Backpack Literature
An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, Drama, and Writing
6th Edition
Published on 8. February 2019
Book
Paperback/Softback
1296 pages
978-0-13-475679-0 (ISBN)
Description
This print textbook is available for students to rent for their classes. The Pearson print rental program provides students with affordable access to learning materials, so they come to class ready to succeed.
For introductory courses in Literature.
Cultivates a love of literature and an understanding of effective writing
Kennedy/Gioia's Backpack Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, Drama, and Writing, 6th Edition is a brief version of the discipline's most popular literature anthology.
Backpack Literature introduces students to the appreciation and experience of literature in its major forms - and develops their abilities to think critically and communicate effectively through, and about, writing. Authors X.J. Kennedy and Dana Gioia aim to help readers develop sensitivity to language, culture, and identity, see beyond the boundaries of their own selves, and view the world through the eyes of others.
Each of the first three sections is devoted to one of the major literary forms of fiction, poetry, and drama; the fourth is a comprehensive introduction to critical writing. The 6th Edition of this trusted resource has been revised throughout for clarity and accessibility, and all chapters have been updated with a more visual appeal for current students. Packed with a variety of popular and provocative stories, poems, plays, and critical prose, it includes exciting and often-surprising contemporary selections. Every chapter has been reviewed and updated with relevant cultural references.
0134756797 / 9780134756790 BACKPACK LITERATURE: AN INTRODUCTION TO FICTION, POETRY, DRAMA, AND WRITING [RENTAL EDITION], 6/e
For introductory courses in Literature.
Cultivates a love of literature and an understanding of effective writing
Kennedy/Gioia's Backpack Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, Drama, and Writing, 6th Edition is a brief version of the discipline's most popular literature anthology.
Backpack Literature introduces students to the appreciation and experience of literature in its major forms - and develops their abilities to think critically and communicate effectively through, and about, writing. Authors X.J. Kennedy and Dana Gioia aim to help readers develop sensitivity to language, culture, and identity, see beyond the boundaries of their own selves, and view the world through the eyes of others.
Each of the first three sections is devoted to one of the major literary forms of fiction, poetry, and drama; the fourth is a comprehensive introduction to critical writing. The 6th Edition of this trusted resource has been revised throughout for clarity and accessibility, and all chapters have been updated with a more visual appeal for current students. Packed with a variety of popular and provocative stories, poems, plays, and critical prose, it includes exciting and often-surprising contemporary selections. Every chapter has been reviewed and updated with relevant cultural references.
0134756797 / 9780134756790 BACKPACK LITERATURE: AN INTRODUCTION TO FICTION, POETRY, DRAMA, AND WRITING [RENTAL EDITION], 6/e
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Edition
6th edition
Language
English
Place of publication
United States
Publishing group
Pearson Education (US)
Target group
College/higher education
ISBN-13
978-0-13-475679-0 (9780134756790)
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X. J. Kennedy | Dana Gioia
Backpack Literature
An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, Drama, and Writing Plus Myliteraturelab with the Literature Collection Etext -- Access Card Package
Book
05/2015
5th Edition
Pearson
€92.29
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About our authors X. J. Kennedy, after graduation from Seton Hall and Columbia, became a journalist second class in the Navy ("Actually, I was pretty eighth class"). His poems, some published in The New Yorker, were first collected in Nude Descending a Staircase (1961). Since then, he has published 7 more collections, including a volume of new and selected poems in 2007, several widely adopted literature and writing textbooks and 17 books for children, including 2 novels. He has taught at Michigan, North Carolina (Greensboro), California (Irvine), Wellesley, Tufts and Leeds. Cited in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations and reprinted in some 200 anthologies, his verse has brought him a Guggenheim fellowship, a Lamont Award, a Los Angeles Times Book Prize, an award from the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters, an Aiken-Taylor prize and the Award for Poetry for Children from the National Council of Teachers of English. He now lives in Lexington, Massachusetts, where he and his wife Dorothy have collaborated on 5 books and 5 children.
Dana Gioia is a poet, critic and teacher. Born in Los Angeles of Italian and Mexican ancestry, he attended Stanford and Harvard before taking a detour into business. ("Not many poets have a Stanford MBA, thank goodness!") After years of writing and reading late in the evenings after work, he quit a vice presidency to write and teach. He has published 4 collections of poetry, Daily Horoscope (1986), The Gods of Winter (1991), Interrogations at Noon (2001), which won the American Book Award, Pity the Beautiful (2012) and 3 critical volumes, including Can Poetry Matter? (1992), an influential study of poetry's place in contemporary America. Gioia has taught at Johns Hopkins, Sarah Lawrence, Wesleyan (Connecticut), Mercer and Colorado College. From 2003 to 2009 he served as the Chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts. At the NEA he created the largest literary programs in federal history, including Shakespeare in American Communities and Poetry Out Loud, the national high school poetry recitation contest. He also led the campaign to restore active literary reading by creating The Big Read, which helped reverse a quarter century of decline in US reading. He is currently the Judge Widney Professor of Poetry and Public Culture at the University of Southern California. (The surname Gioia is pronounced JOY-A. As some of you may have already guessed, gioia is the Italian word for "joy.")
