chopin's "The Story of an Hour" Amy Jones, "Spring Comes to Mrs. Mallard" Two Students Interpret Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery": Notes and Essays Nat Komor, "We All Participate in the Lottery" Anne Hearn "Is 'The Lottery' Fair?" Sample Essay with Documentation Jean Lee, "Do the Pink Ribbons in Hawthorne's 'Young Goodman Brown' Have a Meaning?" 9. A Fiction Writer in Depth: Flannery O'Connor Flannery O'Connor: Three Stories and Observations on Literature Flannery O'Connor, A Good Man Is Hard to Find Flannery O'Connor, Good Country People Flannery O'Connor,Revelation On Fiction: Remarks from Essays and Letters. From "The Fiction Writer and His Country" From "Some Aspects of the Grotesque in Southern Fiction" From "The Nature and Aim of Fiction" From "Writing Short Stories" A Reasonable Use of the Unreasonable" On Interpreting "A Good Man Is Hard to Find" 10. A Collection of Short Fiction Chris Adrian, Every Night for a Thousand Years Margaret Atwood, Gertrude Talks Back Jorge Luis Borges, The Gospel According to Mark Raymond Carver, Cathedral Oscar Casares, Yolanda Diana Chang, The Oriental Contingent Kate Chopin, The Storm Alice Elliot Dark, In the Gloaming Ralph Ellison, Battle Royal Louise Erdrich, The Red Convertible William Faulkner, A Rose for Emily William Faulkner, Barn Burning Jack Forbes, Only Appproved Indians Can Play: Made in USA Charlotte Perkins Gilman, The Yellow Wallpaper Patricia Grace, Flies Gish Jen, Who's Irish? James Joyce,Araby Franz Kafka, A Hunger Artist Jack London, To Build a Fire Bobbie Ann Mason, Shiloh Guy de Maupassant, Mademoiselle Guy de Maupassant, The Necklace Katherine Min, Courting a Monk Lorrie Moore, How to Become a Writer Alice Munro Boys and Girls Gloria Naylor, The Two Joyce Carol Oates, Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been? Tim O'Brien, The Things They Carried Cynthia Ozick, The Shawl Edgar Allan Poe, The Tell-Tale Heart Edgar Allan Poe, The Cask of Amontillado Michele Serros, Senior Picture Day Leslie Marmon Silko, The Man to Send Rain Clouds Amy Tan, Two Kinds Leo Tolstoy, The Death of Ivan Illych John Updike, The Rumor Part III. POETRY 11. Approaching Poetry: Responding in Writing Langston Hughes, Harlem. Thinking About "Harlem" Some Journal Entries. A Sample Essay by a Student: Michael Locke, Langston Hughes's 'Harlem' Aphra Behn, Song: Love Armed. Journal Entries. A Sample Essay by a Student: Geoffrey Sullivan "The Double Nature of Love." 12. Narrative Poetry The Limerick, the Popular Ballad, and Other Narrative Poems Anonymous, There was a young fellow from Riga Anonymous British Ballad, Sir Patrick Spence Anonymous British Ballad, The Demon Lover John Keats, La Belle Dame sans Merci Siegfried Sassoon, The General Countee Cullen,Incident Edward Arlington Robinson, Richard Cory Emily Dickinson, Because I could not stop for Death John Lennon and Paul McCartney, Eleanor Rigby E. E. Cummings, anyone lived in a pretty how town 13. Lyric Poetry Anonymous, Michael Row the Boat Ashore Anonymous, Careless Love Anonymous, The Colorado Trail Anonymous, Western Wind Julia Ward Howe, Battle Hymn of the Republic William Shakespeare, Spring William Shakespeare, Winter W. H. Auden, Stop All the Clocks, Cut Off the Telephone Emily BrontA", Spellbound Spirituals, or Sorrow Songs Anonymous African-American, Go Down, Moses Anonymous African-American, Swing Low, Sweet Chariot Langston Hughes, Evenin' Air Blues Li-Young Lee, I Ask My Mother to Sing Edna St. Vincent Millay, The Spring and the