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Compact Bedford Introduction to Literature by Michael Meyer - Eleventh Edition, 2017 from Macmillan Student Store
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Compact Bedford Introduction to Literature

Eleventh  Edition|©2017 Michael Meyer

New Edition Available
  • About
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About

Literature lives here.
 
This book can help you read, write about, and love literature. You’ll find wonderful stories, poems, and plays spanning time periods, cultures, and voices, including works by some of today’s best writers. And you will find plenty of instruction to help you read literature closely and work with it in your own writing. Spend time with the fiction, poetry, and drama in this book — and carefully practice the critical thinking, reading, and writing skills you need in order to succeed both inside and out of the classroom.

Digital Options

Contents

Table of Contents

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

FICTION  

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 "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

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"

Brainstorming

A Sample Brainstorming List

Revising: First and Second Drafts

A Sample First Draft: Separate Sorrows

A Sample Second Draft: Separate Sorrows

Final Paper: Fulfillment 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 "A Rose for Emily"

A SAMPLE STUDENT RESPONSE: Conflict in the Plot of 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 Dickens’s Hard Times

*JAMAICA KINCAID, Girl

XU XI, Famine

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"

ENCOUNTERING FICTION: COMICS AND GRAPHIC STORIES

LYNDA BARRY, Spelling

5. Setting

ERNEST HEMINGWAY, Soldier’s Home

PERSPECTIVE

ERNEST HEMINGWAY, On What Every Writer Needs

*F. SCOTT FITZGERALD, Ice Palace

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 Significance of Setting in Fay Weldon’s "IND AFF"   

6. Point of View

Third-Person Narrator

First-Person Narrator

JOHN UPDIKE, A&P

*ALICE MUNRO, Wild Swans

MAGGIE MITCHELL, It Would Be Different If

ENCOUNTERING FICTION: COMICS AND GRAPHIC STORIES

MARJANE SATRAPI, "The Trip," From Persepolis

7. Symbolism

TOBIAS WOLFF, That Room

RALPH ELLISON, Battle Royal

PERSPECTIVE

MORDECAI MARCUS, What Is an Initiation Story?

A SAMPLE CLOSE READING: An Annotated Section of "Battle Royal"

A SAMPLE STUDENT RESPONSE: Symbolism in Ellison’s "Battle Royal"

MICHAEL OPPENHEIMER, The Paring Knife

8. Theme

STEPHEN CRANE, The Bride Comes to Yellow Sky

KATHERINE MANSFIELD, Miss Brill

9. Style, Tone, and Irony

Style

Tone

Irony

RAYMOND CARVER, Popular Mechanics

PERSPECTIVE

JOHN BARTH, On Minimalist Fiction

A SAMPLE STUDENT RESPONSE: The Minimalist Style of Carver’s "Popular Mechanics"

SUSAN MINOT, Lust

*GEOFF WYSS, How to Be a Winner

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, Wakefield

NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE, Young Goodman Brown

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

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

CHRONOLOGY

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 Study of Dagoberto Gilb: The Author Reflects on Three Stories

A Brief Biography and An Introduction to His Work

INTRODUCTION: DAGOBERTO GILB, How Books Bounce

ESSAY: On Writing Love in L.A.

STORY: DAGOBERTO GILB: Love in L.A.

ESSAY: On Writing Shout

STORY: DAGOBERTO GILB: Shout

ESSAY: On Writing Uncle Rock

STORY: DAGOBERTO GILB: Uncle Rock

PERSPECTIVES

DAGOBERTO GILB, On Physical Labor

DAGOBERTO GILB, On Distortions of Mexican American Culture

INTERVIEW: Michael Meyer Interviews Dagoberto Gilb

FACSIMILIES: Two Draft Manuscript Pages

Suggested Topics for Longer Papers

15. A Thematic Case Study: War

TIM O’BRIEN, How to Tell a True War Story

*GAVIN FORD KOVITE, When Engaging Targets, Remember

*PHIL KLAY, Redeployment


16. An Album of Humor and Satire

ANNIE PROULX, 55 Miles to the Gas Pump

RON HANSEN, My Kid’s Dog

JOYCE CAROL OATES, Hi Howya Doin’

