Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, Drama, and Writing, Compact Edition, 6th Edition

The compact version of the most popular Literature anthology continues to bring students the finest literature in a newly revised, easier-to-study format.  Literature is written in an engaging style that reflects the warm personal voice of X. J. Kennedy and Dana Gioia.  Some of the changes to the new edition include conversations with celebrated fiction writer Amy Tan, U. S. Poet Laureate Kay Ryan, and contemporary playwright David Ives; the addition of new writers including Naguib Mahfouz, Virginia Woolf, Sherman Alexie, Mary Oliver, Bettie Sellers, and Anne Deavere Smith; and every chapter concludes with a review of key terms for easy reference.  The Writing section has been thoroughly updated to reflect MLA’s latest guidelines.

Preface  

To the Instructor  

About the Authors  

Fiction

Talking with Amy Tan

1. Reading a Story  

The Art of Fiction

Types of Short Fiction

    W. Somerset Maugham, The Appointment in Samarra  

    Aesop, The North Wind and the Sun  

    *Bidpai, The tortoise and the geese

    Chuang Tzu, Independence  

    Jakob and Wilhelm Grimm, Godfather Death   

Plot  

The Short Story 

    John Updike, A & P  

Writing Effectively

Writers on Writing 

    John Updike, Why Write? 

Thinking About Plot

Checklist: Writing About Plot

Writing Assignment on Plot  

More Topics for Writing  

Terms for Review 

2. Point of View  

Identifying Point of View

Types of Narrators

Stream of Consciousness

    William Faulkner, A Rose for Emily  

    Edgar Allan Poe, The Tell-Tale Heart

    *Eudora Welty, Why I Live at the P.O.

    James Baldwin, Sonny’s Blues  

Writing Effectively

Writers on Writing

    James Baldwin, Race and the African American Writer  

Thinking About Point of View

Checklist: Writing About Point of View

Writing Assignment on Point of View  

More Topics for Writing

Terms for Review

3. Character

Types of Characters

    Katherine Anne Porter, The Jilting of Granny Weatherall  

    Katherine Mansfield, Miss Brill  

    *Naguib Mahfouz, The Lawsuit 

    Raymond Carver, Cathedral  

Writing Effectively

Writers on Writing  

    Raymond Carver, Commonplace but Precise Language  

Thinking About Character

Checklist: Writing About Character

Writing Assignment on Character

More Topics for Writing

Terms for Review

4. Setting  

Elements of Setting

Historical Fiction

Regionalism

Naturalism

    Kate Chopin, The Storm  

    *Virginia Woolf, A Haunted House

    T. Coraghessan Boyle, Greasy Lake  

    Amy Tan, A Pair of Tickets  

Writing Effectively

Writers on Writing  

    Amy Tan, Setting the Voice  

Thinking About Setting

Checklist: Writing About Setting

Writing Assignment on Setting

More Topics for Writing

Terms for Review

5. Tone and Style  

Tone

Style

Diction

    Ernest Hemingway, A Clean, Well-Lighted Place  

    William Faulkner, Barn Burning  

Irony  

    O. Henry, The Gift of the Magi  

    Ha Jin, Saboteur  

Writing Effectively

Writers on Writing  

    Ernest Hemingway, The Direct Style  

Thinking About Tone and Style

Checklist: Writing About Tone and Style

Writing Assignment on Tone and Style

More Topics for Writing

Terms for Review

6. Theme  

Plot vs. Theme

Theme as Unifying Device

Finding the Theme

    Chinua Achebe, Dead Men's Path

    Jamaica Kincaid, Girl

    Luke 15:11–32, The Parable of the Prodigal Son  

    Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., Harrison Bergeron  

Writing Effectively

Writers on Writing  

    Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., The Themes of Science Fiction  

Thinking About Theme

Checklist: Writing about Theme

Writing Assignment on theme

More Topics for Writing

Terms for Review

7. Symbol  

Allegory

Symbols

Recognizing Symbols

    John Steinbeck, The Chrysanthemums  

    *John Cheever, The Swimmer

    Ursula K. Le Guin, The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas  

    Shirley Jackson, The Lottery  

Writing Effectively

Writers on Writing  

    Shirley Jackson, Biography of a Story  

Thinking About Symbols

Checklist: Writing About Symbols

Writing Assignment on Symbols  

    Student Paper, An Analysis of the Symbolism in Steinbeck’s “The Chrysanthemums”  

More Topics for Writing

Terms for Review

8. Critical Casebook: Flannery O'Connor

Flannery O'Connor, A Good Man Is Hard to Find

Flannery O'Connor, Revelation

Flannery O'Connor on Writing

    From "On Her Own Work"