Fall Wilfred Owen, Anthem for Doomed Youth Walt Whitman, A Noiseless Patient Spider Joseph Addison, Ode John Keats, Ode on a Grecian Urn Paul Laurence Dunbar, Sympathy Jack Forbes, Something Nice Linda Pastan, Jump Cabling Billy Collins, The Names 14. The Speaking Tone of Voice. Emily Dickinson, I'm Nobody! Who are you? Gwendolyn Brooks, We Real Cool. Gwendolyn Brooks, The Mother Linda Pastan, Marks The Reader as the Speaker. Stevie Smith, Not Waving but Drowning Wislawa Szymborska, The Terrorist, He Watches John Updike, Icarus Aurora Levins Morales, Child of the Americas Joseph Bruchac III, Ellis Island The Dramatic Monologue. Robert Browning, My Last Duchess Paula Gunn Allen, Pocahontas to Her English Husband, John Rolfe Diction and Tone. Robert Herrick, To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time Ezra Pound, The River-Merchant's Wife: A Letter Wilfred Owens, Dulce et Decorum Est Thomas Hardy, The Man He Killed Thomas Hardy, The Ruined Maid Walter de la Mare, An Epitaph Gerard Manley Hopkins, Spring and Fall: To a Young Child. Countee Cullen, For a Lady I Know Lyn Lifshin, My Mother and the Bed The Voice of the Satirist. E.E. Cummings, next to of course god America Marge Piercy, Barbie Doll Louise Erdrich, Dear John Wayne Alexander Pope, Engraved on the Collar of a Dog 15. Figurative Language: Simile, Metaphor, Personification, and Apostrophe. Robert Burns, A Red, Red Rose. Sylvia Plath, Metaphor Simile. Richard Wilbur, A Simile for Her Smile Metaphor. John Keats, On First Looking into Chapman's Homer Personification Michael Drayton, Since There's No Help Apostrophe Edmund Waller, Song William Carlos Williams, The Red Wheelbarrow Alfred Lord Tennyson, The Eagle Seamus Heaney, Digging Dana Gioia, Money Linda Pastan, Baseball Craig Raine, A Martian Sends a Postcard Home William Shakespeare, Sonnet 130 16. Imagery and Symbolism. William Blake, The Sick Rose Walt Whitman, I Saw in Louisiana a Live-Oak Growing Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Kubla Khan Emma Lazarus, The New Colossus Alfred, Lord Tennyson, The Kraken Dan Chiasson, The Elephant Claude McKay, The Tropics in New York Adrienne Rich, Diving into the Wreck Christina Rossetti, Uphill Wallace Stevens, The Emperor of Ice Cream Edgar Allan Poe, To Helen Herman Melville,DuPont's Round Fight Naomi Shihab Nye, The Traveling Onion A Note on Haiku Moritake, Fallen petals rise Sokan, If only we could Shiki, River in summer Richard Wright, Four Haiku Writing a Haiku. Taigi, Look, O look, there go Cyber-Haiku 17. Irony Percy Bysshe Shelley, Ozymandias Andrew Marvell, To His Coy Mistress John Donne, Holy Sonnet XIV ("Batter my heart, three-personed God") Langston Hughes, Dream Boogie Martin Espada, Tony Went to the Bodega but He Didn't Buy Anything Edna St. Vincent Millay, Love Is Not All: It Is Not Meat nor Drink Sherman Alexie, Evolution Henry Reed, Naming of Parts Sarah N. Cleghorn, The Golf Links 18. Rhythm and Versification. Ezra Pound, An Immorality A. E. Housman, Eight O'Clock William Carlos Williams, The Dance Robert Francis, The Pitcher Versification: A Glossary for Reference Meter Patterns of Sound Galway Kinnell, Blackberry Eating William Carlos Williams, The Artist Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Constantly Risking Absurdity A Note about Poetic Forms Stanzaic Patterns Three Complex Forms: The Sonnet, The Villanelle, and the Sestina The Sonnet Six Sonnets. William Shakespeare, Sonnet 73 ("That time of year thou mayst in me behold") William Shakespeare, Sonnet 