Resources for Reading and Writing about Literature
Preface for Instructors

Introduction: Reading Imaginative Literature
The Nature of Literature
     Emily Dickinson, A Narrow Fellow in the Grass
The Value of Literature
The Changing Literary Canon

 

 

THE ELEMENTS OF FICTION

 

1. Reading Fiction
Reading Fiction Responsively
     Kate Chopin, The Story of an Hour
A SAMPLE CLOSE READING: An Annotated Section of Kate Chopin's “The Story of an Hour”
A SAMPLE PAPER: Differences in Responses to Kate Chopin's “The Story of an Hour”
Explorations and Formulas
A Comparison of Two Stories
     Karen van der Zee, From A Secret Sorrow
     Gail Godwin, A Sorrowful Woman
PERSPECTIVES
     Kay Mussell, Are Feminism and Romance Novels Mutually Exclusive?
     Thomas Jefferson, On the Dangers of Reading Fiction
Encountering Fiction: Comics and Graphic Stories
* Gene Luen Yang, From American Born Chinese

 

2. Writing about Fiction
From Reading to Writing
QUESTIONS FOR RESPONSIVE READING AND WRITING
A SAMPLE PAPER IN PROGRESS
A First Response to A Secret Sorrow and “A Sorrowful Woman”
A Sample Brainstorming List
A Sample First Draft: Separate Sorrows
A Sample Second Draft: Separate Sorrows
Final Paper: Ful?llment or Failure? Marriage in A Secret Sorrow and “A Sorrowful Woman”

 

3. Plot
     Edgar Rice Burroughs, From Tarzan of the Apes

     * Alice Walker, The Flowers
     William Faulkner, A Rose for Emily
PERSPECTIVE: William Faulkner, On “A Rose for Emily”
A SAMPLE CLOSE READING: An Annotated Section of William Faulkner's “A Rose for Emily”
A SAMPLE STUDENT RESPONSE: Con?ict in the Plot of William Faulkner's “A Rose for Emily”
     Andre Dubus, Killings
PERSPECTIVE: A. L. Bader, Nothing Happens in Modern Short Stories
Encountering Fiction: Comics and Graphic Stories

     * Edward Gorey, From The Hapless Child

 

4. Character
     Charles Dickens, From Hard Times
A SAMPLE STUDENT RESPONSE: Character Development in Charles Dickens's Hard Times
     Herman Melville, Bartleby, the Scrivener  
PERSPECTIVES
     Nathaniel Hawthorne, On Herman Melville's Philosophic Stance
Dan McCall, On the Lawyer's Character in “Bartleby, the Scrivener”
     * Junot Diaz, Fiesta, 1980
Encountering Fiction: Comics and Graphic Stories
     * Lynda Barry, Spelling

 

5. Setting
     Ernest Hemingway, Soldier's Home
PERSPECTIVE: Ernest Hemingway, On What Every Writer Needs
     Fay Weldon, IND AFF, or Out of Love in Sarajevo
PERSPECTIVE: Fay Weldon, On the Importance of Place in “IND AFF”
A SAMPLE STUDENT RESPONSE: The Signi?cance of Setting in Fay Weldon's “IND AFF”
 
6. Point of View
Third-Person Narrator
First-Person Narrator
     * Robert Olen Butler, Jealous Husband Returns in Form of Parrot
     Anton Chekhov, The Lady with the Pet Dog
PERSPECTIVES: Two Additional Translations of the Final Paragraphs of Anton Chekhov's “The Lady with the Pet Dog”
     Anton Chekhov, From “The Lady and the Dog”
     Anton Chekhov, From “A Lady with a Dog”
PERSPECTIVE: Anton Chekhov, On Morality in Fiction
     Joyce Carol Oates, The Lady with the Pet Dog
PERSPECTIVE: Matthew C. Brennan, Point of View and Plotting in Chekhov's and Oates's “The Lady with the Pet Dog”
A SAMPLE STUDENT RESPONSE: Two Versions of the Same Story: Point of View in Chekhov's and Oates's “The Lady with the Pet Dog”
Encountering Fiction: Comics and Graphic Stories
     * Marjane Satrapi, “The Trip,” From Persepolis

 

7. Symbolism
     Colette, The Hand
     Ralph Ellison, Battle Royal
PERSPECTIVE: Mordecai Marcus, What Is an Initiation Story?
A SAMPLE CLOSE READING: An Annotated Section of Ralph Ellison's “Battle Royal”
A SAMPLE STUDENT RESPONSE: Symbolism in Ralph Ellison's “Battle Royal”
     * Michael Oppenheimer, The Paring Knife

 

8. Theme
     Stephen Crane, The Bride Comes to Yellow Sky
     Katherine Mansfield, Miss Brill
     Dagoberto Gilb, Love in L.A.
A SAMPLE STUDENT RESPONSE: The Theme of Deception in Dagoberto Gilb's “Love in L.A.”