    On Her Catholic Faith

    From "The Grotesque in Southern Fiction"

Critics on Flannery O'Connor

    J.O. Tate, A Good Source Is Not So Hard to Find: The Real Life Misfit

    Mary Jane Schenck, Deconstructing "A Good Man Is Hard to Find"

    *Louise S. Cowan, The Character of Mrs. Turpin in "Revelation"

 9. Critical Casebook: Two Stories in Depth  

Nathaniel Hawthorne

    Young Goodman Brown 

*Nathaniel Hawthorne on Writing

    *Reflections on Truth and Clarity in Literature

    *Criticizing His Own Work

*Critics on Hawthorne

    *Herman Melville , Excerpt from a review of “Mosses from and Old Manse”

    *Edgar Allan Poe, The Genius of Hawthorne's Short Stories

*Critics on “Young Goodman Brown”

    *Richard H. Fogle, Ambiguity in “Young Goodman Brown”

    *Paul J. Hurley, Evil Wherever He Looks

    *Nancy Bunge, Complacency and Community

Alice Walker  

    Everyday Use

Alice Walker on Writing

    The Black Woman Writer in America  

    Reflections on Writing and Women's Lives

Critics on “Everyday Use”

    Barbara T. Christian, “Everyday Use” and the Black Power Movement  

    Houston A. Baker and Charlotte Pierce-Baker, Stylish vs. Sacred in “Everyday Use”  

Writing Effectively

Topics for Writing on “Young Goodman Brown”  

Topics for Writing on “The Yellow Wallpaper”  

Topics for Writing on “Everyday Use”   

10. Stories for Further Reading  

*Sherman Alexie, This Is What It Means to Say Phoenix, Arizona

Margaret Atwood, Happy Endings  

*Ambrose Bierce, An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge  

Jorge Luis Borges, The Gospel According to Mark

Kate Chopin, The Story of an Hour  

Sandra Cisneros, The House on Mango Street  

*Gabriel Garcia Marquez, A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings

Charlotte Perkins Gilman, The Yellow Wallpaper

Zora Neale Hurston, Sweat  

James Joyce, Araby  

Franz Kafka, Before The Law 

Jhumpa Lahiri, Interpreter of Maladies  

D. H. Lawrence, The Rocking-Horse Winner  

*Lorrie Moore, How to Become a Writer

Joyce Carol Oates, Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?  

Tim O’Brien, The Things They Carried  

Poetry

Talking with Kay Ryan

11. Reading a Poem  

Poetry or Verse

Reading 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

Writers on Writing  

    Adrienne Rich, Recalling “Aunt Jennifer’s Tigers”  

Thinking About Paraphrase  

    William Stafford, Ask Me  

    William Stafford, A Paraphrase of “Ask Me”  

Checklist: Writing a Paraphrase

Writing Assignment on Paraphrasing  

More Topics for Writing

Terms for Review

12. Listening to a Voice

 Tone  

    Theodore Roethke, My Papa’s Waltz  

    Countee Cullen, For a Lady I Know  

    Anne Bradstreet, The Author to Her Book  

    Walt Whitman, To a Locomotive in Winter  

    Emily Dickinson, I like to see it lap the Miles  

    *Kevin Young, Doo Wop

    Weldon Kees, For My Daughter  

The Person in the Poem  

    Natasha Trethewey, White Lies  

    Edwin Arlington Robinson, Luke Havergal  

    Ted Hughes, Hawk Roosting  

    William Wordsworth, I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud  

    Dorothy Wordsworth, Journal Entry  

    *James Stephens, A Glass of Beer  

    Anne Sexton, Her Kind  

    William Carlos Williams, The Red Wheelbarrow  

Irony  

    Robert Creeley, Oh No  

    W. H. Auden, The Unknown Citizen  

    Sharon Olds, Rites of Passage

    Sarah N. Cleghorn, The Golf Links  

    Edna St. Vincent Millay, Second Fig  

    *Dorothy Parker, Comment

    Thomas Hardy, The Workbox  

For Review and Further Study  

    William Blake, The Chimney Sweeper  

    *Erich Fried, The Measures Taken 

    William Stafford, At the Un-National Monument Along the Canadian Border  

    Richard Lovelace, To Lucasta  

    Wilfred Owen, Dulce et Decorum Est  

Writing Effectively

Writers on Writing  

    Wilfred Owen, War Poetry  

Thinking About Tone

Checklist: Writing about Tone  

Writing Assignment on Tone  

    Student Paper, Word Choice, Tone, and Point of View in Roethke’s “My Papa’s Waltz”  

More Topics for Writing

Terms for Review

13. Words  

Literal Meaning: What a Poem Says First  

    William Carlos Williams, This Is Just to Say  

Diction  

    Marianne Moore, Silence  

    Robert Graves, Down, Wanton, Down!  

