Literature
An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, Drama, and Writing, Compact Edition, MLA Update Edition
8th Edition
Published on 28. April 2017
Book
Paperback/Softback
1552 pages
978-0-13-458645-8 (ISBN)
Description
Key Benefit: This compact version of Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, Drama, and Writing has been updated to reflect the 8th Edition of the MLA Handbook (April 2016)*
A streamlined version of Kennedy/Gioia's acclaimed literary anthology, Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, Drama, and Writing, Compact, 8th Edition is a book to lead readers beyond the boundaries of self to see the world through the eyes of others. Built on the assumption that great literature can enrich and enlarge the lives it touches, this text was developed with two primary goals: to introduce individuals to the appreciation and experience of literature in its major forms and to develop individuals' abilities to think critically and communicate effectively about and through writing.
* The 8th Edition introduces sweeping changes to the philosophy and details of MLA works cited entries. Responding to the "increasing mobility of texts," MLA now encourages writers to focus on the process of crafting the citation, beginning with the same questions for any source. These changes, then, align with current best practices in the teaching of writing which privilege inquiry and critical thinking over rote recall and rule-following.
Key Topics: Reading a Story; Point of View; Character; Setting; Tone and Style; Theme; Symbol; Reading Long Stories and Novels; Genre Fiction; Critical Casebook: Two Stories in Depth; Reading a Poem; Listening to a Voice; Words; Saying and Suggesting; Imagery; Figures of Speech; Song; Sound; Rhythm; Closed Form; Open Form; Symbol; Myth and Narrative; Poetry and Personal Identity; Poetry in Spanish: Literature of Latin America; Recognizing Excellence; What is Poetry?; Three Critical Casebooks: Emily Dickinson, Langston Hughes, and Robert Frost; Critical Casebook: T.S. Eliot's "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock"; Poems for Further Reading; Reading a Play; Tragedy and Comedy; Critical Casebook: Sophocles; Critical Casebook: Shakespeare; The Modern Theater; Evaluating a Play; Plays for Further Reading; Writing About Literature; Writing About a Story; Writing About a Poem; Writing About a Play; Writing a Research Paper; Writing an Essay Exam; Critical Approaches to Literature; Major Themes; First Lines of Poetry; Authors and Titles; Literary Terms
Market: For anyone wishing to expand his/her knowledge of literature and improve his/her writing skills.
A streamlined version of Kennedy/Gioia's acclaimed literary anthology, Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, Drama, and Writing, Compact, 8th Edition is a book to lead readers beyond the boundaries of self to see the world through the eyes of others. Built on the assumption that great literature can enrich and enlarge the lives it touches, this text was developed with two primary goals: to introduce individuals to the appreciation and experience of literature in its major forms and to develop individuals' abilities to think critically and communicate effectively about and through writing.
* The 8th Edition introduces sweeping changes to the philosophy and details of MLA works cited entries. Responding to the "increasing mobility of texts," MLA now encourages writers to focus on the process of crafting the citation, beginning with the same questions for any source. These changes, then, align with current best practices in the teaching of writing which privilege inquiry and critical thinking over rote recall and rule-following.
Key Topics: Reading a Story; Point of View; Character; Setting; Tone and Style; Theme; Symbol; Reading Long Stories and Novels; Genre Fiction; Critical Casebook: Two Stories in Depth; Reading a Poem; Listening to a Voice; Words; Saying and Suggesting; Imagery; Figures of Speech; Song; Sound; Rhythm; Closed Form; Open Form; Symbol; Myth and Narrative; Poetry and Personal Identity; Poetry in Spanish: Literature of Latin America; Recognizing Excellence; What is Poetry?; Three Critical Casebooks: Emily Dickinson, Langston Hughes, and Robert Frost; Critical Casebook: T.S. Eliot's "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock"; Poems for Further Reading; Reading a Play; Tragedy and Comedy; Critical Casebook: Sophocles; Critical Casebook: Shakespeare; The Modern Theater; Evaluating a Play; Plays for Further Reading; Writing About Literature; Writing About a Story; Writing About a Poem; Writing About a Play; Writing a Research Paper; Writing an Essay Exam; Critical Approaches to Literature; Major Themes; First Lines of Poetry; Authors and Titles; Literary Terms
Market: For anyone wishing to expand his/her knowledge of literature and improve his/her writing skills.
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X. J. Kennedy | Dana Gioia
Literature
An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, Drama, and Writing, Compact Edition
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01/2015
8th Edition
Pearson
€85.41
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NOTE: Both Brief and Comprehensive Tables of Contents are listed below.
BRIEF CONTENTS
FICTION
1. Reading a Story
2. Point of View
3. Character
4. Setting
5. Tone and Style
6. Theme
7. Symbol
8. Reading Long Stories and Novels
9. Genre Fiction
10. Critical Casebook: Two Stories in Depth
POETRY
Talking with Kay Ryan.
12. Reading a Poem
13. Listening to a Voice
14. Words
15. Saying and Suggesting
16. Imagery
17. Figures of Speech
18. Song
19. Sound
20. Rhythm
21. Closed Form
22. Open Form
23. Symbol
24. Myth and Narrative
25. Poetry and Personal Identity
26. Poetry in Spanish: Literature of Latin America
27. Recognizing Excellence
28. What is Poetry?
29. Three Critical Casebooks: Emily Dickinson, Langston Hughes, and Robert Frost
30. Critical Casebook: T.S. Eliot's "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock"
31. Poems for Further Reading
DRAMA
Talking with David Ives
32. Reading a Play
33. Tragedy and Comedy
34. Critical Casebook: Sophocles
35. Critical Casebook: Shakespeare
36. The Modern Theater
37. Evaluating a Play
38. Plays for Further Reading
WRITING
39. Writing About Literature
40. Writing About a Story
41. Writing About a Poem
42. Writing About a Play
43. Writing a Research Paper
44. Writing an Essay Exam
45. Critical Approaches to Literature
Glossary of Literary Terms
Literary Credits
Photo Credits
Index of Major Themes
Index of First Lines of Poetry
Index of Authors and Titles
Index of Literary Terms
COMPREHENSIVE CONTENTS
FICTION
1 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 North Wind and the Sun
The North Wind and the Sun argue who is stronger and decide to try their powers on an unsuspecting traveler.
Bidpai, The Tortoise and the Geese
A fable that gives another dimension to Andrew Lang's quip, "He missed an invaluable opportunity to hold his tongue."
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
Wilhelm Grimm on Writing, On the Nature of Fairy Tales
THINKING ABOUT PLOT
CHECKLIST: Writing About Plot
TOPICS FOR WRITING on plot
TERMS FOR REVIEW
2 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 defied the town from the fortress of her mansion. Who could have guessed the secret that lay within?