 

9. Style, Tone, and Irony
Style
Tone
Irony
     Raymond Carver, Popular Mechanics
A SAMPLE STUDENT RESPONSE: The Terse Style of Raymond Carver's “Popular Mechanics”
     Susan Minot, Lust
     Tim O'Brien, How to Tell a True War Story
     * Rick Moody, Boys
Encountering Fiction: Comics and Graphic Stories
     * Matt Groening, Life in Hell

 

10. Combining the Elements of Fiction: A Writing Process
The Elements Together
Mapping the Story
     David Updike, Summer
QUESTIONS FOR WRITING: DEVELOPING A TOPIC INTO A REVISED THESIS
A Sample Brainstorming List
A Sample First Thesis
A Sample Revised Thesis
A SAMPLE STUDENT RESPONSE: Plot and Setting in David Updike's “Summer”

Approaches to Fiction

 

11. A Study of Nathaniel Hawthorne
A Brief Biography and Introduction
     Nathaniel Hawthorne, Young Goodman Brown
     Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Minister's Black Veil
     Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Birthmark
PERSPECTIVES ON HAWTHORNE
     Nathaniel Hawthorne, On Solitude
     Nathaniel Hawthorne, On the Power of the Writer's Imagination
     Nathaniel Hawthorne, On His Short Stories
     Herman Melville, On Nathaniel Hawthorne's Tragic Vision  
     Gaylord Brewer, “The Joys of Secret Sin”

 

12. A Study of Flannery O'Connor
A Brief Biography and Introduction
     Flannery O'Connor, A Good Man Is Hard to Find
     Flannery O'Connor, Good Country People
     Flannery O'Connor, Revelation
PERSPECTIVES ON O'CONNOR
     Flannery O'Connor, On Faith
     Flannery O'Connor, On the Materials of Fiction
     Flannery O'Connor, On the Use of Exaggeration and Distortion
     Flannery O'Connor, On Theme and Symbol
     Josephine Hendin, On O'Connor's Refusal to “Do Pretty”
     Claire Kahane, The Function of Violence in O'Connor's Fiction
     Edward Kessler, On O'Connor's Use of History
     TIME Magazine, On “A Good Man is Hard to Find”

 

* 13. A Cultural Case Study: James Joyce's “Eveline”
* A Brief Biography and Introduction
     * James Joyce, Eveline
* Documents
     * The Alliance Temperance Almanack, On the Resources of Ireland
     * Bridget Burke, A Letter Home from an Irish Emigrant
* A Plot Synopsis of The Bohemian Girl

 

14. A Thematic Case Study: The Literature of the South
     map: U.S. Bureau of the Census, “The South”
     essay: John Shelton Reed and Dale Volberg Reed, Definitions of the South
     essay: W. J. Cash, The Old and the New South
     movie still: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Gone with the Wind
     etching: Currier and Ives, The Old Plantation Home
     essay: Irving Howe, The Southern Myth
     painting: John Richards, The Battle of Gettysburg, 1863
     essay: Flannery O'Connor, The Regional Writer
     painting: Clyde Broadway, Trinity - Elvis, Jesus, and Robert E. Lee
     photo: Ernest C. Withers, “Bus Station, Colored Waiting Room, Memphis, Tennessee”
     essay: Margaret Walker, The Southern Writer and Race
     photo: Library of Congress, Elizabeth Eckford at Little Rock Central High School
     photo: Ernest C. Withers, “Sanitation Workers' Strike, Memphis, Tennessee”
     collage: Romare Bearden, Watching the Good Trains Go By
     essay: Donald R. Noble, The Future of Southern Writing
     essay: Lee Smith, On Southern Change and Permanence

 

15. A Thematic Case Study: Humor and Satire
     E. Annie Proulx, 55 Miles to the Gas Pump
     T. Coraghessan Boyle, Carnal Knowledge
     * Ron Hansen, My Kid's Dog
     * Joyce Carol Oates, Hi Howya Doin'
     Mark Twain, The Story of the Good Little Boy

 

* 16. Remarkably Short-Short Stories
     * Ron Carlson, Max 
     * Mark Halliday, Young Man on Sixth Ave
     * David Foster Wallace, Incarnations of Burned Children
     * Lydia Davis, Letter to a Funeral Parlor
     Peter Meinke, The Cranes
     * Terry L. Tilton, That Settles That

 

A Collection of Stories

 

17. An Album of Contemporary Stories
     Amy Bloom, By-and-by
     * John Updike, Outage
     * Xu Xi, Famine

 

18. Stories for Further Reading
     Jamaica Kincaid, Girl
     * Jack London, To Build a Fire
     * Katherine Mansfield, The Fly
     Edgar Allan Poe, The Cask of Amontillado
     Katherine Anne Porter, The Witness
     John Updike, A & P

 

 