Dan Stone worked for many years as a program manager and documentary producer at the National Endowment for the Arts, during which time he wrote, recorded and produced nearly 30 radio documentaries on classic American novels for the Big Read, interviewing more than 200 prominent writers, actors, artists, musicians and public figures. While at the NEA, Stone helped create Poetry Out Loud, the popular national high school recitation contest, and he produced educational and audio programming for the initiatives Shakespeare in American Communities and NEA Jazz Masters. He studied poetry at Colorado College and received an MFA in fiction from Boston University, and he has taught middle school, high school and college. With Dana Gioia, Stone edited Penguin's 100 Great Poets of the English Language. His most recent book, How Money Became Dangerous, is about the modern evolution of Wall Street and the financial services industry. He is the founder and editor-in-chief of Radio Silence, a magazine of literature and rock 'n' roll. For City Arts & Lectures and NPR, he has conducted lengthy stage conversations with Bruce Springsteen, Patti Smith, George Saunders and Elvis Costello. Stone owns an establishment near his home in Oakland, California, called North Light, which serves as a bookstore, record store, restaurant and cafe.
Dana Gioia is a poet, critic and teacher. Born in Los Angeles of Italian and Mexican ancestry, he attended Stanford and Harvard before taking a detour into business. ("Not many poets have a Stanford MBA, thank goodness!") After years of writing and reading late in the evenings after work, he quit a vice presidency to write and teach. He has published 4 collections of poetry, Daily Horoscope (1986), The Gods of Winter (1991), Interrogations at Noon (2001), which won the American Book Award, Pity the Beautiful (2012) and 3 critical volumes, including Can Poetry Matter? (1992), an influential study of poetry's place in contemporary America. Gioia has taught at Johns Hopkins, Sarah Lawrence, Wesleyan (Connecticut), Mercer and Colorado College. From 2003 to 2009 he served as the Chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts. At the NEA he created the largest literary programs in federal history, including Shakespeare in American Communities and Poetry Out Loud, the national high school poetry recitation contest. He also led the campaign to restore active literary reading by creating The Big Read, which helped reverse a quarter century of decline in US reading. He is currently the Judge Widney Professor of Poetry and Public Culture at the University of Southern California. (The surname Gioia is pronounced JOY-A. As some of you may have already guessed, gioia is the Italian word for "joy.")
Dan Stone worked for many years as a program manager and documentary producer at the National Endowment for the Arts, during which time he wrote, recorded and produced nearly 30 radio documentaries on classic American novels for the Big Read, interviewing more than 200 prominent writers, actors, artists, musicians and public figures. While at the NEA, Stone helped create Poetry Out Loud, the popular national high school recitation contest, and he produced educational and audio programming for the initiatives Shakespeare in American Communities and NEA Jazz Masters. He studied poetry at Colorado College and received an MFA in fiction from Boston University, and he has taught middle school, high school and college. With Dana Gioia, Stone edited Penguin's 100 Great Poets of the English Language. His most recent book, How Money Became Dangerous, is about the modern evolution of Wall Street and the financial services industry. He is the founder and editor-in-chief of Radio Silence, a magazine of literature and rock 'n' roll. For City Arts & Lectures and NPR, he has conducted lengthy stage conversations with Bruce Springsteen, Patti Smith, George Saunders and Elvis Costello. Stone owns an establishment near his home in Oakland, California, called North Light, which serves as a bookstore, record store, restaurant and cafe.
Content
FICTION Talking with Amy Tan
READING A STORY
THE ART OF FICTION
TYPES OF SHORT FICTION
Sufi Legend, Death Has an Appointment in Samarra A student tries to flee from Death in this brief, sardonic fable.
Aesop, The Fox and the Grapes Ever wonder where the phrase "sour grapes" comes from? Find out in this classic fable.
Bidpai, The Camel and His Friends With friends like these, you can guess what the camel doesn't need.
Chuang Tzu, Independence The Prince of Ch'u asks the philosopher Chuang Tzu to become his advisor and gets a surprising reply in this classic Chinese fable.
Jakob and Wilhelm Grimm, Godfather Death Neither God nor the Devil came to the christening. In this stark folktale, a young man receives magical powers with a string attached.
PLOT
THE SHORT STORY
John Updike, A & P In walk three girls in nothing but bathing suits, and Sammy finds himself no longer an aproned checkout clerk but an armored knight.
WRITING EFFECTIVELY
THINKING ABOUT PLOT
CHECKLIST: Writing about Plot
TOPICS FOR WRITING ON PLOT
TERMS FOR REVIEW
POINT OF VIEW
IDENTIFYING POINT OF VIEW
TYPES OF NARRATORS
HOW MUCH DOES A NARRATOR KNOW?
STREAM OF CONSCIOUSNESS
William Faulkner, A Rose for Emily Proud, imperious Emily Grierson defies the town from the fortress of her mansion. Who could have guessed the secret that lay within?
Edgar Allan Poe, The Tell-Tale Heart An omniscient infant narrator, able to access any conversation or scene on the planet, is born into a time of war.
Eudora Welty, A Worn Path The smoldering eye at last extinguished, a murderer finds that, despite all his
attempts at a cover-up, his victim will be heard.
Flannery O'Connor, A Good Man Is Hard to Find Wanted: The Misfit, a cold-blooded killer. An ordinary family vacation leads to horror-and one moment of redeeming grace.
WRITING EFFECTIVELY
THINKING ABOUT POINT OF VIEW
CHECKLIST: Writing About Point of View
TOPICS FOR WRITING ON POINT OF VIEW
TERMS FOR REVIEW
CHARACTER
CHARACTERIZATION
MOTIVATION
Tobias Wolff, Bullet in the Brain Anders is in line when armed robbers enter the bank, and he can't help but get involved.
Joyce Carol Oates, Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been? Alone in the house, Connie finds herself helpless before the advances of Arnold Friend, a spellbinding imitation teenager.
Toni Morrison, Recitatif Over many decades, two women's lives continue to collide, as they find that their relationship is complicated by the challenges of race, class, and circumstance.