    John Donne, Batter my heart, three-personed God, for You 

The Value of a Dictionary  

    Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Aftermath  

    *Kay Ryan, Chemise

    J. V. Cunningham, Friend, on this scaffold Thomas More lies dead  

    Carl Sandburg, Grass

    *Dan Anderson, Dog Haiku

Word Choice and Word Order

    Robert Herrick, Upon Julia’s Clothes  

    *Robert Burns , Auld Lang Syne

    Thomas Hardy, The Ruined Maid  

    Wendy Cope, Lonely Hearts  

For Review and Further Study  

    E. E. Cummings, anyone lived in a pretty how town  

    *Billy Collins, The Names  

    *Charles Bukowski , Dostoevsky

    Anonymous, Carnation Milk  

    Gina Valdés, English con Salsa  

    Lewis Carroll, Jabberwocky  

Writing Effectively

Writers on Writing  

    Lewis Carroll, Humpty Dumpty Explicates “Jabberwocky”  

Thinking About Diction  

Checklist: Writing About diction

Writing Assignment on Word Choice  

More Topics for Writing

Terms for Review

14. Saying and Suggesting  

Denotation and Connotation

    Wallace Stevens, Disillusionment of Ten O’Clock  

    William Blake, London

    Gwendolyn Brooks, Southeast Corner  

    Timothy Steele, Epitaph  

    E. E. Cummings, next to of course god america i  

    Robert Frost, Fire and Ice  

    *Diane Thiel , The Minefield  

    Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Tears, Idle Tears  

    Richard Wilbur, Love Calls Us to the Things of This World  

Writing Effectively

Writers on Writing  

    Richard Wilbur, Concerning “Love Calls Us to the Things of This World”  

Thinking About Denotation and Connotation  

Checklist: writing about What a Poem SAYS AND Suggests  

Writing Assignment on Denotation and Connotation  

More Topics for Writing

Terms for Review

15. 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  

    *Rainer Maria Rilke, The Panther

    *Charles Simic, Fork  

    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  

    Ethridge Knight, Making Jazz Swing In

    Lee Gurga, Visitor's Room

    Penny Harter, Broken Bowl

    Jennifer Brutshy, Born Again

For Review and Further Study  

    John Keats, Bright star! Would I Were Steadfast as Thou Art  

    Walt Whitman, The Runner  

    William Carlos Williams, El Hombre  

    Robert Bly, Driving to Town Late to Mail a Letter  

    *Paul Goodman  , Birthday Cake

    Billy Collins, Embrace  

    Stevie Smith, Not Waving but Drowning  

Writing Effectively

Writers on Writing  

    Ezra Pound, The Image  

Thinking About Imagery  

Checklist: Writing about Imagery  

Writing Assignment on Imagery  

    Student Paper, FADED BEAUTY: Elizabeth Bishop’s Use of Imagery in “The Fish”  

More Topics for Writing

Terms for Review

16. 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  

    *Emily Dickinson, It dropped so low – in my Regard  

    *Jill Alexander Essbaum, The Heart  

    *Craig Raine, A Martian Sends a Postcard Home  

Other Figures of Speech  

    James Stephens, The Wind  

    Margaret Atwood, You fit into me  

    *George Herbert, The Pulley  

    Dana Gioia, Money  

    *Carl Sandburg, Fog  

For Review and Further Study  

    Robert Frost, The Silken Tent  

    Jane Kenyon, The Suitor  

    Robert Frost, The Secret Sits  

    *Kay Ryan, Turtle  

    *Anne Stevenson, The Demolition  

    *Robinson Jeffers, Hands  

    Robert Burns, Oh, my love is like a red, red rose  

Writing Effectively

Writers on Writing  

    Robert Frost, The Importance of Poetic Metaphor  

Thinking About Metaphors  

Checklist: Writing About Metaphors  

Writing Assignment on Figures of Speech  

More Topics for Writing

Terms for Review

17. Song  

Singing and Saying  

    Ben Jonson, To Celia  

    *James Weldon Johnson, Since You Went Away

    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  

    John Lennon and Paul McCartney, Eleanor Rigby  

    *Bob Dylan, The Times They Are a-Changin’  

    Aimee Mann, Deathly  

Writing Effectively

Writers on Writing  

    Paul McCartney, Creating “Eleanor Rigby”  

Thinking About Poetry and Song

Checklist: Writing About Song Lyrics 

Writing Assignment on Song Lyrics  

More Topics for Writing

Terms for Review

18. Sound  

Sound as Meaning  

    Alexander Pope, True Ease in Writing comes from Art, not Chance  

    William Butler Yeats, Who Goes with Fergus?  