THE ELEMENTS OF POETRY
 
19. Reading Poetry
Reading Poetry Responsively
     Marge Piercy, The Secretary Chant
     Robert Hayden, Those Winter Sundays
     John Updike, Dog's Death
The Pleasure of Words
     William Hathaway, Oh, Oh  
A SAMPLE CLOSE READING: An Annotated Version of William Hathaway's “Oh, Oh”
     Robert Francis, Catch
A SAMPLE STUDENT ANALYSIS: Tossing Metaphors Together in Robert Francis's “Catch”
     Elizabeth Bishop, The Fish   
     Philip Larkin, A Study of Reading Habits
     Robert Morgan, Mountain Graveyard
     E. E. Cummings, l(a  
     Anonymous, Western Wind
     Regina Barreca, Nighttime Fires
SUGGESTIONS FOR APPROACHING POETRY
     Billy Collins, Introduction to Poetry  
Encountering Poetry: Images of Poetry in Popular Culture
     poster: Dorothy Parker, Unfortunate Coincidence
     photo: Carl Sandburg, Window
     cartoon: Roz Chast, The Love Song of J. Alfred Crew
     photo: Tim Taylor, I shake the delicate apparatus
     poster: Eric Dunn and Mike Wigton, National Poetry Slam
     * photo: Kevin Fleming, Poetry Reading at Nuyorican Poets Café
     web screen: Poetry-portal.com
     web screen: Ted Kooser, American Life in Poetry
     column: David Allan Evans, Neighbors
Poetry in Popular Forms
     Helen Farries, Magic of Love
     John Frederick Nims, Love Poem
     Bruce Springsteen, You're Missing
     S. Pearl Sharp, It's the Law: A Rap Poem
PERSPECTIVE: Robert Francis, On “Hard” Poetry
Poems for Further Study
     * Peter Pereira, Anagrammer
     * Mary Oliver, The Poet with His Face in His Hands
     Alberto Ríos, Seniors
     Alfred Lord Tennyson, Crossing the Bar

 

20. Writing about Poetry
From Reading to Writing
QUESTIONS FOR RESPONSIVE READING AND WRITING
     Elizabeth Bishop, Manners
A SAMPLE CLOSE READING: An Annotated Version of Elizabeth Bishop's “Manners”  
A SAMPLE STUDENT ANALYSIS: Memory in Elizabeth Bishop's “Manners”

 

21. Word Choice, Word Order, and Tone
Word Choice
     Randall Jarrell, The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner
Word Order
Tone
     Judith Ortiz Cofer, Common Ground
     Colette Inez, Back When All Was Continuous Chuckles 
     Kathryn Howd Machan, Hazel Tells LaVerne
SAMPLE STUDENT RESPONSE: The Tone of Kathryn Howd Machan's “Hazel Tells LaVerne”
     Martín Espada, Latin Night at the Pawnshop
     Paul Lawrence Dunbar, To a Captious Critic
Diction and Tone in Four Love Poems
     Robert Herrick, To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time  
     Andrew Marvell, To His Coy Mistress  
     Ann Lauinger, Marvell Noir
     Sharon Olds, Last Night
Poems for Further Study
     Thomas Hardy, The Convergence of the Twain
     David R. Slavitt, Titanic
     * Mary Oliver, Oxygen
     * Cathy Song, The Youngest Daughter
     John Keats, Ode on A Grecian Urn
     Gwendolyn Brooks, We Real Cool
     Joan Murray, We Old Dudes
     Louis Simpson, In the Suburbs
     * Herbert Lomas, The Fly's Poem about Emily
Poets at Play
     Billy Collins, Taking Off Emily Dickinson's Clothes
     Joan Murray, Taking Off Billy Collins's Clothes
     postcard: Billy Collins, To Joan Murray
A Note on Reading Translations
Three Translations of a Poem by Sappho
    Sappho, Immortal Aphrodite of the broidered throne (translated by Henry T. Wharton) 
    Sappho, Beautiful-throned, immortal Aphrodite (translated by T. W. Higginson) 
    Sappho, Prayer to my lady of Paphos (translated by Mary Barnard)
Two Translations of a Poem by Pablo Neruda 
     Pablo Neruda, Verbo (original Spanish version)
     Pablo Neruda, Verbo (translated by Ben Belitt)
     Pablo Neruda, Verbo (translated by Kristin Linklater)
   
22. Images
Poetry's Appeal to the Senses
     William Carlos Williams, Poem
     Walt Whitman, Cavalry Crossing a Ford
     David Solway, Windsurfing
     Theodore Roethke, Root Cellar
     Matthew Arnold, Dover Beach
     Jimmy Santiago Baca, Green Chile
Poems for Further Study
     Amy Lowell, The Pond
     * Ruth Fainlight, Crocuses
     Mary Robinson, London's Summer Morning
     William Blake, London
A SAMPLE STUDENT RESPONSE: Imagery in William Blake's “London” and Mary Robinson's “London's Summer Morning”
     Wilfred Owen, Dulce et Decorum Est
     Rainer Maria Rilke, The Panther
     * Donna Masini, Slowly
     Sally Croft, Home-Baked Bread
     John Keats, To Autumn
     * C.K. Williams, Shock
     Ezra Pound, In a Station of the Metro
     * Cathy Song, The White Porch
PERSPECTIVE: T. E. Hulme, On the Differences between Poetry and Prose

 