Raymond Carver, Cathedral He never expected to find himself trying to describe a cathedral to a blind man. He hadn't even wanted to meet this odd, old friend of his wife.
WRITING EFFECTIVELY
THINKING ABOUT CHARACTER
CHECKLIST: Writing about Character
TOPICS FOR WRITING ON CHARACTER
TERMS FOR REVIEW
SETTING
ELEMENTS OF SETTING
HISTORICAL FICTION
REGIONALISM
NATURALISM
HOW SETTING CAN HARMONIZE WITH OTHER ELEMENTS OF A STORY
Kate Chopin, The Storm Even with her husband away, Calixta feels happily, securely married. Why then should she not shelter an old admirer from the rain?
Jack London, To Build a Fire Seventy-five degrees below zero. Alone except for one mistrustful wolf dog, a man finds himself battling a relentless force.
Jorge Luis Borges, The Gospel According to Mark A young man from Buenos Aires is trapped by a flood on an isolated ranch. To pass the time, he reads the Gospel to a family with unforeseen results.
Amy Tan, A Pair of Tickets A young woman flies with her father to China to meet two half-sisters she never knew existed.
WRITING EFFECTIVELY
THINKING ABOUT SETTING
CHECKLIST: Writing About Setting
TOPICS FOR WRITING ON SETTING
TERMS FOR REVIEW
TONE AND STYLE
TONE
STYLE
DICTION
Ernest Hemingway, A Clean, Well-Lighted Place All by himself each night, the old man lingers in the bright cafe. What does he need more than brandy?
William Faulkner, Barn Burning This time when Ab Snopes wields his blazing torch, his son Sarty faces a dilemma: whether to obey or defy the vengeful old man.
IRONY
O. Henry, The Gift of the Magi A young husband and wife find ingenious ways to buy each other Christmas presents, in the classic story that defines the word "irony."
Margaret Atwood, Happy Endings John and Mary meet. What happens next? This witty experimental story offers several different outcomes.
WRITING EFFECTIVELY
THINKING ABOUT TONE AND STYLE
CHECKLIST: Writing about Tone and Style
TOPICS FOR WRITING ON TONE AND STYLE
TERMS FOR REVIEW
THEME
PLOT VERSUS THEME
SUMMARIZING THE THEME
FINDING THE THEME
Tim O'Brien, The Things They Carried What each soldier carries into the combat zone is largely determined by necessity, but each man's necessities differ.
Sandra Cisneros, Barbie-Q The trouble with buying Barbie dolls is that you want all the clothes, companions, and accessories. But in this neighborhood, things suddenly change.
Luke, The Parable of the Prodigal Son A father has two sons. One demands his inheritance now and leaves to spend it with ruinous results.
Kurt Vonnegut Jr., Harrison Bergeron Are you handsome? Then off with your eyebrows! Are you brainy? Then a transmitter will sound thought-shattering beeps inside your ear.
WRITING EFFECTIVELY
THINKING ABOUT THEME
CHECKLIST: Writing About Theme
TOPICS FOR WRITING ON THEME
TERMS FOR REVIEW
SYMBOL
ALLEGORY
SYMBOLS
RECOGNIZING SYMBOLS
John Steinbeck, The Chrysanthemums Fenced-in Elisa feels emotionally starved-then her life promises to blossom with the arrival of the scissors-grinding man.
Charlotte Perkins Gilman, The Yellow Wallpaper A doctor prescribes a "rest cure" for his wife after the birth of their child. The new mother tries to settle in to life in the isolated and mysterious country house they have rented for the summer. The cure proves worse than the disease in this Gothic classic.
Ursula K. Le Guin, The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas Omelas is the perfect city. All of its inhabitants are happy. But everyone's prosperity depends on a hidden evil.
Shirley Jackson, The Lottery Splintered and faded, the sinister black box has worked its annual terror for longer than anyone in town can remember.
WRITING EFFECTIVELY
THINKING ABOUT SYMBOLS
CHECKLIST: Writing About Symbols
TOPICS FOR WRITING ON SYMBOLS
TERMS FOR REVIEW
GALLERY OF INTERNATIONAL VOICES
NIGERIA: Chinua Achebe, Dead Men's Path The new headmaster of the village school is determined to fight superstition, but the villagers do not agree.
MEXICO: Ines Arredondo, The Shunammite When Luisa visits her dying uncle, she has no idea that her life is about to change forever.
COLUMBIA: Gabriel Garcia Marquez, The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World Even in death, a mysterious stranger has a profound effect on all of the people in the village.
CHINA: Ha Jin, Saboteur When the police unfairly arrest Mr. Chiu, he hopes for justice. After witnessing their brutality, he quietly plans revenge.
ANTIGUA: Jamaica Kincaid, Girl "Try to walk like a lady, and not like the slut you are so bent on becoming." An old-fashioned mother tells her daughter how to live.
EGYPT: Naguib Mahfouz, The Lawsuit He thought he'd seen the last of his late father's second wife, but now she's back to trouble his peaceful existence.
INDIA: Bharati Mukherjee, Saints Shawn wanders around his neighborhood at night, imagining an existence other than the sad, confusing, and often frightening home life dominated by the unwelcome presence of his mom's boyfriend, Wayne.
STORIES FOR FURTHER READING
Sherman Alexie, This Is What It Means to Say Phoenix, Arizona The only one who can help Victor when his father dies is a childhood friend he's been avoiding for years.
T. Coraghessan Boyle, Greasy Lake Murky and strewn with beer cans, the lake appears to be a wasteland. One grim night on its shore, three "dangerous characters" learn a lesson.