146 ("Poor soul, the center of my sinful earth") John Milton, When I Consider How My Light Is Spent John Crowe Ransom, Piazza Piece X. J. Kennedy, Nothing in Heaven Functions as It Ought Billy Collins, Sonnet The Villanelle Edward Arlington Robinson, The House on the Hill Dylan Thomas, Do Not go Gentle into that Good Night Elizabeth Bishop, One Art The Sestina Elizabeth Bishop, Sestina Shaped Poetry or Pattern Poetry George Herbert, Easter Wings Lillian Morrison, The Sidewalk Racer Blank Verse and Free Verse. Walt Whitman, When I Heard the Learn'd Astronomer The Prose Poem Carolyn Forche, The Colonel 19. Students Writing about Poems First Response. Speaker and Tone. Audience. Structure and Form. Center of Interest and Theme. Diction. Sound Effects. A Note on Explication. Eight Essays by Students Louise Gluck, Gretel in Darkness Jennifer Anderson's Annotation's, Journal, and Final Draft Jennifer Anderson, A Memory Poem: Louise Gluck's "Gretel in Darkness" Adrienne Rich, Aunt Jennifer's Tigers A Student's Annotations and Essay Maria Fuentes, Aunt Jennifer's Screen and Adrienne Rich's Poem A Student's Essay on a Theme in Several Poems by One Poet Peter Gottsegen Religion and Religious Imagery in Emily Dickinson An Essay on the Structure of a Poem Robert Herrick, Upon Julia's Clothes Annotations David Thurston, Herrick's Julia, Julia's Herrick An Essay on Metrics Julia Jeffords, Sound and Sense in Housman's "Eight O'Clock" A Brief Overview of the Essay Three Essays, for Evaluation, on Robert Frost's "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening" Darrel MacDonald's Annotations and Essay, "Stopping by Woods and Going On" Sara Fong's Journal Entry and Essay, "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening" as a Short Story" Peter Franken's Journal Entry and Essay, "The Meaning of "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening" 20. Poets at Work Walt Whitman, Enfans d'Adam, number 9 Cathy Song, Out of Our Hands William Butler Yeats, Leda and the Swan (three versions) William Butler Yeats, Annunciation William Butler Yeats, Leda and the Swan (1924) William Butler Yeats, Leda and the Swan (1933) 21. Variations on Themes: Poems and Paintings Writing about Poems and Paintings A Sample Student Essay Tina Washington, Two Ways of Looking at a Starry Night Jane Flanders, Van Gogh's Bed Adrienne Rich, Mourning Picture Cathy Song, Beauty and Sadness Carl Phillips, Luncheon on the Grass Anne Sexton, The Starry Night W. H. Auden, Musee des Beaux Arts X. J. Kennedy, Nude Descending a Staircase Sherman Alexie, At Navajo Monument Valley Tribal School. John Updike, Before the Mirror Greg Pape, American Flamingo 22. Three Poets in Depth: Emily Dickinson, Robert Frost, and Langston Hughes On Reading Authors Represented in Depth Emily Dickinson These are the days when Birds come back Papa above! Wild Nights--Wild Nights! There's a certain Slant of light I got so I could hear his name-- The Soul selects her own Society This was a Poet--It is That I heard a Fly Buzz--when I died The World is not Conclusion I like to see it lap the Miles A narrow Fellow in the Grass Further in Summer than the Birds Tell all the Truth but tell it slant A Route of Evanesence Those--dying, then Apparently with no surprise I felt a funeral, in my Brain I felt a Cleaving in my Mind The Dust behind I strove to join Letters about Poetry. Letter to Susan Gilbert (Dickinson). Letters to T.W. Higginson Letter to T.W. Higginson Robert Frost. The Pasture Mending Wall The