23. Figures of Speech
     William Shakespeare, From Macbeth (Act V, Scene V)
Simile and Metaphor
     Margaret Atwood, you fit into me   
     Emily Dickinson, Presentiment-is that long Shadow-on the lawn-
     Anne Bradstreet, The Author to Her Book
     * Jay Rogoff, Death's Theatre
Other Figures
     Edmund Conti, Pragmatist
     Dylan Thomas, The Hand That Signed the Paper
     Janice Townley Moore, To a Wasp
     J. Patrick Lewis, The Unkindest Cut
Poems for Further Study
     Gary Snyder, How Poetry Comes to Me
A SAMPLE STUDENT RESPONSE: Metaphor in Gary Snyder's “How Poetry Comes to Me”
     Margaret Atwood, February  
     William Carlos Williams, To Waken an Old Lady
     Ernest Slyman, Lightning Bugs
     Judy Page Heitzman, The Schoolroom on the Second Floor of the Knitting Mill
     William Wordsworth, London, 1802
     Jim Stevens, Schizophrenia
     * Walt Whitman, A Noiseless Patient Spider
     John Donne, A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning
     Linda Pastan, Marks
     * Kay Ryan, Hailstorm
     * Elaine Magarrell, The Joy of Cooking
     Ruth Fainlight, The Clarinettist
PERSPECTIVE: John R. Searle, Figuring Out Metaphors

 

24. Symbol, Allegory, and Irony
Symbol
     Robert Frost, Acquainted with the Night
Allegory
     Edgar Allan Poe, The Haunted Palace
Irony
     Edwin Arlington Robinson, Richard Cory
A SAMPLE STUDENT RESPONSE: Irony in Edwin Arlington Robinson's “Richard Cory”
     Kenneth Fearing, AD
     E. E. Cummings, next to of course god america i
     Stephen Crane, A Man Said to the Universe
Poems for Further Study
     Bob Hicok, Making it in Poetry
     Jane Kenyon, Surprise
     Martín Espada, Bully
     * Kevin Pierce, Proof of Origin
     Carl Sandburg, Buttons
     Wallace Stevens, Anecdote of the Jar
     * May Swenson, All That Time
     William Stafford, Traveling through the Dark
     Julio Marzán, Ethnic Poetry
     Mark Halliday, Graded Paper
     * Charles Simic, The Storm
     James Merrill, Casual Wear
     Henry Reed, Naming of Parts
     Rachel Hadas, The Compact
     * Bruce Weigl, Snowy Egret
     Robert Browning, My Last Duchess
     William Blake, The Chimney Sweeper
PERSPECTIVE: Ezra Pound, On Symbols

 

25. Sounds
Listening to Poetry
     Anonymous, Scarborough Fair
     John Updike, Player Piano
     May Swenson, A Nosty Fright
     Emily Dickinson, A Bird came down the Walk-
A SAMPLE STUDENT RESPONSE: Sound in Emily Dickinson's “A Bird came down the Walk-”
     Galway Kinnell, Blackberry Eating
Rhyme
     Richard Armour, Going to Extremes
     Robert Southey, From “The Cataract of Lodore”
PERSPECTIVE: David Lenson, On the Contemporary Use of Rhyme
Sound and Meaning
     Gerard Manley Hopkins, God's Grandeur
Poems for Further Study
     * Molly Peacock, Of Night
     Lewis Carroll (Charles Lutwidge Dodgson), Jabberwocky
     * Harryette Mullen, Blah-Blah
     William Heyen, The Trains  
     John Donne, Song
     Alexander Pope, From An Essay on Criticism
     Haki R. Madhbuti, The B Network
      * Andrew Hudgins, The Cow
     Paul Humphrey, Blow
     Robert Francis, The Pitcher
     Helen Chasin, The Word Plum
     * Richard Wakefield, The Bell Rope
     * John Keats, Ode to a Nightingale

 

26. Patterns of Rhythm
Some Principles of Meter
     Walt Whitman, From “Song of the Open Road”
     William Wordsworth, My Heart Leaps Up
SUGGESTIONS FOR SCANNING A POEM
     Timothy Steele, Waiting for the Storm
A SAMPLE STUDENT RESPONSE: The Rhythm of Anticipation in Timothy Steele's “Waiting for the Storm”
     William Butler Yeats, That the Night Come
Poems for Further Study
     * Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Break, Break, Break
     Alice Jones, The Foot
     A. E. Housman, When I was one-and-twenty
     Rita Dove, Fox Trot Fridays
     Robert Herrick, Delight in Disorder
     Ben Jonson, Still to Be Neat
     * Sonia Sanchez, Summer Words of a Sistuh Addict
     William Blake, The Lamb
     William Blake, The Tyger
     Carl Sandburg, Chicago
     * Mark Doty, Tunnel Music
     * Mark Turpin, Sledgehammer's Song
     Alfred, Lord Tennyson, The Charge of the Light Brigade
     Theodore Roethke, My Papa's Waltz
PERSPECTIVE: Louise Bogan, On Formal Poetry

 