Ray Bradbury, A Sound of Thunder In 2055, you can go on a Time Safari to hunt dinosaurs 60 million years
ago. But put one foot wrong, and suddenly the future's not what it used to be.
Kate Chopin, The Story of an Hour "There was something coming to her and she was waiting for it, fearfully. What was it? She did not know; it was too subtle and elusive to name."
Neil Gaiman, How to Talk to Girls at Parties Two teenage boys try to navigate their way through a party filled with exotic, mysterious girls.
Nathaniel Hawthorne, Young Goodman Brown Urged on through deepening woods, a young Puritan sees-or dreams he sees-good villagers hasten toward a diabolic rite.
Zora Neale Hurston, Sweat Delia's hard work paid for her small house. Now her drunken husband Sykes has promised it to another woman.
James Joyce, Araby If only he can find her a token, she might love him in return. As night falls, a Dublin boy hurries to make his dream come true.
Franz Kafka, Before the Law A man from the country comes in search of the Law. He never guesses what
will prevent him from finding it, in this modern parable.
Katherine Mansfield, Miss Brill Sundays had long brought joy to solitary Miss Brill, until one fateful day when she happens to share a bench with two lovers in the park.
Alice Walker, Everyday Use When successful Dee visits from the city, she has changed her name to reflect her African roots. Her mother and sister notice other things have changed, too.
Virginia Woolf, A Haunted House Whatever hour you wake, a door is shutting. From room to room the ghostly couple walks, hand in hand.
POETRY Talking with Kay Ryan
READING A POEM
POETRY OR VERSE
HOW TO READ A POEM
PARAPHRASE
William Butler Yeats, The Lake Isle of Innisfree
LYRIC POETRY
Robert Hayden, Those Winter Sundays
Adrienne Rich, Aunt Jennifer's Tigers
NARRATIVE POETRY
Anonymous, Sir Patrick Spence
Robert Frost, "Out, Out-"
DRAMATIC POETRY
Robert Browning, My Last Duchess
DIDACTIC POETRY
WRITING EFFECTIVELY
THINKING ABOUT PARAPHRASING
William Stafford, Ask Me
William Stafford, A Paraphrase of "Ask Me"
CHECKLIST: Writing a Paraphrase
TOPICS FOR WRITING ON PARAPHRASING
TERMS FOR REVIEW
LISTENING TO A VOICE
TONE
Theodore Roethke, My Papa's Waltz
Stephen Crane, The Wayfarer
Rhina Espaillat, Bilingual / Bilinguee
Franz Wright, Alcohol
Weldon Kees, For My Daughter
THE SPEAKER IN THE POEM
Natasha Trethewey, White Lies
Edwin Arlington Robinson, Luke Havergal
Anonymous, Dog Haiku
Langston Hughes, Theme for English B
Karen An-hwei Lee, Rainfall
William Carlos Williams, The Red Wheelbarrow
IRONY
Robert Creeley, Oh No
W. H. Auden, The Unknown Citizen
Sharon Olds, Rite of Passage
Edna St. Vincent Millay, Second Fig
Thomas Hardy, The Workbox
FOR REVIEW AND FURTHER STUDY
William Blake, The Chimney Sweeper
Richard Lovelace, To Lucasta
Wilfred Owen, Dulce et Decorum Est
WRITING EFFECTIVELY
THINKING ABOUT TONE
CHECKLIST: Writing About Tone
TOPICS FOR WRITING ON TONE
TERMS FOR REVIEW
WORDS
LITERAL MEANING: WHAT A POEM SAYS FIRST
William Carlos Williams, This Is Just to Say
DICTION
John Masefield, Cargoes
John Donne, Batter my heart, three-personed God, for You
THE VALUE OF A DICTIONARY
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Aftermath
J. V. Cunningham, Friend, on this scaffold Thomas More lies dead
Samuel Menashe, Bread
Carl Sandburg, Grass
WORD CHOICE AND WORD ORDER
Robert Herrick, Upon Julia's Clothes
Kay Ryan, Blandeur
Thomas Hardy, The Ruined Maid
Julie Larios, What Bee Did
FOR REVIEW AND FURTHER STUDY
E. E. Cummings, anyone lived in a pretty how town
Sarah Cortez, Adam
Anonymous, Carnation Milk
Gina Valdes, English con Salsa
William Wordsworth, My heart leaps up when I behold
William Wordsworth, Mutability
Lewis Carroll, Jabberwocky
WRITING EFFECTIVELY
THINKING ABOUT DICTION
CHECKLIST: Writing About Diction
TOPICS FOR WRITING ON WORD CHOICE
TERMS FOR REVIEW
SAYING AND SUGGESTING
DENOTATION AND CONNOTATION
William Blake, London
Wallace Stevens, Disillusionment of Ten O'Clock
Robert Frost, Fire and Ice
Timothy Steele, Epitaph
Hieu Minh Nguyen, Arranged
H.D., Sea Rose
Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Tears, Idle Tears
Richard Wilbur, Love Calls Us to the Things of This World
WRITING EFFECTIVELY
THINKING ABOUT DENOTATION AND CONNOTATION
CHECKLIST: Writing About What A Poem Says And Suggests
TOPICS FOR WRITING ON DENOTATION AND CONNOTATION
TERMS FOR REVIEW
IMAGERY
Ezra Pound, In a Station of the Metro
Taniguchi Buson, The piercing chill I feel
IMAGERY
T. S. Eliot, The winter evening settles down
Theodore Roethke, Root Cellar
Elizabeth Bishop, The Fish
Emily Dickinson, A Route of Evanescence
Jean Toomer, Reapers
Gerard Manley Hopkins, Pied Beauty
ABOUT HAIKU
Arakida Moritake, The falling flower
Matsuo Basho, Heat-lightning streak
Matsuo Basho, In the old stone pool
Taniguchi Buson, On the one-ton temple bell
Taniguchi Buson, Moonrise on mudflats
Kobayashi Issa, only one guy
Kobayashi Issa, Cricket
HAIKU FROM JAPANESE INTERNMENT CAMPS
Suiko Matsushita, Cosmos in bloom
Hakuro Wada, Even the croaking of frogs
CONTEMPORARY HAIKU
Nick Virgilio, The Old Neighborhood
Adelle Foley, Learning to Shave
FOR REVIEW AND FURTHER STUDY
John Keats, Bright star, would I were steadfast as thou art
William Carlos Williams, El Hombre
Gary Snyder, Mid-August at Sourdough Mountain Lookout
Angela Alaimo O'Donnell, Tattoo
Stevie Smith, Not Waving but Drowning
Robert Bly, Driving to Town Late to Mail a Letter
WRITING EFFECTIVELY
THINKING ABOUT IMAGERY
CHECKLIST: Writing About Imagery
TOPICS FOR WRITING ON IMAGERY
TERMS FOR REVIEW
FIGURES OF SPEECH
WHY SPEAK FIGURATIVELY?