    John Updike, Recital  

    William Wordsworth, A Slumber Did My Spirit Seal  

    Aphra Behn, When maidens are young  

Alliteration and Assonance  

    A. E. Housman, Eight O’Clock  

    James Joyce, All day I hear  

    Alfred, Lord Tennyson, The Splendor Falls on Castle Walls  

Rime  

    William Cole, On my boat on Lake Cayuga  

    *William Butler Yeats, Leda and the Swan  

    Gerard Manley Hopkins, God’s Grandeur  

    *Robert Frost, Desert Places  

Reading and Hearing Poems Aloud  

    Michael Stillman, In Memoriam John Coltrane  

    William Shakespeare, Full fathom five thy father lies  

    T. S. Eliot, Virginia  

Writing Effectively

Writers on Writing  

    T. S. Eliot, The Music of Poetry  

Thinking About a Poem's Sound 

Checklist: Writing About a Poem’s Sound  

Writing Assignment on Sound  

More Topics for Writing

Terms for Review

19. Rhythm  

Stresses and Pauses  

    Gwendolyn Brooks, We Real Cool  

    Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Break, Break, Break  

    Dorothy Parker, Résumé  

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!  

    *Langston Hughes, Dream Boogie  

Writing Effectively

Writers on Writing  

    Gwendolyn Brooks, Hearing “We Real Cool”  

Thinking About Rhythm  

Checklist: Scanning a Poem

Writing Assignment on Rhythm  

More Topics for Writing

Terms for Review

20. Closed Form  

Formal Patterns  

    John Keats, This living hand, now warm and capable  

    Robert Graves, Counting the Beats  

    John Donne, Song (“Go and Catch a Falling Star”)  

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  

    *William Meredith , The Illiterate

    Kim Addonizio, First Poem for You  

    A. E. Stallings, Sine Qua Non  

    R. S. Gwynn, Shakespearean Sonnet  

The Epigram  

    Alexander Pope, Epigram Engraved on the Collar of a Dog

    Sir John Harrington, Of Treason

    *John Frederick Nims, Contemplation

    Anonymous, Epitaph of a Dentist

    *Hilaire Belloc, Fatigue

    *Wendy Cope, Variation on Belloc’s “Fatigue”