MARK TWAIN, The Story of the Good Little Boy

17. An Album of Remarkably Short Contemporary Stories

*LYDIA DAVIS, Negative Emotions

RON CARLSON, Max

MARK HALLIDAY, Young Man on Sixth Ave

MARK BUDMAN, The Diary of a Salaryman

PETER MEINKE, The Cranes

TERRY L. TILTON, That Settles That

A Collection of Stories

18. Stories for Further Reading

*TONI CADE BAMBERA, Sweet Town

*STEPHEN CRANE, An Episode of War

*CHARLOTTE PERKINS GILMAN, If I Were a Man

D. H. LAWRENCE, The Horse Dealer’s Daughter

JACK LONDON, To Build a Fire

EDGAR ALLAN POE, The Cask of Amontillado

POETRY

THE ELEMENTS OF POETRY

19. Reading Poetry

Reading Poetry Responsively

LISA PARKER, Snapping Beans

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 "Oh, Oh"

ROBERT FRANCIS, Catch

A SAMPLE STUDENT ANALYSIS: Tossing Metaphors Together in Robert Francis’s "Catch"

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

Poetry in Popular Forms

HELEN FARRIES, Magic of Love

JOHN FREDERICK NIMS, Love Poem

Poems for Further Study

MARY OLIVER, The Poet with His Face in His Hands

JIM TILLEY, The Big Questions

ALBERTO RÍOS, Seniors

*ALFRED, LORD TENNYSON, The Eagle

*EDGAR ALLAN POE, To Science

CORNELIUS EADY, The Supremes

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

WEB SCREEN: Ted Kooser, American Life in Poetry

POEM IN NEWSPAPER: MICHAEL MCFEE, Spitwads

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 "Manners"

A SAMPLE STUDENT ANALYSIS: Memory in Elizabeth Bishop’s "Manners"

21. Word Choice, Word Order, and Tone

Word Choice

Diction

Denotations and Connotations

RANDALL JARRELL, The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner

Word Order

Tone

MARILYN NELSON, How I Discovered Poetry

KATHARYN HOWD MACHAN, Hazel Tells LaVerne

A SAMPLE STUDENT RESPONSE: Tone in Katharyn Howd Machan’s "Hazel Tells LaVerne"

MARTÍN ESPADA, Latin Night at the Pawnshop

PAUL LAURENCE 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

PERSPECTIVE: BARNEY AND CLYDE, The Defenestration of Frog

Poems for Further Study

*WALT WHITMAN, The Dalliance of Eagles

THOMAS HARDY, The Convergence of the Twain

DAVID R. SLAVITT, Titanic

*DANUSHA LAMERIS, Names

MARY OLIVER, Oxygen

CATHY SONG, The Youngest Daughter

*ANGELA ALAIMO O’DONNELL, Messenger

JOHN KEATS, Ode on a Grecian Urn

GWENDOLYN BROOKS, We Real Cool

JOAN MURRAY, We Old Dudes

*ALICE JONES, The Lungs

LOUIS SIMPSON, In the Suburbs

GARRISON KEILLOR, The Anthem

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 Thomas Wentworth Higginson)

SAPPHO, Prayer to my lady of Paphos (translated by Mary Barnard)

22. Images

Poetry’s Appeal to the Senses

WILLIAM CARLOS WILLIAMS, Poem

WALT WHITMAN, Cavalry Crossing a Ford

DAVID SOLWAY, Windsurfing

MATTHEW ARNOLD, Dover Beach

RUTH FORMAN, Poetry Should Ride the Bus

Poems for Further Study

*ADELAIDE CRAPSEY, November Night

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

PATRICIA SMITH, What It’s Like to Be a Black Girl (for Those of You Who Aren’t)

*CHALRES SIMIC, Fork

SALLY CROFT, Home-Baked Bread

JOHN KEATS, To Autumn

*STEPHEN CRANE, The Wayfarer

LUISA LOPEZ, Junior Year Abroad

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

RICHARD WILBUR, The Writer

Other Figures

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"