Alfred, Lord Tennyson, The Eagle
William Shakespeare, Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
Howard Moss, Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer's Day?
METAPHOR AND SIMILE
Emily Dickinson, My Life had stood - a Loaded Gun
Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Flower in the Crannied Wall
William Blake, To see a world in a grain of sand
Sylvia Plath, Metaphors
N. Scott Momaday, Simile
Jill Alexander Essbaum, The Heart
Cody Walker, I'm Like
OTHER FIGURES OF SPEECH
James Stephens, The Wind
Robinson Jeffers, Hands
Dana Gioia, Money
Carl Sandburg, Fog
WRITING EFFECTIVELY
THINKING ABOUT METAPHORS
CHECKLIST: Writing About Metaphors
TOPICS FOR WRITING ON FIGURES OF SPEECH
TERMS FOR REVIEW
SOUND
SOUND AS MEANING
William Butler Yeats, Who Goes with Fergus?
Edgar Allan Poe, from Ulalume
William Wordsworth, A Slumber Did My Spirit Seal
ALLITERATION AND ASSONANCE
Frances Cornford, The Watch
Alfred, Lord Tennyson, The splendor falls on castle walls
RIME
Hilaire Belloc, The Hippopotamus
Bob Kaufman, No More Jazz at Alcatraz
David Barber, Aria
Gerard Manley Hopkins, God's Grandeur
HOW TO READ A POEM ALOUD
Gerald Manley Hopkins, Spring and Fall
Michael Stillman, In Memoriam John Coltrane
WRITING EFFECTIVELY
THINKING ABOUT A POEM'S SOUND
CHECKLIST: Writing About a Poem's Sound
TOPICS FOR WRITING ON SOUND
TERMS FOR REVIEW
RHYTHM
STRESSES AND PAUSES
STRESS AND MEANING
LINE ENDINGS
Gwendolyn Brooks, We Real Cool
Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Break, Break, Break
Dorothy Parker, Resume
METER
Edith Sitwell, Mariner Man
A. E. Housman, When I was one-and-twenty
Edgar Allan Poe, Annabel Lee
Walt Whitman, Beat! Beat! Drums!
WRITING EFFECTIVELY
THINKING ABOUT RHYTHM
CHECKLIST: Scanning a Poem
TOPICS FOR WRITING ON RHYTHM
TERMS FOR REVIEW
CLOSED FORM
THE VALUE OF FORM
FORMAL PATTERNS
Ernest Dowson, Days of wine and roses
John Donne, Song ("Go and catch a falling star")
BALLADS
Anonymous, Bonny Barbara Allan
Dudley Randall, Ballad of Birmingham
THE SONNET
William Shakespeare, Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Edna St. Vincent Millay, What lips my lips have kissed, and where, and why
Robert Frost, Acquainted with the Night
Kim Addonizio, First Poem for You
R.S. Gwynn, Shakespearean Sonnet
Sherman Alexie, The Facebook Sonnet
THE EPIGRAM
READING A STORY
THE ART OF FICTION
TYPES OF SHORT FICTION
Sufi Legend, Death Has an Appointment in Samarra A student tries to flee from Death in this brief, sardonic fable.
Aesop, The Fox and the Grapes Ever wonder where the phrase "sour grapes" comes from? Find out in this classic fable.
Bidpai, The Camel and His Friends With friends like these, you can guess what the camel doesn't need.
Chuang Tzu, Independence The Prince of Ch'u asks the philosopher Chuang Tzu to become his advisor and gets a surprising reply in this classic Chinese fable.
Jakob and Wilhelm Grimm, Godfather Death Neither God nor the Devil came to the christening. In this stark folktale, a young man receives magical powers with a string attached.
PLOT
THE SHORT STORY
John Updike, A & P In walk three girls in nothing but bathing suits, and Sammy finds himself no longer an aproned checkout clerk but an armored knight.
WRITING EFFECTIVELY
THINKING ABOUT PLOT
CHECKLIST: Writing about Plot
TOPICS FOR WRITING ON PLOT
TERMS FOR REVIEW
POINT OF VIEW
IDENTIFYING POINT OF VIEW
TYPES OF NARRATORS
HOW MUCH DOES A NARRATOR KNOW?