27. Poetic Forms
Some Common Poetic Forms
     A. E. Housman, Loveliest of trees, the cherry now
     Robert Herrick, Upon Julia's Clothes
Sonnet
     John Keats, On First Looking into Chapman's Homer
     William Wordsworth, The World Is Too Much with Us
     William Shakespeare, Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
     William Shakespeare, My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun
     Edna St. Vincent Millay, I will put Chaos into fourteen lines
A SAMPLE STUDENT RESPONSE: The Fixed Form in Edna St. Vincent Millay's “I will put Chaos into fourteen lines”
     Molly Peacock, Desire
     Mark Jarman, Unholy Sonnet
     * X.J. Kennedy, “The Purpose of Time is to Prevent Everything from Happening at Once”
     * Jim Tilley, Boys
Villanelle
     Dylan Thomas, Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night  
     Wendy Cope, Lonely Hearts
Sestina
     Algernon Charles Swinburne, Sestina
     Florence Cassen Mayers, All-American Sestina
Epigram
     Samuel Taylor Coleridge, What Is an Epigram?
     A. R. Ammons, Coward
     David McCord, Epitaph on a Waiter
     Paul Lawrence Dunbar, Theology
Limerick
     Anonymous, There was a young lady named Bright
     Laurence Perrine, The limerick's never averse
Haiku
     Matsuo Bash_, Under cherry trees
     Carolyn Kizer, After Bash_
     Sonia Sanchez, c'mon man hold me
Elegy
     Theodore Roethke, Elegy for Jane
     * Brendan Galvin, An Evel Knievel Elegy
Ode
     Percy Bysshe Shelley, Ode to the West Wind
     * Baron Wormser, Labor
Picture Poem
     Michael McFee, In Medias Res
Parody
     Blanche Farley, The Lover Not Taken
PERSPECTIVE: Elaine Mitchell, Form

 

28. Open Form
     E. E. Cummings, in Just-
     Walt Whitman, From “I Sing the Body Electric”  
PERSPECTIVE: Walt Whitman, On Rhyme and Meter
A SAMPLE STUDENT RESPONSE: The Power of Walt Whitman's Open Form Poem “I Sing the Body Electric”
     Louis Jenkins, The Prose Poem
     Richard Hague, Directions for Resisting the SAT
     Galway Kinnell, After Making Love We Hear Footsteps
     Kelly Cherry, Alzheimer's
     William Carlos Williams, The Red Wheelbarrow
     Marilyn Nelson Waniek, Emily Dickinson's Defunct
     * Jeffrey Harrison, The Names of Things
     Julio Marzán, The Translator at the Reception for Latin American Writers
     * Todd Boss, Advance
     Anonymous, The Frog
     Tato Laviera, AmeRícan
     Peter Meinke, The ABC of Aerobics
     * Sandra M. Gilbert, Chairlift
Found Poem
     Donald Justice, Order in the Streets  

 

29. Combining the Elements of Poetry: A Writing Process
The Elements Together
Mapping the Poem
     John Donne, Death Be Not Proud
Asking Questions about the Elements
A SAMPLE CLOSE READING: An Annotated Version of John Donne's “Death Be Not Proud”
A SAMPLE FIRST RESPONSE
Organizing Your Thoughts
A SAMPLE INFORMAL OUTLINE
The Elements and Theme
A SAMPLE EXPLICATION: The Use of Conventional Metaphors for Death in John Donne's “Death Be Not Proud”

Approaches to Poetry
 
30. A Study of Emily Dickinson
A Brief Biography
An Introduction to Her Work
Emily Dickinson
     If I can stop one Heart from breaking
     If I shouldn't be alive
     The Thought beneath so slight a film-
     To make a prairie it takes a clover and one bee
     Success is counted sweetest
     * Some things that fly there be
     Water, is taught by thirst
     Safe in their Alabaster Chambers-(1859 version)
     Safe in their Alabaster Chambers-(1861 version)
     Portraits are to daily faces
     * My Life had stood-a Loaded Gun
     Some keep the Sabbath going to Church-
     “Heaven”-is what I cannot reach!
     “Hope” is the thing with feathers
     * The Robin's my Criterion for Tune-
     * I started Early-Took my Dog
     I like a look of Agony
     Wild Nights-Wild Nights!
     What Soft-Cherubic Creatures-
     The Soul selects her own Society-
     Much Madness is divinest Sense-
     I dwell in Possibility-
     They dropped like Flakes-
     After great pain, a formal feeling comes-
     * Pain-has an Element of Blank-
     * The Morning after Wo-
     I heard a Fly buzz-when I died-
     Because I could not stop for Death-
     * He fumbles at your Soul
     I felt a Cleaving in my Mind-
     * I felt a Funeral in my Brain
     A Light exists in Spring
     The Bustle in a House
     Tell all the Truth but tell it slant-
     There is no Frigate like a Book
     * Fame is the one that does not stay-
PERSPECTIVES ON EMILY DICKINSON
     Emily Dickinson, A Description of Herself
     Thomas Wentworth Higginson, On Meeting Dickinson for the First Time
     Mabel Loomis Todd, The Character of Amherst
     Richard Wilbur, On Dickinson's Sense of Privation
     Sandra M. Gilbert and Susan Gubar, On Dickinson's White Dress  
     Cynthia Griffin Wolff, On the Many Voices in Dickinson's Poetry
     Paula Bennett, On “I heard a Fly buzz-when I died-”
     Martha Nell Smith, On “Because I could not stop for Death-”
QUESTIONS FOR WRITING ABOUT AN AUTHOR IN DEPTH
A Sample In-Depth Study: Four Poems by Emily Dickinson 
Emily Dickinson
     “Faith” is a fine invention
     I know that He exists
     I never saw a Moor-
     Apparently with no surprise
A SAMPLE STUDENT PAPER: Religious Faith in Four Poems by Emily Dickinson