 Other Forms  

    Dylan Thomas, Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night  

    Robert Bridges, Triolet  

    Elizabeth Bishop, Sestina  

Writing Effectively

Writers on Writing  

    A. E. Stallings, On Form and Artifice  

Thinking About a Sonnet  

Checklist: Writing About a Sonnet

Writing Assignment on a Sonnet  

More Topics for Writing

Terms for Review

21. Open Form  

    Denise Levertov, Ancient Stairway  

Free Verse

    E. E. Cummings, Buffalo Bill ’s  

    *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  

    *Carolyn Forché, The Colonel  

Visual Poetry  

    George Herbert, Easter Wings  

    John Hollander, Swan and Shadow  

For Review and Further Study

    E. E. Cummings, in Just-  

    *A. E. Stallings, First Love: A Quiz

    Carole Satyamurti, I Shall Paint My Nails Red  

Writing Effectively

Writers on Writing  

    Walt Whitman, The Poetry of the Future  

Thinking About Free Verse  

Checklist: Writing about free verse  

Writing Assignment on Open Form  

More Topics for Writing

Terms for Review

22. 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, The World  

    Robert Frost, The Road Not Taken  

    Christina Rossetti, Uphill  

For Review and Further Study

    William Carlos Williams, The Term  

    *Mary Oliver, Wild Geese

    Lorine Niedecker, Popcorn-can cover  

    *Wallace Stevens, The Snow Man

    Wallace Stevens, Anecdote of the Jar  

Writing Effectively

Writers on Writing  

William Butler Yeats, Poetic Symbols  

Thinking About Symbols  

Checklist: Writing About Symbols  

Writing Assignment on Symbolism  

More Topics for Writing

Terms for Review

23. Myth and Narrative  

Origins of Myth

    Robert Frost, Nothing Gold Can Stay

    William Wordsworth, The world is too much with us  

    H. D., Helen  

    *Constantine Cavafy, iThaca  

Archetype  

    Louise Bogan, Medusa  

    John Keats, La Belle Dame sans Merci  

Personal Myth  

    William Butler Yeats, The Second Coming  

Myth and Popular Culture  

    Andrea Hollander Budy, Snow White  

    Anne Sexton, Cinderella  

Writing Effectively  

Writers on Writing  

    Anne Sexton, Transforming Fairy Tales  

Thinking About Myth

Checklist: Writing About Myth  

Writing Assignment on Myth  

More Topics for Writing

Terms for Review

24. Poetry and Personal Identity  

Confessional Poetry

    Sylvia Plath, Lady Lazarus  

Identity Poetics

    Rhina Espaillat, Bilingual/Bilingüe  

Culture, Race, and Ethnicity  

    Claude McKay, America  

    Judith Ortiz Cofer, Quiñceañera  

    *Sherman Alexie, The Powwow at the End of the World

    Yusef Komunyakaa, Facing It  

Gender  

    *Bettie Sellers, In the Counselor's Waiting Room

    Donald Justice, Men at Forty  

    Adrienne Rich, Women  

For Review and Further Study  

    Shirley Geok-lin Lim, Learning to Love America  

    *Philip Larkin, Aubade  

Writing Effectively

Writers on Writing  

    Rhina Espaillat, Being a Bilingual Writer  

Thinking About Poetry of Personal Identity  

Checklist:  Writing About Voice and Personal Identity

Writing Assignment on Personal Identity  

More Topics for Writing

25. Poetry in Spanish: Literature of Latin America  

    Sor Juana, Presente en que el Cariño 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, Amorosa Anticipación  

    Translated by Robert Fitzgerald, Anticipation of Love  

    Octavio Paz, Con los ojos cerrados  

    Translated by Eliot Weinberger, With Eyes Closed

Surrealism in Latin American Poetry  

    Frida Kahlo, The Two Fridas  

    César Vallejo, La cólera que quiebra al hombre en niños  

    Translated by Thomas Merton, Anger  

Writers on Translating  

    Alastair Reid, Translating Neruda  

Writing Assignment on Spanish Poetry  

More Topics for Writing  

26. 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  

    Elizabeth Bishop, One Art  

    *W. H. Auden, September 1, 1939  

    *Walt Whitman, O Captain! My Captain!  

    Paul Laurence Dunbar, We Wear the Mask  

    Emma Lazarus, The New Colossus  

    Edgar Allan Poe, Annabel Lee  

Writing Effectively

Writers on Writing  

    Edgar Allan Poe, A Long Poem Does Not Exist  

Thinking About an Evaluation  

Checklist: Writing an Evaluation 

Writing Assignment on Evaluating a Poem  

More Topics for Writing  

27. What Is Poetry?  

    *Archibald MacLeish, Ars Poetica  

    Dante, Samuel Johnson, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, William Wordsworth, Thomas Carlyle, Thomas Hardy, Emily Dickinson, Gerard Manley Hopkins, Robert Frost, Wallace Stevens, Mina Loy, T. S. Eliot, W. H. Auden, J. V. Cunningham, Elizabeth Bishop, Jorge Luis Borges, Octavio Paz, William Stafford, Robert Bly, José Garcia Villa, Charles Simic, Christopher Fry, Joy Harjo, Some Definitions of Poetry  –

28. Two Critical Casebooks
Emily Dickinson and Langston Hughes  

Emily Dickinson  

    Success is counted sweetest  

    Wild Nights – Wild Nights!  

    *There’s a certain Slant of light

    I Felt a Funeral, in my Brain  

    I’m Nobody! Who are you?  

    The Soul selects her own Society  

    After great pain, a formal feeling comes  

    *Much Madness is divinest Sense

    *This is my letter to the World  

    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 Emily Dickinson

    Recognizing Poetry  

    Self-Description  

Critics on Emily Dickinson  

    Thomas Wentworth Higginson, Meeting 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”)  

Langston Hughes  

    The Negro Speaks of Rivers  

    *My People

    Mother to Son  

    Dream Variations  

    I, Too  

    The Weary Blues  

    *Prayer  

    Ballad of the Landlord  

    Theme for English B  

    *Subway Rush Hour  

    Harlem [Dream Deferred]  