STREAM OF CONSCIOUSNESS
William Faulkner, A Rose for Emily Proud, imperious Emily Grierson defies the town from the fortress of her mansion. Who could have guessed the secret that lay within?
Edgar Allan Poe, The Tell-Tale Heart An omniscient infant narrator, able to access any conversation or scene on the planet, is born into a time of war.
Eudora Welty, A Worn Path The smoldering eye at last extinguished, a murderer finds that, despite all his
attempts at a cover-up, his victim will be heard.
Flannery O'Connor, A Good Man Is Hard to Find Wanted: The Misfit, a cold-blooded killer. An ordinary family vacation leads to horror-and one moment of redeeming grace.
WRITING EFFECTIVELY
THINKING ABOUT POINT OF VIEW
CHECKLIST: Writing About Point of View
TOPICS FOR WRITING ON POINT OF VIEW
TERMS FOR REVIEW
CHARACTER
CHARACTERIZATION
MOTIVATION
Tobias Wolff, Bullet in the Brain Anders is in line when armed robbers enter the bank, and he can't help but get involved.
Joyce Carol Oates, Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been? Alone in the house, Connie finds herself helpless before the advances of Arnold Friend, a spellbinding imitation teenager.
Toni Morrison, Recitatif Over many decades, two women's lives continue to collide, as they find that their relationship is complicated by the challenges of race, class, and circumstance.
Raymond Carver, Cathedral He never expected to find himself trying to describe a cathedral to a blind man. He hadn't even wanted to meet this odd, old friend of his wife.
WRITING EFFECTIVELY
THINKING ABOUT CHARACTER
CHECKLIST: Writing about Character
TOPICS FOR WRITING ON CHARACTER
TERMS FOR REVIEW
SETTING
ELEMENTS OF SETTING
HISTORICAL FICTION
REGIONALISM
NATURALISM
HOW SETTING CAN HARMONIZE WITH OTHER ELEMENTS OF A STORY
Kate Chopin, The Storm Even with her husband away, Calixta feels happily, securely married. Why then should she not shelter an old admirer from the rain?
Jack London, To Build a Fire Seventy-five degrees below zero. Alone except for one mistrustful wolf dog, a man finds himself battling a relentless force.
Jorge Luis Borges, The Gospel According to Mark A young man from Buenos Aires is trapped by a flood on an isolated ranch. To pass the time, he reads the Gospel to a family with unforeseen results.
Amy Tan, A Pair of Tickets A young woman flies with her father to China to meet two half-sisters she never knew existed.
WRITING EFFECTIVELY
THINKING ABOUT SETTING
CHECKLIST: Writing About Setting
TOPICS FOR WRITING ON SETTING
TERMS FOR REVIEW
TONE AND STYLE
TONE
STYLE
DICTION
Ernest Hemingway, A Clean, Well-Lighted Place All by himself each night, the old man lingers in the bright cafe. What does he need more than brandy?
William Faulkner, Barn Burning This time when Ab Snopes wields his blazing torch, his son Sarty faces a dilemma: whether to obey or defy the vengeful old man.
IRONY
O. Henry, The Gift of the Magi A young husband and wife find ingenious ways to buy each other Christmas presents, in the classic story that defines the word "irony."
Margaret Atwood, Happy Endings John and Mary meet. What happens next? This witty experimental story offers several different outcomes.
WRITING EFFECTIVELY
THINKING ABOUT TONE AND STYLE
CHECKLIST: Writing about Tone and Style
TOPICS FOR WRITING ON TONE AND STYLE
TERMS FOR REVIEW
THEME
PLOT VERSUS THEME
SUMMARIZING THE THEME
FINDING THE THEME
Tim O'Brien, The Things They Carried What each soldier carries into the combat zone is largely determined by necessity, but each man's necessities differ.
Sandra Cisneros, Barbie-Q The trouble with buying Barbie dolls is that you want all the clothes, companions, and accessories. But in this neighborhood, things suddenly change.
Luke, The Parable of the Prodigal Son A father has two sons. One demands his inheritance now and leaves to spend it with ruinous results.
Kurt Vonnegut Jr., Harrison Bergeron Are you handsome? Then off with your eyebrows! Are you brainy? Then a transmitter will sound thought-shattering beeps inside your ear.
WRITING EFFECTIVELY
THINKING ABOUT THEME
CHECKLIST: Writing About Theme
TOPICS FOR WRITING ON THEME
TERMS FOR REVIEW
SYMBOL
ALLEGORY
SYMBOLS
RECOGNIZING SYMBOLS
John Steinbeck, The Chrysanthemums Fenced-in Elisa feels emotionally starved-then her life promises to blossom with the arrival of the scissors-grinding man.
Charlotte Perkins Gilman, The Yellow Wallpaper A doctor prescribes a "rest cure" for his wife after the birth of their child. The new mother tries to settle in to life in the isolated and mysterious country house they have rented for the summer. The cure proves worse than the disease in this Gothic classic.
Ursula K. Le Guin, The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas Omelas is the perfect city. All of its inhabitants are happy. But everyone's prosperity depends on a hidden evil.
Shirley Jackson, The Lottery Splintered and faded, the sinister black box has worked its annual terror for longer than anyone in town can remember.
WRITING EFFECTIVELY
THINKING ABOUT SYMBOLS
CHECKLIST: Writing About Symbols
TOPICS FOR WRITING ON SYMBOLS
TERMS FOR REVIEW
GALLERY OF INTERNATIONAL VOICES
NIGERIA: Chinua Achebe, Dead Men's Path The new headmaster of the village school is determined to fight superstition, but the villagers do not agree.