Edgar Allan Poe, The Tell-Tale Heart
The smoldering eye at last extinguished, a murderer finds that, despite all his attempts at a cover-up, his victim will be heard.
Eudora Welty, Why I Live at the P.O.
Since no one appreciates Sister, she decides to live at the Post Office. After meeting her family, you won't blame her.
James Baldwin, Sonny's Blues
Two brothers in Harlem see life differently. The older brother is the sensible family man, but Sonny wants to be a jazz musician.
WRITING EFFECTIVELY
James Baldwin on Writing, Race and the African American Writer
THINKING ABOUT POINT OF VIEW
CHECKLIST: Writing About Point of View
topics for writing ON POINT OF VIEW
TERMS FOR REVIEW
3 CHARACTER
CHARACTERization
Motivation
Katherine Anne Porter, The Jilting of Granny Weatherall
For sixty years Ellen Weatherall has fought back the memory of that terrible day, but now once more the priest waits in the house.
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.
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.
Raymond Carver, Cathedral
He had 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
Raymond Carver on Writing, Commonplace but Precise Language
THINKING ABOUT CHARACTER
CHECKLIST: Writing About Character
topics for writing ON CHARACTER
TERMS FOR REVIEW
4 SETTING
ELEMENTS OF SETTING
HISTORICAL FICTION
REGIONALISM
NATURALISM
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
Amy Tan on Writing, Developing a Setting
THINKING ABOUT SETTING
CHECKLIST: Writing About Setting
TOPICS FOR WRITING ON SETTING
TERMS FOR REVIEW
5 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."
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."
WRITING EFFECTIVELY
Ernest Hemingway on Writing, The Direct Style
THINKING ABOUT TONE AND STYLE
CHECKLIST: Writing About Tone and Style
TOPICS FOR WRITING ON TONE AND STYLE
TERMS FOR REVIEW
6 THEME
PLOT VERSUS THEME
summarizing the THEME
FINDING THE THEME
Chinua Achebe, Dead Men's Path
The new headmaster of the village school was determined to fight superstition, but the villagers did not agree.
Sandra Cisneros, The House on Mango Street
Does where we live tell what we are? A little girl dreams of a new house, but things don't always turn out the way we want them to.
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? Off with your eyebrows! Are you brainy? Let a transmitter sound thought-shattering beeps inside your ear.
WRITING EFFECTIVELY
Kurt Vonnegut Jr. on Writing, The Themes of Science Fiction
THINKING ABOUT THEME
CHECKLIST: Writing About Theme
TOPICS FOR WRITING ON THEME
TERMS FOR REVIEW
7 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.
Tobias Wolff, Bullet in the Brain
Anders is in line when armed robbers enter the bank, and he can't help but get involved.
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 had worked its annual terror for longer than anyone in town could remember.
WRITING EFFECTIVELY
Shirley Jackson on Writing, Biography of a Story
THINKING ABOUT SYMBOLS
CHECKLIST: Writing About Symbols
Sample Student Paper on Symbols, An Analysis of the Symbolism in Steinbeck's "The Chrysanthemums"
TOPICS FOR WRITING ON SYMBOLS
TERMS FOR REVIEW
8 READING LONG STORIES AND NOVELS
ORIGINS OF THE NOVEL
NOVELISTIC METHODS
READING NOVELS
Franz Kafka, The Metamorphosis
"When Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from troubled dreams, he found himself transformed in his bed into a monstrous insect." Kafka's famous opening sentence introduces one of the most chilling stories in world literature.
WRITING EFFECTIVELY
Franz Kafka on Writing, Discussing The Metamorphosis
THINKING ABOUT LONG STORIES AND NOVELS
CHECKLIST: Writing About Long Stories and Novels
TOPICS FOR WRITING on long stories and novels
TERMS FOR REVIEW
9 GENRE FICTION
ROMANCE VERSUS REALISM
WHAT IS GENRE?
TYPES OF GENRE FICTION
GENRE AND POPULAR CULTURE
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.
Ursula K. Le Guin, The Wife's Story
Another full moon, and another terrible transformation-a surprising reversal of a familiar story.
H. P. Lovecraft, The Outsider
He had been locked in a gothic castle for his entire life, until the day he escaped, but what he discovered outside sent him running back to his dark captivity.
Dashiell Hammett, One Hour
Someone killed a man named Newhouse in broad daylight on a San Francisco street. Our detective is on the case.
WRITING EFFECTIVELY
Ray Bradbury on Writing, Falling in Love at the Library
TOPICS FOR WRITING
TERMS FOR REVIEW
10 CRITICAL CASEBOOK Two Stories in Depth
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.
CHARLOTTE PERKINS GILMAN ON WRITING
Why I Wrote "The Yellow Wallpaper"
Whatever Is
The Nervous Breakdown of Women
CRITICS ON "THE YELLOW WALLPAPER"
Juliann Fleenor, Gender and Pathology in "The Yellow Wallpaper"
Sandra M. Gilbert and Susan Gubar, Imprisonment and Escape: The Psychology of Confinement
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.
ALICE WALKER ON WRITING
Reflections on Writing and Women's Lives
CRITICS ON "EVERYDAY USE"
Barbara T. Christian, "Everyday Use" and the Black Power Movement
Mary Helen Washington, "Everyday Use" as a Portrait of the Artist
Houston A. Baker and Charlotte Pierce-Baker, Stylish vs. Sacred in "Everyday Use"
WRITING EFFECTIVELY
TOPICS FOR WRITING
11 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.
Margaret Atwood, Happy Endings
John and Mary meet. What happens next? This witty experimental story offers five different outcomes.
Ambrose Bierce, An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge
At last, Peyton Farquhar's neck is in the noose. Reality mingles with dream in this classic story of the American Civil War.
T. Coraghessan Boyle, Greasy Lake
Murky and strewn with beer cans, the lake appears a wasteland. On its shore three "dangerous characters" learn a lesson one grim night.
Willa Cather, Paul's Case
Paul's teachers can't understand the boy. Then one day, with stolen cash, he boards a train for New York and the life of his dreams.
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.
Ha Jin, Saboteur
When the police unfairly arrest Mr. Chiu, he hopes for justice. After witnessing their brutality, he quietly plans revenge.
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.
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.
Katherine Mansfield, Miss Brill
Sundays had long brought joy to solitary Miss Brill, until one fateful day when she happened to share a bench with two lovers in the park.
Guy de Maupassant, The Necklace
A woman enjoys one night of luxury-and then spends years of her life paying for it.
Tim O'Brien, The Things They Carried
What each soldier carried into the combat zone was largely determined by necessity, but each man's necessities differed.
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.
Juan Rulfo, Tell Them Not to Kill Me!
A violent episode from decades past catches up with an old man. Will he be saved from the firing squad?
Virginia Woolf, A Haunted House
Whatever hour you woke, a door was shutting. From room to room the ghostly couple walked, hand in hand.