 

31. A Study of Robert Frost
A Brief Biography
An Introduction to His Work
Robert Frost
     The Road Not Taken
     The Pasture
     Mowing
     My November Guest
     Storm Fear
     Mending Wall
     Home Burial
     * The Wood-pile
     After Apple-Picking
     Birches
     * An Old Man's Winter Night
     “Out, Out-”
     * The Oven Bird
     Fire and Ice
     Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening   
     Nothing Gold Can Stay
     Unharvested
     Neither Out Far nor In Deep
     Design
PERSPECTIVES ON ROBERT FROST
     Robert Frost, “In White,” An Early Version of “Design”
     Robert Frost, On the Living Part of a Poem
     Amy Lowell, On Frost's Realistic Technique
     Robert Frost, On the Figure a Poem Makes
     Robert Frost, On the Way to Read a Poem
     Herbert R. Coursen Jr., A Parodic Interpretation of “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening”  

 

32. A Study of Langston Hughes
A Brief Biography 
Langston Hughes
The Negro Speaks of Rivers
An Introduction to His Work
     I, Too
     Negro
     Danse Africaine
     Dream Variations
     Formula
     Esthete in Harlem
     Lenox Avenue: Midnight
     Song for a Dark Girl
     Red Silk Stockings
     Rent-Party Shout: For a Lady Dancer
     * 50-50
     125th Street
     dream Boogie
     Harlem
     * Motto
     Old Walt

     * High to Low
PERSPECTIVES ON LANGSTON HUGHES
     Langston Hughes, On Harlem Rent Parties
     James E. Emanuel, Hughes's Attitudes toward Religion
     David Chinitz, The Romanticization of Africa in the 1920s
 
* 33. A Study of Billy Collins: The Author Reflects on Five Poems 
* A Brief Biography and an Introduction to His Work
* introduction: Billy Collins, “How Do Poems Travel?”
     * poem: Billy Collins, Osso Buco
     * essay: Billy Collins, On Writing “Osso Buco”
     * poem: Billy Collins, Nostalgia
     * essay: Billy Collins, On Writing “Nostalgia”
     * poem: Billy Collins, Questions About Angels
     * essay: Billy Collins, On Writing “Questions About Angels”
     * poem: Billy Collins, Litany
     * essay: Billy Collins, On Writing “Litany”
     * poem: Billy Collins, Building with Its Face Blown Off
* PERSPECTIVE (INTERVIEW): On “Building with Its Face Blown Off”: Michael Meyer Interviews Billy Collins
     * manuscript: Billy Collins, Draft Manuscript Page of “Busy Day”

 

34. A Study of Julia Alvarez: Five Poems
A Brief Biography  
An Introduction to Her Work 
     essay: Julia Alvarez, A Note to Students On Writing “Queens, 1963”
     poem: Julia Alvarez, Queens, 1963 
PERSPECTIVE (INTERVIEW): Marny Requa, From an Interview with Julia Alvarez
     essay: Julia Alvarez, On Writing “Housekeeping Cages” and Her Housekeeping Poems
     poem: Julia Alvarez, Housekeeping Cages
     essay: Julia Alvarez, A Note to Students On Writing “Dusting”
     poem: Julia Alvarez, Dusting  
     essay: Julia Alvarez, A Note to Students On Writing “Ironing Their Clothes” 
     poem: Julia Alvarez, Ironing Their Clothes
     essay: Julia Alvarez, A Note to Students On Writing “Sometimes the Words Are So Close”
     poem: Julia Alvarez, Sometimes the Words Are So Close
     manuscript: Four Drafts of “Sometimes the Words Are So Close”: A Poet's Writing Process
     essay: Julia Alvarez, A Note to Students On Writing “First Muse”
     poem: Julia Alvarez, First Muse
PERSPECTIVE: Kelli Lyon Johnson, Mapping an Identity

 

35. A Thematic Case Study: Love and Longing
A Brief Introduction
     Christopher Marlowe, The Passionate Shepherd to His Love
     William Shakespeare, Not marble, nor the gilded monuments
     Anne Bradstreet, To My Dear and Loving Husband
     Elizabeth Barrett Browning, How Do I Love Thee? Let Me Count The Ways
     * Edna St. Vincent Millay, Recuerdo
     E. E. Cummings, since feeling is first 
     Mark Doty, The Embrace
     * Joan Murray, Play by Play
     Billie Bolton, Memorandum
    * Michael Ryan, Bunny

 

36. A Thematic Case Study: Humor and Satire
A Brief Introduction
     Fleur Adcock, The Video
     John Ciardi, Suburban
     Ronald Wallace, In a Rut
     Howard Nemerov, Walking the Dog
     * Linda Pastan, Jump Cabling
     Peter Schmitt, Friends with Numbers
     Martín Espada, The Community College Revises its Curriculum in Response to Changing Demographics 
     M. Carl Holman, Mr. Z
     Gary Soto, Mexicans Begin Jogging
     Thomas Lux, Commercial Leech Farming Today
     * Lee Upton, Dyserotica
     * X.J. Kennedy, On a Young Man's Remaining an Undergraduate for Twelve Years
   