Wood-Pile The Road Not Taken. The Telephone. The Oven Bird. The Vanishing Red The Aim Was Song The Need of Being Versed in Country Things Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening Acquainted with the Night Desert Places Design The Silken Tent Come In The Most of It Robert Frost on Poetry The Figure a Poem Makes From "The Constant Symbol" Langston Hughes The Negro Speaks of Rivers Mother to Son The Weary Blues The South Ruby Brown. Poet to Patron. Ballad of the Landlord Too Blue Harlem[1]. Theme for English B Poet to Bigot Langston Hughes on Poetry The Negro and the Racial Mountain On the Cultural Achievement of African-Americans 23. Poetry and Translation A Poem Translated from Spanish, in an Essay by a Student George Guzman, Garcia Lorca's "Despedida" A Note on Using the First-Person Singular Pronoun in Essays Translating a Poem of your Choice, and Commenting on the Translation Last-Minute Help: Three Spanish Poems Anonymous, Ya se van los pastores Anonymous, Una gallina con pollos Gabriela Mistral, El Pensador de Rodin Translating Haiku Basho, Old pond Further Thoughts about Translating Poetry Catullus, Odi et amo Can Poetry Be Translated? Looking at Translations of a Poem by Charles Baudelaire Charles Baudelaire, L'Albatros 24. A Collection of Poems. A Note on Folk Ballads Anonymous British Ballad, The Three Ravens Anonymous British Ballad, The Twa Corbies Anonymous British Ballad,Edward Anonymous, John Henry Sherman Alexie, On the Amtrak from Boston to New York City Matthew Arnold, Dover Beach W. H. Auden, The Unknown Citizen Jimmy Santiago Baca, So Mexicans Are Taking Jobs from Americans Amiri Baraka, A Poem for Black Hearts Elizabeth Bishop, The Fish William Blake, Infant Joy William Blake, Infant Sorrow William Blake, The Lamb William Blake, The Tyger William Blake, London Robert Bly, Driving to Town Late to Mail a Letter Gwendolyn Brooks, Martin Luther King Jr. Gwendolyn Brooks, The Bean Eaters Robert Browning, Porphyria's Lover George Gordon, Lord Byron, She Walks in Beauty Lucille Clifton, in the inner city Judith Ortiz Cofer, My Father in the Navy: A Childhood Memory John Donne, A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning John Donne, The Flea John Donne, Death Be Not Proud Rita Dove, Daystar Bob Dylan, The Times They Are A-Changin' T. S. Eliot, The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock Ralph Waldo Emerson, Hymn Martin Espada, Bully Allen Ginsberg, A Supermarket in California Nikki Giovanni, Master Charge Blues Louise Gluck, The School Children H.D., Helen Thomas Hardy, Ah, Are You Digging on My Grave Joy Harjo, Vision Robert Hayden, Those Winter Sundays Anthony Hecht, The Dover Bitch Robert Herrick, Delight in Disorder Gerard Manley Hopkins, God's Grandeur Gerard Manly Hopkins, Pied Beauty A. E. Housman, To an Athlete Dying Young A. E. Housman, When I Was One-and-Twenty A. E. Housman, Loveliest of Trees James Weldon Johnson, To America Ben Jonson, On My First Son. Ben Jonson, Still to be Neat John Keats, To Autumn X. J. Kennedy, For Allen Ginsberg Yusef Komunyakaa, Facing It Archibald MacLeish, Ars Poetica A laude McKay, America Herman Melville, Misgivings HermanMelville, The Tuft of Kelp Pat Mora, Illegal Alien Pat Mora, Legal Alien Carol Muske, Chivalry Sharon Olds, Rites of Passage Linda Pastan, Love Poem Marge Piercy, To be of use Sylvia Plath,Daddy Ezra Pound, In a Station of the Metro Wyatt Prunty, Learning the Bicycle Dudley Randall, The Melting Pot Adrienne Rich, For the Felling of an Elm in the