WILLIAM CARLOS WILLIAMS, To Waken an Old Lady

ERNEST SLYMAN, Lightning Bugs

*MARTÍN ESPADA, The Mexican Cabdriver’s Poem for His Wife, Who Has Left Him

JUDY PAGE HEITZMAN, The Schoolroom on the Second Floor of the Knitting Mill

WILLIAM WORDSWORTH, London, 1802

JIM STEVENS, Schizophrenia

*LUCILLE CLIFTON, Come Home from the Movies

*KAY RYAN, Learning

RONALD WALLACE, Building an Outhouse

ELAINE MAGARRELL, The Joy of Cooking

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, Not Writing

KEVIN PIERCE, Proof of Origin

*CARL SANDBURG, A Fence

JULIO MARZÁN, Ethnic Poetry

MARK HALLIDAY, Graded Paper

JAMES MERRILL, Casual Wear

HENRY REED, Naming of Parts

ROBERT BROWNING, My Last Duchess

*WILLIAM BLAKE, A Poison Tree

*PAUL MULDOON, Symposium

PERSPECTIVE: EZRA POUND, On Symbols

25. Sounds

Listening to Poetry

ANONYMOUS, Scarborough Fair

JOHN UPDIKE, Player Piano

EMILY DICKINSON, A Bird came down the Walk—

A SAMPLE STUDENT RESPONSE: Sound in Emily Dickinson’s "A Bird came down the Walk—"

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

LEWIS CARROLL (CHARLES LUTWIDGE DODGSON), Jabberwocky

WILLIAM HEYEN, The Trains

JOHN DONNE, Song

*KAY RYAN, Dew

*ANDREW HUDGINS, The Ice Cream Truck

PAUL HUMPHREY, Blow

ROBERT FRANCIS, The Pitcher

HELEN CHASIN, The Word Plum

RICHARD WAKEFIELD, The Bell Rope

*JEAN TOOMER, Unsuspecting

JOHN KEATS, Ode to a Nightingale

HOWARD NEMEROV, Because You Asked about the Line between Prose and Poetry

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

*SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE, Mnemonic

JOHN MALONEY, Good!

WILLIAM TROWBRIDGE, Drumming Behind You in the High School Band

ALICE JONES, The Foot

A. E. HOUSMAN, When I was one-and-twenty

ROBERT HERRICK, Delight in Disorder

BEN JONSON, Still to Be Neat

*E.E. CUMMINGS, O Sweet Spontaneous

WILLIAM BLAKE, The Lamb

WILLIAM BLAKE, The Tyger

CARL SANDBURG, Chicago

*VIRGINIA HAMILTON ADAIR, Pro Snake

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

SHERMAN ALEXIE, The Facebook Sonnet

*THOMAS HARDY, At the Altar-Rail

R.S. GWYNN, Shakespearean Sonnet

Villanelle

DYLAN THOMAS, Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night

EDWIN ARLINGTON ROBINSON, The House on the Hill

Sestina

ALGERNON CHARLES SWINBURNE, Sestina

FLORENCE CASSEN MAYERS, All-American Sestina

Epigram

SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE, What Is an Epigram?

DAVID MCCORD, Epitaph on a Waiter

PAUL LAURENCE DUNBAR, Theology

Limerick

ARTHUR HENRY REGINALD BUTLER, There was a young lady named Bright

LAURENCE PERRINE, The limerick’s never averse

Haiku

MATSUO BASHO, Under cherry trees

CAROLYN KIZER, After Basho-

*AMY LOWELL, Last Night That It Rained

*GARY SNYDER, A Dent in a Bucket

Elegy

BEN JONSON, On My First Son

Ode

*ALEXANDER POPE, Ode on Solitude

Parody

BLANCHE FARLEY, The Lover Not Taken

Picture Poem

MICHAEL MCFEE, In Medias Res

PERSPECTIVE: ELAINE MITCHELL, Form

28. Open Form

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"

DAVID SHUMATE, Shooting the Horse

RICHARD HAGUE, Directions for Resisting the SAT

*MICHAEL RYAN, I

*E.E. CUMMINGS, Old Age Sticks

NATASHA TRETHEWEY, On Captivity

JULIO MARZÁN, The Translator at the Reception for Latin American Writers

*CHARLES HARPER WEBB, Descent

KEVIN YOUNG, Eddie Priest’s Barber Shop and Notary

ANONYMOUS, The Frog

*DAVID HERNANDEZ, All-American

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 "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 and 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

EMILY DICKINSON

Success is counted sweetest

Water, is taught by thirst

*Papa Above!

Safe in their Alabaster Chambers—(1859 version)

Safe in their Alabaster Chambers—(1861 version)

Portraits are to daily faces

Some keep the Sabbath going to Church—

*I taste a liquor never brewed—

"Heaven"— is what I cannot reach!