MEXICO: Ines Arredondo, The Shunammite When Luisa visits her dying uncle, she has no idea that her life is about to change forever.
COLUMBIA: Gabriel Garcia Marquez, The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World Even in death, a mysterious stranger has a profound effect on all of the people in the village.
CHINA: Ha Jin, Saboteur When the police unfairly arrest Mr. Chiu, he hopes for justice. After witnessing their brutality, he quietly plans revenge.
ANTIGUA: Jamaica Kincaid, Girl "Try to walk like a lady, and not like the slut you are so bent on becoming." An old-fashioned mother tells her daughter how to live.
EGYPT: Naguib Mahfouz, The Lawsuit He thought he'd seen the last of his late father's second wife, but now she's back to trouble his peaceful existence.
INDIA: Bharati Mukherjee, Saints Shawn wanders around his neighborhood at night, imagining an existence other than the sad, confusing, and often frightening home life dominated by the unwelcome presence of his mom's boyfriend, Wayne.
STORIES FOR FURTHER READING
Sherman Alexie, This Is What It Means to Say Phoenix, Arizona The only one who can help Victor when his father dies is a childhood friend he's been avoiding for years.
T. Coraghessan Boyle, Greasy Lake Murky and strewn with beer cans, the lake appears to be a wasteland. One grim night on its shore, three "dangerous characters" learn a lesson.
Ray Bradbury, A Sound of Thunder In 2055, you can go on a Time Safari to hunt dinosaurs 60 million years
ago. But put one foot wrong, and suddenly the future's not what it used to be.
Kate Chopin, The Story of an Hour "There was something coming to her and she was waiting for it, fearfully. What was it? She did not know; it was too subtle and elusive to name."
Neil Gaiman, How to Talk to Girls at Parties Two teenage boys try to navigate their way through a party filled with exotic, mysterious girls.
Nathaniel Hawthorne, Young Goodman Brown Urged on through deepening woods, a young Puritan sees-or dreams he sees-good villagers hasten toward a diabolic rite.
Zora Neale Hurston, Sweat Delia's hard work paid for her small house. Now her drunken husband Sykes has promised it to another woman.
James Joyce, Araby If only he can find her a token, she might love him in return. As night falls, a Dublin boy hurries to make his dream come true.
Franz Kafka, Before the Law A man from the country comes in search of the Law. He never guesses what
will prevent him from finding it, in this modern parable.
Katherine Mansfield, Miss Brill Sundays had long brought joy to solitary Miss Brill, until one fateful day when she happens to share a bench with two lovers in the park.
Alice Walker, Everyday Use When successful Dee visits from the city, she has changed her name to reflect her African roots. Her mother and sister notice other things have changed, too.
Virginia Woolf, A Haunted House Whatever hour you wake, a door is shutting. From room to room the ghostly couple walks, hand in hand.
POETRY Talking with Kay Ryan
READING A POEM
POETRY OR VERSE
HOW TO READ A POEM
PARAPHRASE
William Butler Yeats, The Lake Isle of Innisfree
LYRIC POETRY
Robert Hayden, Those Winter Sundays
Adrienne Rich, Aunt Jennifer's Tigers
NARRATIVE POETRY
Anonymous, Sir Patrick Spence
Robert Frost, "Out, Out-"
DRAMATIC POETRY
Robert Browning, My Last Duchess
DIDACTIC POETRY
WRITING EFFECTIVELY
THINKING ABOUT PARAPHRASING
William Stafford, Ask Me
William Stafford, A Paraphrase of "Ask Me"
CHECKLIST: Writing a Paraphrase
TOPICS FOR WRITING ON PARAPHRASING
TERMS FOR REVIEW
LISTENING TO A VOICE
TONE
Theodore Roethke, My Papa's Waltz
Stephen Crane, The Wayfarer
Rhina Espaillat, Bilingual / Bilinguee
Franz Wright, Alcohol
Weldon Kees, For My Daughter
THE SPEAKER IN THE POEM
Natasha Trethewey, White Lies
Edwin Arlington Robinson, Luke Havergal
Anonymous, Dog Haiku
Langston Hughes, Theme for English B
Karen An-hwei Lee, Rainfall
William Carlos Williams, The Red Wheelbarrow
IRONY
Robert Creeley, Oh No
W. H. Auden, The Unknown Citizen
Sharon Olds, Rite of Passage
Edna St. Vincent Millay, Second Fig
Thomas Hardy, The Workbox
FOR REVIEW AND FURTHER STUDY
William Blake, The Chimney Sweeper
Richard Lovelace, To Lucasta
Wilfred Owen, Dulce et Decorum Est
WRITING EFFECTIVELY
THINKING ABOUT TONE
CHECKLIST: Writing About Tone
TOPICS FOR WRITING ON TONE
TERMS FOR REVIEW
WORDS
LITERAL MEANING: WHAT A POEM SAYS FIRST
William Carlos Williams, This Is Just to Say
DICTION
John Masefield, Cargoes
John Donne, Batter my heart, three-personed God, for You
THE VALUE OF A DICTIONARY
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Aftermath
J. V. Cunningham, Friend, on this scaffold Thomas More lies dead