    *Homecoming

Langston Hughes on Langston Hughes

    The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain  

    The Harlem Renaissance  

Critics on Langston Hughes

    Arnold Rampersad, Hughes as an Experimentalist  

    Rita Dove and Marilyn Nelson, Langston Hughes and Harlem  

    Darryl Pinckney, Black Identity in Langston Hughes  

    Onwuchekwa Jemie, A Reading of “Dream Deferred”  

Topics for Writing About Emily Dickinson  

Topics for Writing About Langston Hughes  

29. Critical Casebook: T. S. Eliot’s “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock”  

T. S. Eliot  

    The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock  

Publishing “Prufrock”

T. S. Eliot on Writing

    Poetry and Emotion  

    The Difficulty of Poetry  

Critics on “Prufrock”

    Denis Donoghue, One of the Irrefutable Poets  

    Philip R. Headings, The Pronouns in the Poem: “One,” “You,” and “I”  

    Maud Ellmann, Will There Be Time?  

    Burton Raffel, “Indeterminacy” in Eliot’s Poetry  

Topics for Writing  

30. Poems for Further Reading  

    *Aaron Abeyeta, thirteen ways of looking at a tortilla    

    Anonymous, Lord Randall  

    Anonymous , Last Words of the Prophet  

    Matthew Arnold, Dover Beach  

    John Ashbery, At North Farm  

    Margaret Atwood, Siren Song  

    W. H. Auden, As I Walked Out One Evening  

    W. H. Auden, Musée des Beaux Arts  

    *Jimmy Baca, Spliced Wire

    Elizabeth Bishop, Filling Station  

    William Blake, The Tyger  

    *William Blake, The Sick Rose  

    *Gwendolyn Brooks, The Mother  

    *Gwendolyn Brooks, The Rites for Cousin Vit

    Elizabeth Barrett Browning, How Do I Love Thee? Let Me Count the Ways  

    Robert Browning, Soliloquy of the Spanish Cloister  

    *John  Ciardi, Most Like an Arch This Marriage

    Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Kubla Khan  

    Billy Collins, Care and Feeding  

    *Hart Crane, My Grandmother’s Love Letters  

    E. E. Cummings, somewhere i have never travelled, gladly beyond  

    Marisa de los Santos, Perfect Dress  

    John Donne, Death be not proud  

    John Donne, The Flea  

    *John Donne, A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning  

    *Rita Dove, Daystar

    *T. S. Eliot, Journey of the Magi  

    Robert Frost, Birches  

    Robert Frost, Mending Wall  

    Robert Frost, Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening  

    Allen Ginsberg, A Supermarket in California  

    *Donald Hall, Names of Horses  

    Thomas Hardy, The Convergence of the Twain  

   * Thomas Hardy, The Darkling Thrush  

    Seamus Heaney, Digging  

    *Anthony Hecht, The Vow

    George Herbert, Love  

    Robert Herrick, To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time  

    *Tony Hoagland, Beauty

    Gerard Manley Hopkins, Spring and Fall  

    Gerard Manley Hopkins, The Windhover  

    A. E. Housman, Loveliest of trees, the cherry now  

    A. E. Housman, To an Athlete Dying Young  

    Randall Jarrell, The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner  

    Robinson Jeffers, To the Stone-cutters  

    Ben Jonson, On My First Son  

    Donald Justice, On the Death of Friends in Childhood  

    John Keats, Ode on a Grecian Urn  

    *John Keats, When I have fears that I may cease to be  

    *John Keats, To Autumn  

    Ted Kooser, Abandoned Farmhouse  

    Philip Larkin, Home is so Sad  

    *Philip Larkin, Poetry of Departures  

    D. H. Lawrence, Piano  

    Denise Levertov, The Ache of Marriage  

    *Li-Po, Translated by Arthur Waley, Drinking Alone by Moonlight

    *Shirley Geok-lin Lim, To Li Po

    Robert Lowell, Skunk Hour  

    Andrew Marvell, To His Coy Mistress  

    Edna St. Vincent Millay, Recuerdo  

    John Milton, When I consider how my light is spent  

    Marianne Moore, Poetry  

    Marilyn Nelson, A Strange Beautiful Woman  

    Howard Nemerov, The War in the Air  

    *Lorine Niedecker, Sorrow Moves in Wide Waves

    Sharon Olds, The One Girl at the Boys’ Party  