POETRY
Talking with Kay Ryan
12 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
Adrienne Rich on Writing, Recalling "Aunt Jennifer's Tigers"
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
13 LISTENING TO A VOICE
TONE
Theodore Roethke, My Papa's Waltz
Stephen Crane, The Wayfarer
Anne Bradstreet, The Author to Her Book
Walt Whitman, To a Locomotive in Winter
Emily Dickinson, I like to see it lap the Miles
Gwendolyn Brooks, Speech to the Young. Speech to the Progress-Toward
Weldon Kees, For My Daughter
THE SPEAKER IN THE POEM
Natasha Trethewey, White Lies
Edwin Arlington Robinson, Luke Havergal
Anonymous, Dog Haiku
William Wordsworth, I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud
Dorothy Wordsworth, Journal Entry
Charlotte Mew, The Farmer's Bride
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
Amy Uyematsu, Deliberate
Richard Lovelace, To Lucasta
Wilfred Owen, Dulce et Decorum Est
WRITING EFFECTIVELY
Wilfred Owen on Writing, War Poetry
THINKING ABOUT TONE
CHECKLIST: Writing About Tone
TOPICS FOR WRITING ON TONE
Sample Student Paper, Word Choice, Tone, and Point of View in Roethke's "My Papa's Waltz"
TERMS FOR REVIEW
14 WORDS
LITERAL MEANING: WHAT A POEM SAYS FIRST
William Carlos Williams, This Is Just to Say
DICTION
John Masefield, Cargoes
Robert Graves, Down, Wanton, Down!
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
Wendy Cope, Lonely Hearts
FOR REVIEW AND FURTHER STUDY
E. E. Cummings, anyone lived in a pretty how town
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
Lewis Carroll, Humpty Dumpty Explicates "Jabberwocky"
THINKING ABOUT DICTION
CHECKLIST: Writing About Diction
TOPICS FOR WRITING ON WORD CHOICE
TERMS FOR REVIEW
15 SAYING AND SUGGESTING
DENOTATION AND CONNOTATION
William Blake, London
Wallace Stevens, Disillusionment of Ten O'Clock
E. E. Cummings, next to of course god america i
Timothy Steele, Epitaph
Diane Thiel, The Minefield
H.D., Sea Rose
Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Tears, Idle Tears
Richard Wilbur, Love Calls Us to the Things of This World
WRITING EFFECTIVELY
Richard Wilbur on Writing, Concerning "Love Calls Us to the Things of This World"
THINKING ABOUT DENOTATION AND CONNOTATION
CHECKLIST: Writing About What a Poem Says and Suggests
TOPICS FOR WRITING ON DENOTATION AND CONNOTATION
TERMS FOR REVIEW
16 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, Rain shower from mountain
Suiko Matsushita, Cosmos in bloom
Hakuro Wada, Even the croaking of frogs
Neiji Ozawa, The war-this year
CONTEMPORARY HAIKU
Nick Virgilio, The Old Neighborhood
Lee Gurga, Visitor's Room
Adelle Foley, Learning to Shave
Jennifer Brutschy, Born Again
FOR REVIEW AND FURTHER STUDY
John Keats, Bright star! would I were steadfast as thou art
Walt Whitman, The Runner
H.D., Heat
William Carlos Williams, El Hombre
Li Po, Drinking Alone by Moonlight
Robert Bly, Driving to Town Late to Mail a Letter
Stevie Smith, Not Waving but Drowning
WRITING EFFECTIVELY
Ezra Pound on Writing, The Image
THINKING ABOUT IMAGERY
CHECKLIST: Writing About Imagery
TOPICS FOR WRITING ON IMAGERY
Sample Student Paper, Faded Beauty: Elizabeth Bishop's Use of Imagery in "The Fish"
TERMS FOR REVIEW
17 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
Craig Raine, A Martian Sends a Postcard Home
OTHER FIGURES OF SPEECH
James Stephens, The Wind
Robinson Jeffers, Hands
Margaret Atwood, You fit into me
Timothy Steele, Epitaph
Dana Gioia, Money
Carl Sandburg, Fog
FOR REVIEW AND FURTHER STUDY
Jane Kenyon, The Suitor
Robert Frost, The Secret Sits
Kay Ryan, Turtle
Emily Bronte, Love and Friendship
WRITING EFFECTIVELY
Robert Frost on Writing, The Importance of Poetic Metaphor
THINKING ABOUT METAPHORS
CHECKLIST: Writing About Metaphors
TOPICS FOR WRITING ON FIGURES OF SPEECH
TERMS FOR REVIEW
18 SONG
SINGING AND SAYING
Ben Jonson, To Celia
William Shakespeare, Fear no more the heat o' the sun
Edwin Arlington Robinson, Richard Cory
Paul Simon, Richard Cory
BALLADS
Anonymous, Bonny Barbara Allan
Dudley Randall, Ballad of Birmingham
BLUES
Bessie Smith with Clarence Williams, Jailhouse Blues
W. H. Auden, Funeral Blues
RAP
FOR REVIEW AND FURTHER STUDY
Neko Case, This Tornado Loves You
Bob Dylan, The Times They Are a-Changin'
WRITING EFFECTIVELY
Bob Dylan on Writing, Rhythm, Rime, and Songwriting from the Outside
THINKING ABOUT POETRY AND SONG
CHECKLIST: Writing About Song Lyrics
TOPICS FOR WRITING ON SONG LYRICS
TERMS FOR REVIEW
19 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
James Joyce, All day I hear
Alfred, Lord Tennyson, The splendor falls on castle walls
RIME
William Cole, On my boat on Lake Cayuga
Hilaire Belloc, The Hippopotamus
Bob Kaufman, No More Jazz at Alcatraz
William Butler Yeats, Leda and the Swan
Gerard Manley Hopkins, God's Grandeur
How to read a POEM ALOUD
Michael Stillman, In Memoriam John Coltrane
T. S. Eliot, Virginia
WRITING EFFECTIVELY
T. S. Eliot on Writing, The Music of Poetry
THINKING ABOUT A POEM'S SOUND
CHECKLIST: Writing About a Poem's Sound
TOPICS FOR WRITING ON SOUND
TERMS FOR REVIEW
20 RHYTHM
STRESSES AND PAUSES
STRESS AND Meaning
line endings
Gwendolyn Brooks, We Real Cool
Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Break, Break, Break
George Gordon, Lord Byron, So We'll Go No More a-Roving
Dorothy Parker, Resume
METER
Edna St. Vincent Millay, Counting-out Rhyme
A. E. Housman, When I was one-and-twenty
William Carlos Williams, Smell!
Walt Whitman, Beat! Beat! Drums!