Samuel Menashe, Bread
Carl Sandburg, Grass
WORD CHOICE AND WORD ORDER
Robert Herrick, Upon Julia's Clothes
Kay Ryan, Blandeur
Thomas Hardy, The Ruined Maid
Julie Larios, What Bee Did
FOR REVIEW AND FURTHER STUDY
E. E. Cummings, anyone lived in a pretty how town
Sarah Cortez, Adam
Anonymous, Carnation Milk
Gina Valdes, English con Salsa
William Wordsworth, My heart leaps up when I behold
William Wordsworth, Mutability
Lewis Carroll, Jabberwocky
WRITING EFFECTIVELY
THINKING ABOUT DICTION
CHECKLIST: Writing About Diction
TOPICS FOR WRITING ON WORD CHOICE
TERMS FOR REVIEW
SAYING AND SUGGESTING
DENOTATION AND CONNOTATION
William Blake, London
Wallace Stevens, Disillusionment of Ten O'Clock
Robert Frost, Fire and Ice
Timothy Steele, Epitaph
Hieu Minh Nguyen, Arranged
H.D., Sea Rose
Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Tears, Idle Tears
Richard Wilbur, Love Calls Us to the Things of This World
WRITING EFFECTIVELY
THINKING ABOUT DENOTATION AND CONNOTATION
CHECKLIST: Writing About What A Poem Says And Suggests
TOPICS FOR WRITING ON DENOTATION AND CONNOTATION
TERMS FOR REVIEW
IMAGERY
Ezra Pound, In a Station of the Metro
Taniguchi Buson, The piercing chill I feel
IMAGERY
T. S. Eliot, The winter evening settles down
Theodore Roethke, Root Cellar
Elizabeth Bishop, The Fish
Emily Dickinson, A Route of Evanescence
Jean Toomer, Reapers
Gerard Manley Hopkins, Pied Beauty
ABOUT HAIKU
Arakida Moritake, The falling flower
Matsuo Basho, Heat-lightning streak
Matsuo Basho, In the old stone pool
Taniguchi Buson, On the one-ton temple bell
Taniguchi Buson, Moonrise on mudflats
Kobayashi Issa, only one guy
Kobayashi Issa, Cricket
HAIKU FROM JAPANESE INTERNMENT CAMPS
Suiko Matsushita, Cosmos in bloom
Hakuro Wada, Even the croaking of frogs
CONTEMPORARY HAIKU
Nick Virgilio, The Old Neighborhood
Adelle Foley, Learning to Shave
FOR REVIEW AND FURTHER STUDY
John Keats, Bright star, would I were steadfast as thou art
William Carlos Williams, El Hombre
Gary Snyder, Mid-August at Sourdough Mountain Lookout
Angela Alaimo O'Donnell, Tattoo
Stevie Smith, Not Waving but Drowning
Robert Bly, Driving to Town Late to Mail a Letter
WRITING EFFECTIVELY
THINKING ABOUT IMAGERY
CHECKLIST: Writing About Imagery
TOPICS FOR WRITING ON IMAGERY
TERMS FOR REVIEW
FIGURES OF SPEECH
WHY SPEAK FIGURATIVELY?
Alfred, Lord Tennyson, The Eagle
William Shakespeare, Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
Howard Moss, Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer's Day?
METAPHOR AND SIMILE
Emily Dickinson, My Life had stood - a Loaded Gun
Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Flower in the Crannied Wall
William Blake, To see a world in a grain of sand
Sylvia Plath, Metaphors
N. Scott Momaday, Simile
Jill Alexander Essbaum, The Heart
Cody Walker, I'm Like
OTHER FIGURES OF SPEECH
James Stephens, The Wind
Robinson Jeffers, Hands
Dana Gioia, Money
Carl Sandburg, Fog
WRITING EFFECTIVELY
THINKING ABOUT METAPHORS
CHECKLIST: Writing About Metaphors
TOPICS FOR WRITING ON FIGURES OF SPEECH
TERMS FOR REVIEW
SOUND
SOUND AS MEANING
William Butler Yeats, Who Goes with Fergus?
Edgar Allan Poe, from Ulalume
William Wordsworth, A Slumber Did My Spirit Seal
ALLITERATION AND ASSONANCE
Frances Cornford, The Watch
Alfred, Lord Tennyson, The splendor falls on castle walls
RIME
Hilaire Belloc, The Hippopotamus
Bob Kaufman, No More Jazz at Alcatraz
David Barber, Aria
Gerard Manley Hopkins, God's Grandeur
HOW TO READ A POEM ALOUD
Gerald Manley Hopkins, Spring and Fall
Michael Stillman, In Memoriam John Coltrane
WRITING EFFECTIVELY
THINKING ABOUT A POEM'S SOUND
CHECKLIST: Writing About a Poem's Sound
TOPICS FOR WRITING ON SOUND
TERMS FOR REVIEW
RHYTHM
STRESSES AND PAUSES
STRESS AND MEANING
LINE ENDINGS
Gwendolyn Brooks, We Real Cool
Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Break, Break, Break
Dorothy Parker, Resume
METER
Edith Sitwell, Mariner Man
A. E. Housman, When I was one-and-twenty
Edgar Allan Poe, Annabel Lee
Walt Whitman, Beat! Beat! Drums!
WRITING EFFECTIVELY
THINKING ABOUT RHYTHM
CHECKLIST: Scanning a Poem
TOPICS FOR WRITING ON RHYTHM
TERMS FOR REVIEW
CLOSED FORM
THE VALUE OF FORM
FORMAL PATTERNS
Ernest Dowson, Days of wine and roses
John Donne, Song ("Go and catch a falling star")
BALLADS
Anonymous, Bonny Barbara Allan
Dudley Randall, Ballad of Birmingham
THE SONNET
William Shakespeare, Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Edna St. Vincent Millay, What lips my lips have kissed, and where, and why
Robert Frost, Acquainted with the Night
Kim Addonizio, First Poem for You
R.S. Gwynn, Shakespearean Sonnet
Sherman Alexie, The Facebook Sonnet
THE EPIGRAM