    Wilfred Owen, Anthem for Doomed Youth  

    Linda Pastan, Ethics  

    Sylvia Plath, Daddy  

    *Edgar Allan Poe, A Dream within a Dream  

    Alexander Pope, A little Learning is a dang’rous Thing  

    Ezra Pound, The River-Merchant’s Wife: A Letter  

    Dudley Randall, A Different Image  

    John Crowe Ransom, Piazza Piece  

    Henry Reed, Naming of Parts  

    Adrienne Rich, Living in Sin  

    Edwin Arlington Robinson, Miniver Cheevy  

    Theodore Roethke, Elegy for Jane  

    Bettie Sellers, In the Counselor’s Waiting Room

    William Shakespeare, When, in disgrace with Fortune and men’s eyes  

    *William Shakespeare, Not marble nor the gilded monuments  

    William Shakespeare, That time of year thou mayst in me behold  

    William Shakespeare, My mistress’ eyes are nothing likethe sun  

    *Charles Simic , The Butcher Shop

    *William Stafford, The Farm on the Great Plains  

    Wallace Stevens, The Emperor of Ice-Cream  

    *Jonathan Swift, A Description of the Morning  

    Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Ulysses  

    Dylan Thomas, Fern Hill  

    John Updike, Ex-Basketball Player  

    Derek Walcott, The Virgins  

    Walt Whitman, from Song of the Open Road  

    Walt Whitman, I Hear America Singing  

    Richard Wilbur, The Writer  

    William Carlos Williams, Spring and All  

    *William Carlos Williams, To Waken an Old Lady  

    William Wordsworth, Composed upon Westminster Bridge  

    James Wright, A Blessing  

    Mary Sidney Wroth, In this strange labyrinth  

    William Butler Yeats, Crazy Jane Talks with the Bishop  

    *William Butler Yeats, The Magi  

    William Butler Yeats, When You Are Old  

Drama

Talking with David Ives

31. Reading a Play  

Theatrical Conventions

Elements of a Play       

    Susan Glaspell, Trifles  

Analyzing Trifles    

Writing Effectively

Writers on Writing  

    Susan Glaspell, Creating Trifles  

Thinking About a Play  

Checklist: Writing about a Play  

Writing Assignment on Conflict

More Topics for Writing

Terms for Review

32. Modes of Drama: Tragedy and Comedy  

Tragedy  

    Christopher Marlowe, scene From Doctor Faustus (act 2, scene 1)

Comedy  

    *David Ives, Soap Opera

Writing Effectively

Writers on Writing  

    David Ives, On the one-act play  

Thinking About Comedy

Checklist: Writing about Comedy

Writing Assignment on Comedy

Topics for Writing on Tragedy

Topics for Writing on Comedy

Terms for Review

33. Critical Casebook: Sophocles  

The Theater of Sophocles  

The Civic Role of Greek Drama  

Aristotle’s Concept of Tragedy  

Sophocles  

The Origins of Oedipus the King  

    Sophocles, Oedipus the King (Translated by Dudley Fitts and Robert Fitzgerald)  

Critics on Sophocles

    Aristotle, Defining Tragedy  

    Sigmund Freud, The Destiny of Oedipus  

    E. R. Dodds, On Misunderstanding Oedipus  

    A. E. Haigh, The Irony of Sophocles  

    David Wiles, The Chorus as Democrat  

Writing Effectively

Writers on Writing  

    Robert Fitzgerald, Translating Sophocles into English  

Thinking About Greek Tragedy  

Checklist: Writing About Greek Drama  

Writing Assignment on Sophocles  

More Topics for Writing  

Terms for Review

34. Critical Casebook: Shakespeare  

The Theater of Shakespeare  

William Shakespeare  

Plays  

A Note on Othello  

    William Shakespeare, Othello, the Moor of Venice  

Critics on Shakespeare

    Anthony Burgess, An Asian Culture Looks at Shakespeare  

    W. H. Auden, Iago as a Triumphant Villain  

    Maud Bodkin, Lucifer in Shakespeare’s Othello  

    Virginia Mason Vaughan, Black and White in Othello  

    Clare Asquith, Shakespeare’s Language as a Hidden Political Code  

Writing Effectively

Writers on Writing  

    Ben Jonson, On His Friend and Rival William Shakespeare  

*Understanding Shakespeare

Thinking About Shakespeare  

*Checklist: Writing About Shakespeare  

Writing Assignment on Tragedy  

    Student Paper, Othello: Tragedy or Soap Opera?  