WRITING EFFECTIVELY
Gwendolyn Brooks on Writing, Hearing "We Real Cool"
THINKING ABOUT RHYTHM
CHECKLIST: Scanning a Poem
TOPICS FOR WRITING ON RHYTHM
TERMS FOR REVIEW
21 CLOSED FORM
the value of form
FORMAL PATTERNS
Ernest Dowson, "Days of Wine and Roses"
John Donne, Song ("Go and catch a falling star")
Thomas M. Disch, Zewhyexary
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
A. E. Stallings, Aftershocks
R. S. Gwynn, Shakespearean Sonnet
Sherman Alexie, The Facebook Sonnet
THE EPIGRAM
Sir John Harrington, Of Treason
Langston Hughes, Two Somewhat Different Epigrams
Hilaire Belloc, Fatigue
Wendy Cope, Variation on Belloc's "Fatigue"
Anonymous, Epitaph on a Dentist
OTHER FORMS
Dylan Thomas, Do not go gentle into that good night
Robert Bridges, Triolet
Paul Laurence Dunbar, We Wear the Mask
Elizabeth Bishop, Sestina
WRITING EFFECTIVELY
A. E. Stallings on Writing, On Form and Artifice
THINKING ABOUT A SONNET
CHECKLIST: Writing About a Sonnet
TOPICS FOR WRITING ON closed form
TERMS FOR REVIEW
22 OPEN FORM
Denise Levertov, Ancient Stairway
FREE VERSE
E. E. Cummings, Buffalo Bill 's
W. S. Merwin, For the Anniversary of My Death
William Carlos Williams, The Dance
Stephen Crane, The Heart
Walt Whitman, Cavalry Crossing a Ford
Ezra Pound, Salutation
Wallace Stevens, Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird
PROSE POETRY
Charles Simic, The Magic Study of Happiness
VISUAL POETRY
George Herbert, Easter Wings
FOR REVIEW AND FURTHER STUDY
E. E. Cummings, in Just-
Francisco X. Alarcon, Frontera / Border
Carole Satyamurti, I Shall Paint My Nails Red
WRITING EFFECTIVELY
Walt Whitman on Writing, The Poetry of the Future
THINKING ABOUT FREE VERSE
CHECKLIST: Writing About Line Breaks
TOPICS FOR WRITING ON OPEN FORM
TERMS FOR REVIEW
23 SYMBOL
THE MEANINGS OF A SYMBOL
T. S. Eliot, The Boston Evening Transcript
Emily Dickinson, The Lightning is a yellow Fork
IDENTIFYING SYMBOLS
Thomas Hardy, Neutral Tones
ALLEGORY
Matthew, The Parable of the Good Seed
George Herbert, Redemption
Antonio Machado, Proverbios y Cantares (IX)
Translated by Dana Gioia, Traveler
Christina Rossetti, Up-Hill
FOR REVIEW AND FURTHER STUDY
William Carlos Williams, The Young Housewife
Ted Kooser, Carrie
Mary Oliver, Wild Geese
William Blake, The Tyger
Tami Haaland, Lipstick
Lorine Niedecker, Popcorn-can cover
Wallace Stevens, The Snow Man
Wallace Stevens, Anecdote of the Jar
WRITING EFFECTIVELY
William Butler Yeats on Writing, Poetic Symbols
THINKING ABOUT SYMBOLS
CHECKLIST: Writing About Symbols
TOPICS FOR WRITING ON SYMBOLISM
TERMS FOR REVIEW
24 MYTH AND NARRATIVE
The subjects and uses OF MYTH
origins OF MYTH
Robert Frost, Nothing Gold Can Stay
William Wordsworth, The world is too much with us
H. D., Helen
ARCHETYPE
Louise Bogan, Medusa
John Keats, La Belle Dame sans Merci
PERSONAL MYTH
William Butler Yeats, The Second Coming
Diane Thiel, Memento Mori in Middle School
MYTH AND POPULAR CULTURE
for review and further study
A. E. Stallings, First Love: A Quiz
Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Ulysses
Anne Sexton, Cinderella
WRITING EFFECTIVELY
Diane Thiel on Writing, The Map of Myth
THINKING ABOUT MYTH
CHECKLIST: Writing About Myth
TOPICS FOR WRITING ON MYTH
Sample Student Paper, The Bonds Between Love and Hatred in H.D.'s "Helen"
TERMS FOR REVIEW
25 POETRY AND PERSONAL IDENTITY
CONFESSIONAL POETRY
Sylvia Plath, Lady Lazarus
IDENTITY POETICS
Rhina Espaillat, Bilingual/Bilinguee
CULTURE, RACE, AND ETHNICITY
Claude McKay, America
Shirley Geok-lin Lim, Riding into California
Judith Ortiz Cofer, Quinceanera
Sherman Alexie, The Powwow at the End of the World
Yusef Komunyakaa, Facing It
GENDER
Anne Stevenson, The Victory
Rafael Campo, For J. W.
James Wright, Autumn Begins in Martins Ferry, Ohio
Adrienne Rich, Women
FOR REVIEW AND FURTHER STUDY
Philip Larkin, Aubade
WRITING EFFECTIVELY
Rhina Espaillat on Writing, Being a Bilingual Writer
THINKING ABOUT POETIC VOICE AND IDENTITY
CHECKLIST: Writing About Voice and Personal Identity
TOPICS FOR WRITING ON PERSONAL IDENTITY
terms for review
26 POETRY IN SPANISH: LITERATURE OF LATIN AMERICA
Sor Juana, Presente en que el Carino Hace Regalo la Llaneza
Translated by Diane Thiel, A Simple Gift Made Rich by Affection
Pablo Neruda, Muchos Somos
Translated by Alastair Reid, We Are Many
Jorge Luis Borges, On his blindness
Translated by Robert Mezey, On His Blindness
Octavio Paz, Con los ojos cerrados
Translated by Eliot Weinberger, With eyes closed
SURREALISM IN LATIN AMERICAN POETRY
Frida Kahlo, The Two Fridas
Cesar Vallejo, La colera que quiebra al hombre en ninos
Translated by Thomas Merton, Anger
CONTEMPORARY MEXICAN POETRY
Jose Emilio Pacheco, Alta Traicion
Translated by Alastair Reid, High Treason
Elva Macias, Comi los frutos elegidos
Translated by Kimberly Gooden, I Ate the Fruits Chosen by the Wind
WRITING EFFECTIVELY
Alastair Reid on Writing, Translating Neruda
TOPICS FOR WRITING ON SPANISH POETRY
27 RECOGNIZING EXCELLENCE
Anonymous, O Moon, when I gaze on thy beautiful face
Emily Dickinson, A Dying Tiger - moaned for Drink
SENTIMENTALITY
Rod McKuen, Thoughts on Capital Punishment
William Stafford, Traveling Through the Dark
RECOGNIZING EXCELLENCE
William Butler Yeats, Sailing to Byzantium
Arthur Guiterman, On the Vanity of Earthly Greatness
Percy Bysshe Shelley, Ozymandias
Robert Hayden, The Whipping
Elizabeth Bishop, One Art
Langston Hughes, I, Too
John Keats, Ode to a Nightingale
Walt Whitman, O Captain! My Captain!