I like a look of Agony

Wild Nights—Wild Nights!

The Soul selects her own Society—

Much Madness is divinest Sense—

I dwell in Possibility—

I heard a Fly buzz—when I died—

Because I could not stop for Death—

The Bustle in a House

Tell all the Truth but tell it slant—

*
O Sumptuous moment

*
A Route of Evanescence

From all the Jails the Boys and Girls

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

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

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

Suggested Topics for Longer Papers  

31. A Study of Robert Frost

A Brief Biography and An Introduction to His Work

ROBERT FROST

The Road Not Taken

The Pasture

ROBERT FROST

Mowing

Mending Wall

Birches

"Out, Out—"

Fire and Ice

Dust of Snow

Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening

The Need of Being Versed in Country Things

*Nothing Gold Can Stay

*Once by the Pacific

Neither Out Far nor In Deep

Design

*
The Gift Outright

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

HERBERT R. COURSEN JR., A Parodic Interpretation of "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening"

Suggested Topics for Longer Papers

32. 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: On "Building with Its Face Blown Off": Michael Meyer Interviews Billy Collins

FACSIMILES: BILLY COLLINS, Three Draft Manuscript Pages

Suggested Topics for Longer Papers

33. A Study of Julia Alvarez: The Author Reflects on Five Poems

A Brief Biography and An Introduction to Her Work

ESSAY: JULIA ALVAREZ, On Writing "Queens, 1963"

POEM: JULIA ALVAREZ, Queens, 1963

PERSPECTIVE: 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, On Writing "Dusting"

POEM: JULIA ALVAREZ, Dusting

ESSAY: JULIA ALVAREZ, On Writing "Ironing Their Clothes"

POEM: JULIA ALVAREZ, Ironing Their Clothes

ESSAY: JULIA ALVAREZ, On Writing "Sometimes the Words Are So Close" (From

the "33" Sonnet Sequence)

POEM: JULIA ALVAREZ, Sometimes the Words Are So Close

FACSIMILES: JULIA ALVAREZ, Four Draft Manuscript Pages

ESSAY: JULIA ALVAREZ, On Writing "First Muse"

POEM: JULIA ALVAREZ, First Muse

PERSPECTIVE: KELLI LYON JOHNSON, Mapping an Identity

34. A Cultural Case Study: Harlem Renaissance Poets Claude McKay, Georgia Douglas Johnson, Langston Hughes, and Countee Cullen

INTRODUCTION

CLAUDE MCKAY, A Brief Biography and an Introduction to His Work

CLAUDE MCKAY

The Harlem Dancer

If We Must Die

The Tropics in New York

The Lynching

America

*The White City

*The Barrier

GEORGIA DOUGLAS JOHNSON, A Brief Biography and an Introduction to Her Work

GEORGIA DOUGLAS JOHNSON

Youth

Foredoom

Calling Dreams

Lost Illusions

Fusion

*Prejudice

LANGSTON HUGHES, A Brief Biography and an Introduction to His Work

LANGSTON HUGHES

The Negro Speaks of Rivers

Jazzonia

Lenox Avenue: Midnight

Ballad of the Landlord

125th Street

Harlem

COUNTEE CULLEN, A Brief Biography and an Introduction to His Work

COUNTEE CULLEN

Yet Do I Marvel

Incident

For a Lady I Know

Tableau

From the Dark Tower

To Certain Critics

PERSPECTIVES

KAREN JACKSON FORD, Hughes’s Aesthetics of Simplicity

DAVID CHINITZ, The Romanticization of Africa in the 1920s

ALAIN LOCKE, Review of Georgia Douglas Johnson’s Bronze: A Book of

Verse

COUNTEE CULLEN, On Racial Poetry

ONWUCHEKWA JEMIE, On Universal Poetry

Suggested Topics for Longer Papers

35. A Thematic Case Study: Humor and Satire

JOHN CIARDI, Suburban

HARRYETTE MULLEN, Dim Lady

RONALD WALLACE, In a Rut

*JIM TILLEY, Hello, Old Man

MARTÍN ESPADA, The Community College Revises Its Curriculum in Response to Changing Demographics