Harvard Yard Adrienne Rich, Living in Sin Anne Sexton, Her Kind William Shakespeare, Sonnet 29 (When, in disgrace with Fortune and men's eyes) William Shakespeare, Sonnet 116 (Let me not to the marriage of true minds) Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Ulysses Kitty Tsui, A Chinese Banquet John Updike, Ex-Basketball Player Derek Walcott, A Far Cry from Africa Phillis Wheatley, On Being Brought from Africa to America Walt Whitman, Reconciliation Walt Whitman, A Sight in Camp in the Daybreak Gray and Grim Walt Whitman, The Dalliance of Eagles William Carlos Williams, Spring and All William Wordsworth, The World Is Too Much with Us William Wordsworth, I Wondered Lonely as a Cloud William Wordsworth, The Solitary Reaper James Wright, Lying in a Hammock at William Duffy's Farm in Pine Island, Minnesota William Butler Yeats, Sailing to Byzantium Part IV DRAMA 25. How to Read a Play Thinking About the Language of Drama. Plot and Character. Susan Glaspell, Trifles Tennessee Williams, The Glass Menagerie A Context for The Glass Menagerie Tennessee Williams, Production Notes 26. Tragedy A Note on Greek Theater Two Plays by Sophocles Sophocles, Oedipus the King Sophocles, Antigone A Play by Shakespeare A Note on the Elizabethan Theater Hamlet A Note on the Text of Hamlet Portfolio: Hamlet on the Stage William Shakespeare, Hamlet, Prince of Denmark 27. Comedy William Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night's Dream 28. Two Plays about Marriage Henrik Ibsen, A Doll's House Contexts for A Doll's House Henrik Ibsen, Notes for the Tragedy of Modern Times Henrik Ibsen, Adaptations of A Doll's House for a German Production Henrik Ibsen, Speech at the Banquet of the Norwegian League for Women's Rights Clare Boothe Luce, Slam the Door Softly 29. Students Writing About Plays Plot and Conflict. Character. Tragedy. Comedy. Nonverbal Language. The Play in Performance Writing about a Filmed Version of a Play Checklist: Writing about a Filmed Play Five Essays by Students An Essay on Plot: Joel Shapiro, "The Solid Structure of The Glass Menagerie" An Essay on Setting: Margaret Hammer, "What the Kitchen in Trifles Tells Us" An Essay on Character and Theme: Carlos Alonso, "Fairy Mischief and Morality in A Midsummer's Night's Dream" An Essay on a Film: Will Saretta, "Branagh's Film of Hamlet" A Sample Student Essay Using Sources: Ruth Katz, "The Women in Death of a Salesman" 30. A Collection of Plays Arthur Miller, Death of a Salesman A Context for Death of a Salesman Arthur Miller, Tragedy and the Common Man Luis Valdez, Los Vendidos A Context for Los Vendidos Luis Valdez, The Actos Jane Martin, Rodeo August Wilson, Fences A Context for Fences August Wilson, Talking About Fences David Ives, Sure Thing Terrence McNally, Andre's Mother 31 Critical Approaches: The Nature of Criticism Formalist (or New) Criticism Deconstruction Reader Response Criticism Archetypal (or Myth) Criticism Historical Scholarship Marxist Criticism The New Historicism Biographical Criticism Psychological (or Psychoanalytic) Criticism Gender (Feminist, and Lesbian and Gay) Criticism Suggestions for Further Reading Appendix A Basic Manuscript Form Corrections in Final Copy Quotations and Quotation Marks Documentation: Footnotes, Internal Parenthetical Citations, and a List of Works Cited (MLA format) Citing Sources on the World Wide Web Appendix B: Writing Essay Examinations Why Do Instructors give Essay Examinations Getting Ready Writing Essay Answers Appendix C Glossary of Literary Terms