Emma Lazarus, The New Colossus
Edgar Allan Poe, Annabel Lee
WRITING EFFECTIVELY
Edgar Allan Poe on Writing, A Long Poem Does Not Exist
THINKING ABOUT EVALUATING A POEM
CHECKLIST: Writing an Evaluation
TOPICS FOR WRITING ON EVALUATING A POEM
TERMS FOR REVIEW
28 WHAT IS POETRY?
some definitions of poetry
Dante, Samuel Johnson, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, William Wordsworth, Emily Dickinson, Gerard Manley Hopkins, Robert Frost, Mina Loy, T. S. Eliot, W. H. Auden, Jose Garcia Villa, Elizabeth Bishop, Joy Harjo, Octavio Paz, Denise Levertov, Lucille Clifton, Charles Simic, -
29 Three CRITICAL CASEBOOKS Emily Dickinson, Langston Hughes, and Robert Frost
EMILY DICKINSON
Success is counted sweetest
Wild Nights - Wild Nights!
I felt a Funeral, in my Brain
I'm Nobody! Who are you?
The Soul selects her own Society
Much Madness is divinest Sense
I heard a Fly buzz - when I died
I started Early - Took my Dog
Because I could not stop for Death
Tell all the Truth but tell it slant
EMILY DICKINSON ON WRITING
Recognizing Poetry
Self-Description
CRITICS ON EMILY DICKINSON
Thomas H. Johnson, The Discovery of Emily Dickinson's Manuscripts
Richard Wilbur, The Three Privations of Emily Dickinson
Cynthia Griffin Wolff, Dickinson and Death (A Reading of "Because I could not stop for Death")
Judith Farr, A Reading of "My Life had stood - a Loaded Gun"
LANGSTON HUGHES
The Negro Speaks of Rivers
The Negro
My People
Mother to Son
Song for a Dark Girl
Prayer
Luck
Theme for English B
Harlem [Dream Deferred]
Homecoming
LANGSTON HUGHES ON WRITING
NOTE: Both Brief and Comprehensive Tables of Contents are listed below.
BRIEF CONTENTS
FICTION
1. Reading a Story
2. Point of View
3. Character
4. Setting
5. Tone and Style
6. Theme
7. Symbol
8. Reading Long Stories and Novels
9. Genre Fiction
10. Critical Casebook: Two Stories in Depth
POETRY
Talking with Kay Ryan.
12. Reading a Poem
13. Listening to a Voice
14. Words
15. Saying and Suggesting
16. Imagery
17. Figures of Speech
18. Song
19. Sound
20. Rhythm
21. Closed Form
22. Open Form
23. Symbol
24. Myth and Narrative
25. Poetry and Personal Identity
26. Poetry in Spanish: Literature of Latin America
27. Recognizing Excellence
28. What is Poetry?
29. Three Critical Casebooks: Emily Dickinson, Langston Hughes, and Robert Frost
30. Critical Casebook: T.S. Eliot's "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock"
31. Poems for Further Reading
DRAMA
Talking with David Ives
32. Reading a Play
33. Tragedy and Comedy
34. Critical Casebook: Sophocles
35. Critical Casebook: Shakespeare
36. The Modern Theater
37. Evaluating a Play
38. Plays for Further Reading
WRITING
39. Writing About Literature
40. Writing About a Story
41. Writing About a Poem
42. Writing About a Play
43. Writing a Research Paper
44. Writing an Essay Exam
45. Critical Approaches to Literature
Glossary of Literary Terms
Literary Credits
Photo Credits
Index of Major Themes
Index of First Lines of Poetry
Index of Authors and Titles
Index of Literary Terms
COMPREHENSIVE CONTENTS
FICTION
1 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 North Wind and the Sun
The North Wind and the Sun argue who is stronger and decide to try their powers on an unsuspecting traveler.
Bidpai, The Tortoise and the Geese
A fable that gives another dimension to Andrew Lang's quip, "He missed an invaluable opportunity to hold his tongue."
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
Wilhelm Grimm on Writing, On the Nature of Fairy Tales
THINKING ABOUT PLOT
CHECKLIST: Writing About Plot
TOPICS FOR WRITING on plot
TERMS FOR REVIEW
2 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 defied the town from the fortress of her mansion. Who could have guessed the secret that lay within?
Edgar Allan Poe, The Tell-Tale Heart
The smoldering eye at last extinguished, a murderer finds that, despite all his attempts at a cover-up, his victim will be heard.
Eudora Welty, Why I Live at the P.O.
Since no one appreciates Sister, she decides to live at the Post Office. After meeting her family, you won't blame her.
James Baldwin, Sonny's Blues
Two brothers in Harlem see life differently. The older brother is the sensible family man, but Sonny wants to be a jazz musician.
WRITING EFFECTIVELY
James Baldwin on Writing, Race and the African American Writer
THINKING ABOUT POINT OF VIEW
CHECKLIST: Writing About Point of View
topics for writing ON POINT OF VIEW
TERMS FOR REVIEW
3 CHARACTER
CHARACTERization
Motivation
Katherine Anne Porter, The Jilting of Granny Weatherall
For sixty years Ellen Weatherall has fought back the memory of that terrible day, but now once more the priest waits in the house.
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.
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.
Raymond Carver, Cathedral
He had 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
Raymond Carver on Writing, Commonplace but Precise Language
THINKING ABOUT CHARACTER
CHECKLIST: Writing About Character
topics for writing ON CHARACTER
TERMS FOR REVIEW
4 SETTING
ELEMENTS OF SETTING
HISTORICAL FICTION
REGIONALISM
NATURALISM
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
Amy Tan on Writing, Developing a Setting
THINKING ABOUT SETTING
CHECKLIST: Writing About Setting
TOPICS FOR WRITING ON SETTING
TERMS FOR REVIEW
5 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."
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."
WRITING EFFECTIVELY
Ernest Hemingway on Writing, The Direct Style
THINKING ABOUT TONE AND STYLE
CHECKLIST: Writing About Tone and Style
TOPICS FOR WRITING ON TONE AND STYLE
TERMS FOR REVIEW
6 THEME
PLOT VERSUS THEME
summarizing the THEME
FINDING THE THEME
Chinua Achebe, Dead Men's Path
The new headmaster of the village school was determined to fight superstition, but the villagers did not agree.
Sandra Cisneros, The House on Mango Street
Does where we live tell what we are? A little girl dreams of a new house, but things don't always turn out the way we want them to.
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? Off with your eyebrows! Are you brainy? Let a transmitter sound thought-shattering beeps inside your ear.