More Topics for Writing  

35. The Modern Theater 

Realism

Naturalism  

Symbolism and Expressionism

American Modernism

Tragicomedy and the Absurd

Return to Realism

Experimental Drama

    *Henrik Ibsen, A Doll’s House (Translated by R. Farquharson Sharp, Revised by Viktoria Michelsen)  

        Writers on Writing

            Henrik Ibsen, Correspondence on the Final Scene of A Doll’s House  

    Tennessee Williams, The Glass Menagerie  

        Writers on Writing

            Tennessee Williams, How to Stage The Glass Menagerie  

    Anna Deavere Smithn scenes from twilight: los angeles, 1992

        Writers on Writing  

            Anna Deavere Smith, A Call to the Community  

Writing Effectively

Thinking About Dramatic Realism  

Checklist: Writing About Realism  

Writing Assignment on Realism  

    Student Essay, Helmer vs. Helmer  

More Topics for Writing  

Terms for Review

36. Plays for Further Reading  

    Rita Dove, The Darker Face of the Earth  

        Writers on Writing  

            Rita Dove, The Inspiration for The Darker Face of the Earth  

    David Henry Hwang, The Sound of a Voice  

        Writers on Writing  

            David Henry Hwang, Multicultural Theater  

    Arthur Miller, Death of a Salesman  

        Writers on Writing  

            Arthur Miller, Tragedy and the Common Man  

    August Wilson, Fences  

        Writers on Writing

            August Wilson, A Look into Black America  

WRITING

37. Writing about Literature

Read Actively

   Robert Frost, Nothing Gold Can Stay

Plan Your Essay

Discover Your Ideas

    Sample Student Prewriting Exercises

Developing a Literary Argument

Checklist

    Developing an Argument

Writing a Rough Draft

    Sample Student Paper (Rough Draft)

Checklist

    Revise Your Draft

Some Final Advice on Rewriting

    Sample Student Paper (Revised Draft)

Document Sources to Avoid Plagiarism

The Form of Your Finished Paper

38. Writing About a Story

Read Actively

Think About the Story

Discover Ideas

    Sample Student Prewriting Exercises

Write a Rough Draft

Checklist

    Writing a Rough Draft

Revise Your Draft

Checklist

    Revising Your Draft

What’s Your Purpose? Common Approaches to Writing about Fiction

Topics for Writing

39. Writing about a Poem

Read Actively

    Robert Frost, Design

Think About the Poem

Discover Your Ideas

    Sample Student Prewriting Exercises

Write a Rough Draft

Checklist

    Writing a Rough Draft

Revise Your Draft

    Checklist

        Revising Your Draft

Common Approaches to Writing about Poetry

How to Quote a Poem

Topics for Writing

    Robert Frost, In White

40. Writing about a Play

Read Critically

Common Approaches to Writing about Drama

How to Quote a Play

Topics for Writing

41. Writing a Research Paper

Browse the Research

Choose a Topic

Begin Your Research

Evaluate Sources

Organize Your Research

Refine Your Thesis

Organize Your Paper

Write and Revise

Maintain Academic Integrity

Acknowledge All Sources

Documenting Sources Using MLA Style

Reference Guide for Citation

42. Writing an Essay Exam

Preparing for the Exam    

Taking the Exam

43.  Critical Approaches to Literature

Formalist Criticism

    Cleanth Brooks, The Formalist Critic

    *Robert Langbaum, On Robert Browning's "My Last Duchess"

Biographical Criticism

    Brett C. Millier, On Elizabeth Bishop's "One Art"

    Emily Toth, The Source for AlcÉé LaballiÈre in "The Storm"

Historical Criticism

    Hugh Kenner, Imagism

    *Joseph Moldenhauer, "To His Coy Mistress" and the Renaissance Tradition

Psychological Criticism

    Sigmund Freud, The Nature of Dreams

    Gretchen Schulz and R.J.R. Rockwood, Fairy Tale Motifs in "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?"

Mythological Criticism

    Carl Jung, The Collective Unconscious and Archetypes

    Edmond Volpe, Myth in Faulkner's "Barn Burning"

Sociological Criticism

    Georg Lukacs, Content Determines Form

    Alfred Kazin, Walt Whitman and Abraham Lincoln

Gender Criticism

    Nina Pelikan Straus, Transformations in The Metamorhposis

    *Richard R. Bozorth, "Tell Me the Truth About Love"

Reader-Response Criticism

    Stanley Fish, An Eskimo "A Rose for Emily"

    Robert R. Bozorth, "Tell Me the Truth About Love"

Deconstructionist Criticism

    Roland Barthes, The Death of the Author

    Barbara Johnson, Rigorous Unreliability

Cultural Studies

    Vincent B. Leitch, Postconstructionalist Cultural Critique

    Camille Pagilla, A Reading of William Blake's "The Chimney Sweeper"

Terms for Review