37. A Thematic Case Study: Milestones
     * Allen Braden, Sweethearts
    * Baron Wormser, Shoplifting
     * Marilyn Nelson, How I Discovered Poetry
     * Charles Simic, In the Library
     * Trevor West Knapp, Touch
     * Sandra M. Gilbert, How We Didn't Tell Her
     * Anne Carson, Father's Old Blue Cardigan
     * Barbara Crooker, On the Edge of Adolescence, My Middle Daughter Learns to Play the Saxophone
     Luisa Lopez, Junior Year Abroad
     Yusef Komunyakaa, Slam, Dunk, & Hook

 

38. A Thematic Case Study: The Natural World
     * Tom Disch, Birdsong Interpreted
     * Jane Hirschfield, Happiness
     * Leslie Marmon Silko, Love Poem
     * Margaret Atwood, A Holiday
     * Maxine Kumin, Though He Tarry
     * Gail White, Dead Armadillos
     * Dave Lucas, November
     * Walt McDonald, Coming Across It
     Alden Nowlan, The Bull Moose
     * Robert B. Shaw, Wild Turkeys
     * Paul Zimmer, What I Know about Owls

 

An Anthology of Poems

 

39. An Album of Contemporary Poems
     Michelle Boisseau, Self-Pity's Closet
     * Eamon Grennan, Herringbone
     * Mary Stewart Hammond, High Ground
     Tony Hoagland, America
     Rachel Loden, Locked Ward: Newtown, Connecticut
     Susan Minot, My Husband's Back
     Alberto Ríos, The Gathering Evening
     * C.K. Williams, The United States

 

40. A Collection of Poems
     Anonymous, Bonny Barbara Allan
     William Blake, Infant Sorrow
     Robert Burns, A Red, Red Rose
     George Gordon, Lord Byron, She Walks in Beauty
     Lucille Clifton, this morning (for the girls of eastern high school)
     Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Kubla Khan: or, a Vision in a Dream
     John Donne, The Apparition
     John Donne, The Flea
     * George Eliot (Mary Ann Evans), In a London Drawingroom
     T.S. Eliot, The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock
     Thomas Hardy, Hap
     Gerard Manley Hopkins, Pied Beauty
     Gerard Manley Hopkins, The Windhover
     * A. E. Housman, Is my team ploughing
     A. E. Housman, To an Athlete Dying Young
     Julia Ward Howe, Battle-Hymn of the Republic
     Ben Jonson, To Celia
     John Keats, La Belle Dame sans Merci
     * John Keats, Written in Disgust of Vulgar Superstition
     Emma Lazarus, The New Colossus
     * Phillis Levin, May Day
     * Edna St. Vincent Millay, First Fig
     John Milton, When I consider how my light is spent
     Christina Georgina Rossetti, Some Ladies Dress in Muslin Full and White
     * Sigfried Sassoon, “They”
     William Shakespeare, That time of year thou mayst in me behold
     William Shakespeare, When forty winters shall besiege thy brow
     * William Shakespeare, When, in disgrace with Fortune and men's eyes
     Percy Bysshe Shelley, Ozymandias
     Lydia Huntley Sigourney, Indian Names
     Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Ulysses
     * Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Tears, Idle Tears
     Walt Whitman, One's-Self I Sing
     Walt Whitman, When I Heard the Learn'd Astronomer
     William Carlos Williams, This Is Just to Say
     William Wordsworth, A Slumber Did My Spirit Seal
     William Wordsworth, The Solitary Reaper
     William Wordsworth, Mutability
     William Butler Yeats, Leda and the Swan

A Thematic Case Study: Crossing Boundaries
Transcendence and Borders
     diagram: An 18th Century Slave Ship
     poem: Phillis Wheatley, On Being Brought from Africa to America
     poster: A 1784 Slave Auction Advertisement  
     Identity and Borders
     poem: Pat Mora, Legal Alien
     collage: Jacalyn López Garcia, I Just Wanted to be Me
     Immigration and Borders
     poem: Sandra M. Gilbert, Mafioso  
     photo: “Baggage Examined Here,” Ellis Island
Expectations and Borders
     poem: Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, Indian Movie, New Jersey
     album cover: Rawal Films, Ladki Pasano Hai (I Like this Girl)  
Beauty and Borders
     poem: Janice Mirikitani, Recipe
     photo: Chiaki Tsukumo, “Girl with Licca Doll”  
Freedom and Borders
     poem: Thomas Lynch, Liberty
     photo: Alex MacLean, “Somerville, Massachusetts”

 

 

THE STUDY OF DRAMA

 

41. Reading Drama
Reading Drama Responsively
     Susan Glaspell, Trifles
A SAMPLE CLOSE READING: An Annotated Section of Susan Glaspell's Tri?es
* PERSPECTIVE: Susan Glaspell, From the Short Story Version of Tri?es
Elements of Drama
     Michael Hollinger, Naked Lunch
     * Joan Ackermann, Quiet, Torrential Sound
Drama in Popular Forms
     Larry David, “The Pitch,” a Seinfeld Episode
PERSPECTIVE: Geoffrey O'Brien, On Seinfeld as Sitcom Moneymaker