WRITING EFFECTIVELY
Kurt Vonnegut Jr. on Writing, The Themes of Science Fiction
THINKING ABOUT THEME
CHECKLIST: Writing About Theme
TOPICS FOR WRITING ON THEME
TERMS FOR REVIEW
7 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.
Tobias Wolff, Bullet in the Brain
Anders is in line when armed robbers enter the bank, and he can't help but get involved.
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 had worked its annual terror for longer than anyone in town could remember.
WRITING EFFECTIVELY
Shirley Jackson on Writing, Biography of a Story
THINKING ABOUT SYMBOLS
CHECKLIST: Writing About Symbols
Sample Student Paper on Symbols, An Analysis of the Symbolism in Steinbeck's "The Chrysanthemums"
TOPICS FOR WRITING ON SYMBOLS
TERMS FOR REVIEW
8 READING LONG STORIES AND NOVELS
ORIGINS OF THE NOVEL
NOVELISTIC METHODS
READING NOVELS
Franz Kafka, The Metamorphosis
"When Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from troubled dreams, he found himself transformed in his bed into a monstrous insect." Kafka's famous opening sentence introduces one of the most chilling stories in world literature.
WRITING EFFECTIVELY
Franz Kafka on Writing, Discussing The Metamorphosis
THINKING ABOUT LONG STORIES AND NOVELS
CHECKLIST: Writing About Long Stories and Novels
TOPICS FOR WRITING on long stories and novels
TERMS FOR REVIEW
9 GENRE FICTION
ROMANCE VERSUS REALISM
WHAT IS GENRE?
TYPES OF GENRE FICTION
GENRE AND POPULAR CULTURE
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.
Ursula K. Le Guin, The Wife's Story
Another full moon, and another terrible transformation-a surprising reversal of a familiar story.
H. P. Lovecraft, The Outsider
He had been locked in a gothic castle for his entire life, until the day he escaped, but what he discovered outside sent him running back to his dark captivity.
Dashiell Hammett, One Hour
Someone killed a man named Newhouse in broad daylight on a San Francisco street. Our detective is on the case.
WRITING EFFECTIVELY
Ray Bradbury on Writing, Falling in Love at the Library
TOPICS FOR WRITING
TERMS FOR REVIEW
10 CRITICAL CASEBOOK Two Stories in Depth
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.
CHARLOTTE PERKINS GILMAN ON WRITING
Why I Wrote "The Yellow Wallpaper"
Whatever Is
The Nervous Breakdown of Women
CRITICS ON "THE YELLOW WALLPAPER"
Juliann Fleenor, Gender and Pathology in "The Yellow Wallpaper"
Sandra M. Gilbert and Susan Gubar, Imprisonment and Escape: The Psychology of Confinement
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.
ALICE WALKER ON WRITING
Reflections on Writing and Women's Lives
CRITICS ON "EVERYDAY USE"
Barbara T. Christian, "Everyday Use" and the Black Power Movement
Mary Helen Washington, "Everyday Use" as a Portrait of the Artist
Houston A. Baker and Charlotte Pierce-Baker, Stylish vs. Sacred in "Everyday Use"
WRITING EFFECTIVELY
TOPICS FOR WRITING
11 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.
Margaret Atwood, Happy Endings
John and Mary meet. What happens next? This witty experimental story offers five different outcomes.
Ambrose Bierce, An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge
At last, Peyton Farquhar's neck is in the noose. Reality mingles with dream in this classic story of the American Civil War.
T. Coraghessan Boyle, Greasy Lake
Murky and strewn with beer cans, the lake appears a wasteland. On its shore three "dangerous characters" learn a lesson one grim night.
Willa Cather, Paul's Case
Paul's teachers can't understand the boy. Then one day, with stolen cash, he boards a train for New York and the life of his dreams.
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.
Ha Jin, Saboteur
When the police unfairly arrest Mr. Chiu, he hopes for justice. After witnessing their brutality, he quietly plans revenge.
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.
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.
Katherine Mansfield, Miss Brill
Sundays had long brought joy to solitary Miss Brill, until one fateful day when she happened to share a bench with two lovers in the park.
Guy de Maupassant, The Necklace
A woman enjoys one night of luxury-and then spends years of her life paying for it.
Tim O'Brien, The Things They Carried
What each soldier carried into the combat zone was largely determined by necessity, but each man's necessities differed.
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.
Juan Rulfo, Tell Them Not to Kill Me!
A violent episode from decades past catches up with an old man. Will he be saved from the firing squad?
Virginia Woolf, A Haunted House
Whatever hour you woke, a door was shutting. From room to room the ghostly couple walked, hand in hand.
POETRY
Talking with Kay Ryan
12 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
Adrienne Rich on Writing, Recalling "Aunt Jennifer's Tigers"
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
13 LISTENING TO A VOICE
TONE
Theodore Roethke, My Papa's Waltz
Stephen Crane, The Wayfarer
Anne Bradstreet, The Author to Her Book
Walt Whitman, To a Locomotive in Winter
Emily Dickinson, I like to see it lap the Miles
Gwendolyn Brooks, Speech to the Young. Speech to the Progress-Toward
Weldon Kees, For My Daughter
THE SPEAKER IN THE POEM
Natasha Trethewey, White Lies
Edwin Arlington Robinson, Luke Havergal
Anonymous, Dog Haiku
William Wordsworth, I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud
Dorothy Wordsworth, Journal Entry
Charlotte Mew, The Farmer's Bride
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
Amy Uyematsu, Deliberate
Richard Lovelace, To Lucasta
Wilfred Owen, Dulce et Decorum Est
WRITING EFFECTIVELY
Wilfred Owen on Writing, War Poetry
THINKING ABOUT TONE
CHECKLIST: Writing About Tone
TOPICS FOR WRITING ON TONE
Sample Student Paper, Word Choice, Tone, and Point of View in Roethke's "My Papa's Waltz"
TERMS FOR REVIEW
14 WORDS
LITERAL MEANING: WHAT A POEM SAYS FIRST
William Carlos Williams, This Is Just to Say
DICTION
John Masefield, Cargoes
Robert Graves, Down, Wanton, Down!
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
Wendy Cope, Lonely Hearts
FOR REVIEW AND FURTHER STUDY
E. E. Cummings, anyone lived in a pretty how town
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
Lewis Carroll, Humpty Dumpty Explicates "Jabberwocky"
THINKING ABOUT DICTION
CHECKLIST: Writing About Diction
TOPICS FOR WRITING ON WORD CHOICE
TERMS FOR REVIEW
15 SAYING AND SUGGESTING
DENOTATION AND CONNOTATION
William Blake, London
Wallace Stevens, Disillusionment of Ten O'Clock
E. E. Cummings, next to of course god america i
Timothy Steele, Epitaph
Diane Thiel, The Minefield
H.D., Sea Rose
Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Tears, Idle Tears
Richard Wilbur, Love Calls Us to the Things of This World
WRITING EFFECTIVELY
Richard Wilbur on Writing, Concerning "Love Calls Us to the Things of This World"
THINKING ABOUT DENOTATION AND CONNOTATION
CHECKLIST: Writing About What a Poem Says and Suggests
TOPICS FOR WRITING ON DENOTATION AND CONNOTATION
TERMS FOR REVIEW
16 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, Rain shower from mountain
Suiko Matsushita, Cosmos in bloom
Hakuro Wada, Even the croaking of frogs
Neiji Ozawa, The war-this year
CONTEMPORARY HAIKU
Nick Virgilio, The Old Neighborhood
Lee Gurga, Visitor's Room
Adelle Foley, Learning to Shave
Jennifer Brutschy, Born Again
FOR REVIEW AND FURTHER STUDY
John Keats, Bright star! would I were steadfast as thou art
Walt Whitman, The Runner
H.D., Heat
William Carlos Williams, El Hombre
Li Po, Drinking Alone by Moonlight
Robert Bly, Driving to Town Late to Mail a Letter
Stevie Smith, Not Waving but Drowning
WRITING EFFECTIVELY
Ezra Pound on Writing, The Image
THINKING ABOUT IMAGERY
CHECKLIST: Writing About Imagery
TOPICS FOR WRITING ON IMAGERY
Sample Student Paper, Faded Beauty: Elizabeth Bishop's Use of Imagery in "The Fish"
TERMS FOR REVIEW
17 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
Craig Raine, A Martian Sends a Postcard Home
OTHER FIGURES OF SPEECH
James Stephens, The Wind
Robinson Jeffers, Hands
Margaret Atwood, You fit into me
Timothy Steele, Epitaph
Dana Gioia, Money
Carl Sandburg, Fog
FOR REVIEW AND FURTHER STUDY
Jane Kenyon, The Suitor
Robert Frost, The Secret Sits
Kay Ryan, Turtle
Emily Bronte, Love and Friendship
WRITING EFFECTIVELY
Robert Frost on Writing, The Importance of Poetic Metaphor
THINKING ABOUT METAPHORS
CHECKLIST: Writing About Metaphors
TOPICS FOR WRITING ON FIGURES OF SPEECH
TERMS FOR REVIEW
18 SONG
SINGING AND SAYING
Ben Jonson, To Celia
William Shakespeare, Fear no more the heat o' the sun
Edwin Arlington Robinson, Richard Cory
Paul Simon, Richard Cory
BALLADS
Anonymous, Bonny Barbara Allan
Dudley Randall, Ballad of Birmingham
BLUES
Bessie Smith with Clarence Williams, Jailhouse Blues
W. H. Auden, Funeral Blues
RAP
FOR REVIEW AND FURTHER STUDY
Neko Case, This Tornado Loves You
Bob Dylan, The Times They Are a-Changin'
WRITING EFFECTIVELY
Bob Dylan on Writing, Rhythm, Rime, and Songwriting from the Outside
THINKING ABOUT POETRY AND SONG
CHECKLIST: Writing About Song Lyrics
TOPICS FOR WRITING ON SONG LYRICS
TERMS FOR REVIEW
19 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
James Joyce, All day I hear
Alfred, Lord Tennyson, The splendor falls on castle walls
RIME
William Cole, On my boat on Lake Cayuga
Hilaire Belloc, The Hippopotamus
Bob Kaufman, No More Jazz at Alcatraz
William Butler Yeats, Leda and the Swan
Gerard Manley Hopkins, God's Grandeur
How to read a POEM ALOUD
Michael Stillman, In Memoriam John Coltrane
T. S. Eliot, Virginia
WRITING EFFECTIVELY
T. S. Eliot on Writing, The Music of Poetry
THINKING ABOUT A POEM'S SOUND
CHECKLIST: Writing About a Poem's Sound
TOPICS FOR WRITING ON SOUND
TERMS FOR REVIEW
20 RHYTHM
STRESSES AND PAUSES
STRESS AND Meaning
line endings
Gwendolyn Brooks, We Real Cool
Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Break, Break, Break
George Gordon, Lord Byron, So We'll Go No More a-Roving
Dorothy Parker, Resume
METER
Edna St. Vincent Millay, Counting-out Rhyme
A. E. Housman, When I was one-and-twenty
William Carlos Williams, Smell!
Walt Whitman, Beat! Beat! Drums!
WRITING EFFECTIVELY
Gwendolyn Brooks on Writing, Hearing "We Real Cool"
THINKING ABOUT RHYTHM
CHECKLIST: Scanning a Poem
TOPICS FOR WRITING ON RHYTHM
TERMS FOR REVIEW
21 CLOSED FORM
the value of form
FORMAL PATTERNS
Ernest Dowson, "Days of Wine and Roses"
John Donne, Song ("Go and catch a falling star")
Thomas M. Disch, Zewhyexary
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
A. E. Stallings, Aftershocks
R. S. Gwynn, Shakespearean Sonnet
Sherman Alexie, The Facebook Sonnet
THE EPIGRAM
Sir John Harrington, Of Treason
Langston Hughes, Two Somewhat Different Epigrams
Hilaire Belloc, Fatigue
Wendy Cope, Variation on Belloc's "Fatigue"
Anonymous, Epitaph on a Dentist
OTHER FORMS
Dylan Thomas, Do not go gentle into that good night
Robert Bridges, Triolet
Paul Laurence Dunbar, We Wear the Mask
Elizabeth Bishop, Sestina
WRITING EFFECTIVELY
A. E. Stallings on Writing, On Form and Artifice
THINKING ABOUT A SONNET
CHECKLIST: Writing About a Sonnet
TOPICS FOR WRITING ON closed form
TERMS FOR REVIEW
22 OPEN FORM
Denise Levertov, Ancient Stairway
FREE VERSE
E. E. Cummings, Buffalo Bill 's
W. S. Merwin, For the Anniversary of My Death
William Carlos Williams, The Dance
Stephen Crane, The Heart
Walt Whitman, Cavalry Crossing a Ford
Ezra Pound, Salutation
Wallace Stevens, Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird
PROSE POETRY
Charles Simic, The Magic Study of Happiness
VISUAL POETRY
George Herbert, Easter Wings