 

42. Writing about Drama
From Reading to Writing
Questions for Responsive Reading and Writing
A SAMPLE STUDENT PAPER: The Feminist Evidence in Tri?es

 

43. A Study of Sophocles
Theatrical Conventions of Greek Drama
Tragedy
     Sophocles, Oedipus the King (Translated by Robert Fagles)
PERSPECTIVES ON SOPHOCLES
     Aristotle, On Tragic Character
     Sigmund Freud, On the Oedipus Complex
     Sophocles, Another Translation of a Scene from Oedipus the King
     Muriel Rukeyser, On Oedipus the King
     David Wiles, On Oedipus the King as a Political Play

Plays in Performance
Photos of scenes from:
     Sophocles, Oedipus the King
     William Shakespeare, Othello
     Henrik Ibsen, A Doll House
     * John Patrick Shanley, Doubt
     Jane Martin, Rodeo
     * August Wilson, Fences
     * David Henry Hwang, Trying to Find Chinatown
     * Nilaja Sun, No Child…
     Rich Orloff, Playwriting 101
     * Christopher Durang, Wanda's Visit

 

44. A Study of William Shakespeare
Shakespeare's Theater
The Range of Shakespeare's Drama: History, Comedy, and Tragedy
A Note on Reading Shakespeare
     William Shakespeare, Othello The Moor of Venice
PERSPECTIVES ON SHAKESPEARE
     The Mayor of London (1597), Objections to the Elizabethan Theater
     Lisa Jardine, On Boy Actors in Female Roles
     Samuel Johnson, On Shakespeare's Characters
     Jane Adamson, On Desdemona's Role in Othello
     David Bevington, On Othello's Heroic Struggle
     James Kincaid, On the Value of Comedy in the Face of Tragedy

 

45. Modern Drama
Realism
Naturalism
Theatrical Conventions of Modern Drama
     Henrik Ibsen, A Doll House (Translated by Rolf Fjelde)
PERSPECTIVE: Henrik Ibsen, Notes for A Doll House
Beyond Realism

 

46. A Critical Case Study: Henrik Ibsen's A Doll House
PERSPECTIVES
A Nineteenth-Century Husband's Letter to His Wife
     Barry Witham and John Lutterbie, A Marxist Approach to A Doll House
     Carol Strongin Tufts, A Psychoanalytic Reading of Nora
     Joan Templeton, Is A Doll House a Feminist Text?
QUESTIONS FOR WRITING
Applying a Critical Strategy
SAMPLE STUDENT PAPER: On the Other Side of the Slammed Door in Henrik Ibsen's A Doll House

 

47. A Thematic Case Study: An Album of Contemporary Humor and Satire
     Jane Anderson, The Reprimand
     * Sharon E. Cooper, Mistaken Identity
     * Christopher Durang, Wanda's Visit
     David Ives, Moby-Dude, Or: The Three-Minute Whale
     Jane Martin, Rodeo
     Rich Orloff, Playwriting 101: The Rooftop Lesson

 

A Collection of Plays

 

48. Plays for Further Reading
     David Henry Hwang, Trying to Find Chinatown
     * Samuel Beckett, Krapp's Last Tape
     * John Patrick Shanley, Doubt
     * Nilaja Sun, No Child…
     August Wilson, Fences
PERSPECTIVE: David Savran, An Interview with August Wilson

CRITICAL THINKING AND WRITING

 

49. Critical Strategies for Reading
Critical Thinking
The Literary Canon: Diversity and Controversy
Formalist Strategies
Biographical Strategies
Psychological Strategies
Historical Strategies
Gender Strategies
Mythological Strategies
Reader-Response Strategies
Deconstructionist Strategies

 

50. Reading and Writing
The Purpose and Value of Writing about Literature
Reading the Work Closely
Annotating the Text and Journal Note Taking
Choosing a Topic
Developing a Thesis
Arguing about Literature
QUESTIONS FOR ARGUING ABOUT LITERATURE
Organizing a Paper
Writing a Draft
Revising and Editing
QUESTIONS FOR WRITING: A REVISION CHECKLIST
Manuscript Form
Types of Writing Assignments
     Emily Dickinson, There's a certain Slant of light
A SAMPLE STUDENT EXPLICATION: A Reading of Emily Dickinson's “There's a certain Slant of light”
A SAMPLE STUDENT ANALYSIS: John Updike's “A & P” as a State of Mind
A SAMPLE STUDENT COMPARISON: The Struggle for Women's Self-De?nition in Henrik Ibsen's A Doll House and Colette's “The Hand”
 
51. The Literary Research Paper
Choosing a Topic
Finding Sources
Electronic Sources
Evaluating Sources and Taking Notes
Developing a Thesis and Organizing the Paper
Revising
Documenting Sources and Avoiding Plagiarism
The List of Works Cited
Parenthetical References
A SAMPLE STUDENT RESEARCH PAPER: How William Faulkner's Narrator Cultivates a Rose for Emily

 

52. Taking Essay Examinations
Preparing for an Essay Exam
Types of Exams
Strategies for Writing Essay Exams
QUESTIONS FOR WRITING: A CHECKLIST FOR ESSAY EXAMS