FOR REVIEW AND FURTHER STUDY
E. E. Cummings, in Just-
Francisco X. Alarcon, Frontera / Border
Carole Satyamurti, I Shall Paint My Nails Red
WRITING EFFECTIVELY
Walt Whitman on Writing, The Poetry of the Future
THINKING ABOUT FREE VERSE
CHECKLIST: Writing About Line Breaks
TOPICS FOR WRITING ON OPEN FORM
TERMS FOR REVIEW
23 SYMBOL
THE MEANINGS OF A SYMBOL
T. S. Eliot, The Boston Evening Transcript
Emily Dickinson, The Lightning is a yellow Fork
IDENTIFYING SYMBOLS
Thomas Hardy, Neutral Tones
ALLEGORY
Matthew, The Parable of the Good Seed
George Herbert, Redemption
Antonio Machado, Proverbios y Cantares (IX)
Translated by Dana Gioia, Traveler
Christina Rossetti, Up-Hill
FOR REVIEW AND FURTHER STUDY
William Carlos Williams, The Young Housewife
Ted Kooser, Carrie
Mary Oliver, Wild Geese
William Blake, The Tyger
Tami Haaland, Lipstick
Lorine Niedecker, Popcorn-can cover
Wallace Stevens, The Snow Man
Wallace Stevens, Anecdote of the Jar
WRITING EFFECTIVELY
William Butler Yeats on Writing, Poetic Symbols
THINKING ABOUT SYMBOLS
CHECKLIST: Writing About Symbols
TOPICS FOR WRITING ON SYMBOLISM
TERMS FOR REVIEW
24 MYTH AND NARRATIVE
The subjects and uses OF MYTH
origins OF MYTH
Robert Frost, Nothing Gold Can Stay
William Wordsworth, The world is too much with us
H. D., Helen
ARCHETYPE
Louise Bogan, Medusa
John Keats, La Belle Dame sans Merci
PERSONAL MYTH
William Butler Yeats, The Second Coming
Diane Thiel, Memento Mori in Middle School
MYTH AND POPULAR CULTURE
for review and further study
A. E. Stallings, First Love: A Quiz
Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Ulysses
Anne Sexton, Cinderella
WRITING EFFECTIVELY
Diane Thiel on Writing, The Map of Myth
THINKING ABOUT MYTH
CHECKLIST: Writing About Myth
TOPICS FOR WRITING ON MYTH
Sample Student Paper, The Bonds Between Love and Hatred in H.D.'s "Helen"
TERMS FOR REVIEW
25 POETRY AND PERSONAL IDENTITY
CONFESSIONAL POETRY
Sylvia Plath, Lady Lazarus
IDENTITY POETICS
Rhina Espaillat, Bilingual/Bilinguee
CULTURE, RACE, AND ETHNICITY
Claude McKay, America
Shirley Geok-lin Lim, Riding into California
Judith Ortiz Cofer, Quinceanera
Sherman Alexie, The Powwow at the End of the World
Yusef Komunyakaa, Facing It
GENDER
Anne Stevenson, The Victory
Rafael Campo, For J. W.
James Wright, Autumn Begins in Martins Ferry, Ohio
Adrienne Rich, Women
FOR REVIEW AND FURTHER STUDY
Philip Larkin, Aubade
WRITING EFFECTIVELY
Rhina Espaillat on Writing, Being a Bilingual Writer
THINKING ABOUT POETIC VOICE AND IDENTITY
CHECKLIST: Writing About Voice and Personal Identity
TOPICS FOR WRITING ON PERSONAL IDENTITY
terms for review
26 POETRY IN SPANISH: LITERATURE OF LATIN AMERICA
Sor Juana, Presente en que el Carino Hace Regalo la Llaneza
Translated by Diane Thiel, A Simple Gift Made Rich by Affection
Pablo Neruda, Muchos Somos
Translated by Alastair Reid, We Are Many
Jorge Luis Borges, On his blindness
Translated by Robert Mezey, On His Blindness
Octavio Paz, Con los ojos cerrados
Translated by Eliot Weinberger, With eyes closed
SURREALISM IN LATIN AMERICAN POETRY
Frida Kahlo, The Two Fridas
Cesar Vallejo, La colera que quiebra al hombre en ninos
Translated by Thomas Merton, Anger
CONTEMPORARY MEXICAN POETRY
Jose Emilio Pacheco, Alta Traicion
Translated by Alastair Reid, High Treason
Elva Macias, Comi los frutos elegidos
Translated by Kimberly Gooden, I Ate the Fruits Chosen by the Wind
WRITING EFFECTIVELY
Alastair Reid on Writing, Translating Neruda
TOPICS FOR WRITING ON SPANISH POETRY
27 RECOGNIZING EXCELLENCE
Anonymous, O Moon, when I gaze on thy beautiful face
Emily Dickinson, A Dying Tiger - moaned for Drink
SENTIMENTALITY
Rod McKuen, Thoughts on Capital Punishment
William Stafford, Traveling Through the Dark
RECOGNIZING EXCELLENCE
William Butler Yeats, Sailing to Byzantium
Arthur Guiterman, On the Vanity of Earthly Greatness
Percy Bysshe Shelley, Ozymandias
Robert Hayden, The Whipping
Elizabeth Bishop, One Art
Langston Hughes, I, Too
John Keats, Ode to a Nightingale
Walt Whitman, O Captain! My Captain!
Emma Lazarus, The New Colossus
Edgar Allan Poe, Annabel Lee
WRITING EFFECTIVELY
Edgar Allan Poe on Writing, A Long Poem Does Not Exist
THINKING ABOUT EVALUATING A POEM
CHECKLIST: Writing an Evaluation
TOPICS FOR WRITING ON EVALUATING A POEM
TERMS FOR REVIEW
28 WHAT IS POETRY?
some definitions of poetry
Dante, Samuel Johnson, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, William Wordsworth, Emily Dickinson, Gerard Manley Hopkins, Robert Frost, Mina Loy, T. S. Eliot, W. H. Auden, Jose Garcia Villa, Elizabeth Bishop, Joy Harjo, Octavio Paz, Denise Levertov, Lucille Clifton, Charles Simic, -
29 Three CRITICAL CASEBOOKS Emily Dickinson, Langston Hughes, and Robert Frost
EMILY DICKINSON
Success is counted sweetest
Wild Nights - Wild Nights!
I felt a Funeral, in my Brain
I'm Nobody! Who are you?
The Soul selects her own Society
Much Madness is divinest Sense
I heard a Fly buzz - when I died
I started Early - Took my Dog
Because I could not stop for Death
Tell all the Truth but tell it slant
EMILY DICKINSON ON WRITING
Recognizing Poetry
Self-Description
CRITICS ON EMILY DICKINSON
Thomas H. Johnson, The Discovery of Emily Dickinson's Manuscripts
Richard Wilbur, The Three Privations of Emily Dickinson
Cynthia Griffin Wolff, Dickinson and Death (A Reading of "Because I could not stop for Death")
Judith Farr, A Reading of "My Life had stood - a Loaded Gun"
LANGSTON HUGHES
The Negro Speaks of Rivers
The Negro
My People
Mother to Son
Song for a Dark Girl
Prayer
Luck
Theme for English B
Harlem [Dream Deferred]
Homecoming
LANGSTON HUGHES ON WRITING