* E.E. CUMMINGS, When Serpents Bargain for the Right to Squirm

GARY SOTO, Mexicans Begin Jogging

THOMAS MOORE, At the Berkeley Free Speech Café

BILLIE BOLTON, Memorandum

X. J. KENNEDY, On a Young Man’s Remaining an Undergraduate for Twelve Years

[[COLOR INSERT]]

Poetry and the Visual Arts

Painting: GRANT WOOD, American Gothic

Poem: JOHN STONE, American Gothic

Woodblock print: KIAGAWA UTAMARO, Girl Powdering Her Neck

Poem: CATHY SONG, Girl Powdering Her Neck

Sculpture: MAYA LIN, The Vietnam Veteran’s Memorial

Poem: YUSEF KOMUNYAKAA, Facing It

Painting: PIETER BRUEGHEL THE ELDER, Two Chained Monkeys

Poem: WISLAWA SZYMBORSKA, Brueghel’s Two Monkeys

Painting: EDWARD HOPPER, House by the Railroad

Poem: EDWARD HIRSCH, Edward Hopper and the House by the Railroad

Painting: VERMEER, The Milkmaid

Poem: WISLAWA SZYMBORSKA, Vermeer

36. A Thematic Case Study: The Natural World

TOM DISCH, Birdsong Interpreted

*WENDELL BERRY, The Peace of Wild Things

GAIL WHITE, Dead Armadillos

DAVE LUCAS, November

WALT MCDONALD, Coming Across It

ALDEN NOWLAN, The Bull Moose

KAY RYAN, Turtle

*MAXIM KUMIN, The Whole Hog

MARY OLIVER, Wild Geese

Suggested Topics for Longer Papers

37. A Thematic Case Study: The World of Work

DANA GIOIA, Money

TONY HOAGLAND, America

JAN BEATTY, My Father Teaches Me to Dream

MICHAEL CHITWOOD, Men Throwing Bricks

BARON WORMSER, Labor

*TED KOOSER, Laundry

DAVID IGNATOW, The Jobholder

JOYCE SUTPHEN, Guys Like That

MARGE PIERCY, To be of use

Suggested Topics for Longer Papers

AN ANTHOLOGY OF POEMS

38. A Collection of Poems

ANONYMOUS, Bonny Barbara Allan

* APHRA BEHN, Song: Love Armed

W.H. AUDEN, The Unknown Citizen

WILLIAM BLAKE, Infant Sorrow

ANNE BRADSTREET, Before the Birth of One of Her Children

* WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT, To a Waterfowl

* ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING, How Do I Love Thee? Let Me Count the Ways

ROBERT BURNS, A Red, Red Rose

SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE, Kubla Khan: or, a Vision in a Dream

JOHN DONNE, Batter My Heart

*PAUL LAURENCE DUNBAR, Sympathy

GEORGE ELIOT (MARY ANN EVANS), In a London Drawingroom

T.S. ELIOT, The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock

*RALPH WALDO EMERSON, Days

*THOMAS HARDY, I Looked Up From My Writing

FRANCES E. W. HARPER, Learning to Read

*GERARD MANLEY HOPKINS, Spring and Fall

GERARD MANLEY HOPKINS, The Windhover

*A. E. HOUSMAN, Loveliest of Trees, The Cherry Now

BEN JONSON, To Celia

JOHN KEATS, To one who has been long in city pent

JOHN KEATS, When I have fears that I may cease to be

*JOHN KEATS, Bright Star! Would I Were Steadfast As Thou Art—

*
D.H. LAWRENCE, How Beastly the Bourgeois Is

EMMA LAZARUS, The New Colossus

JOHN MILTON, On the Late Massacre in Piedmont

JOHN MILTON, When I consider how my light is spent

*EDGAR ALLEN POE, To Helen

*CHRISTINA GEORGINA ROSSETTI, Uphill

*EDWARD ARLINGTON ROBINSON, Miniver Cheevy

SIEGFRIED SASSOON, "They"

*WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE, Winter

*WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE, Let me not to the marriage of true minds

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE, When, in disgrace with Fortune and men’s eyes

PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY, Ozymandias

LYDIA HUNTLEY SIGOURNEY, Indian Names

*JONATHAN SWIFT, A Description of the Morning

ALFRED, LORD TENNYSON, Ulysses

*EDMUND WALLER, Go, Lovely Rose

*WALT WHITMAN, As Adam Early in the Morning

WALT WHITMAN, When I Heard the Learn’d Astronomer

WILLIAM WORDSWORTH, A Slumber Did My Spirit Seal

*WILLIAM WORDSWORTH, Composed Upon Westminster Bridge

WILLIAM WORDSWORTH, The Solitary Reaper

WILLIAM WORDSWORTH, Mutability

WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS, Leda and the Swan

* WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS, The Lake Isle of Innisfree

DRAMA

The Study of Drama

39. Reading Drama

Reading Drama Responsively

SUSAN GLASPELL, Trifles

A SAMPLE CLOSE READING: An Annotated Section of Trifles

PERSPECTIVE

SUSAN GLASPELL, From the Short Story Version of Trifles

Elements of Drama  

MICHAEL HOLLINGER, Naked Lunch

Drama in Popular Forms

LARRY DAVID, "The Pitch," a Seinfeld Episode

40. Writing about Drama

From Reading to Writing

Questions for Responsive Reading and Writing

A SAMPLE STUDENT PAPER: The Feminist Evidence in Trifles

41. A Study of Sophocles  

Theatrical Conventions of Greek Drama

Tragedy

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

PERSPECTIVES ON SOPHOCLES

ARISTOTLE, On Tragic Character

SIGMUND FREUD, On the Oedipus Complex

MURIEL RUKEYSER, On Oedipus the King

DAVID WILES, On Oedipus the King as a Political Play

42. 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

Suggested Topics for Longer Papers

Plays in Performance

Photos of scenes from:

Oedipus the King

Othello

A Doll House

Other Desert Cities

Dead Right

Rodeo

Fences

Trying to Find Chinatown

No Child…

Playwriting 101

Naked Lunch

43. 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  

44. 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 A Doll House

45. A Thematic Case Study: An Album of Contemporary Humor and Satire

JANE ANDERSON, The Reprimand

SHARON E. COOPER, Mistaken Identity

*DAVID IVES, Moby-Dude, Or: The Three-Minute Whale

JANE MARTIN, Rodeo

JOAN ACKERMANN, Quiet Torrential Sound

RICH ORLOFF, Playwriting 101: The Rooftop Lesson

A Collection of Plays

46. Plays for Further Reading

*STEVEN DIETZ, The Spot

DAVID HENRY HWANG, Trying to Find Chinatown

NILAJA SUN, No Child…

*WENDY WASSERSTEIN, Tender Offer

AUGUST WILSON, Fences

PERSPECTIVE

DAVID SAVRAN, An Interview with August Wilson

Critical Thinking and Writing

47. Critical Strategies for Reading

Critical Thinking

The Literary Canon: Diversity and Controversy

Formalist Strategies

Biographical Strategies

Psychological Strategies

Historical Strategies

Literary History Criticism

Marxist Criticism

New Historicist Criticism

Cultural Criticism

Gender Strategies

Feminist Criticism

Gay and Lesbian Criticism

Mythological Strategies

Reader-Response Strategies

Deconstructionist Strategies

48. Reading and the Writing Process

The Purpose and Value of Writing about Literature

Reading the Work Closely

Annotating the Text and Journal Note Taking

Annotated Text

Journal Note

Choosing a Topic

Developing a Thesis

Arguing about Literature

Questions for Arguing about Literature

Organizing a Paper

Writing a Draft

Writing the Introduction and Conclusion

Using Quotations

Revising and Editing

Questions for Writing: A Revision Checklist

Manuscript Form

Types of Writing Assignments

Explication

A SAMPLE STUDENT EXPLICATION: A Reading of Dickinson’s "There’s a certain Slant of light"

EMILY DICKINSON, There’s a certain Slant of light

Analysis

A SAMPLE STUDENT ANALYSIS: "The A & P" as a State of Mind

Comparison and Contrast

A SAMPLE STUDENT COMPARISON: The Struggle for Women’s Self-Definition in "Eveline" and A Doll House

49. The Literary Research Paper

Choosing a Topic

Finding Sources

Annotated List of References

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 the Narrator Cultivates a Rose for Emily

50. Taking Essay Examinations

Preparing for an Essay Exam

Keep Up with the Reading

Take Notes and Annotate the Text

Anticipate Questions

Types of Exams

Closed-Book versus Open-Book Exams

Essay Questions

Strategies for Writing Essay Exams

Glossary of Literary Terms

Index of First Lines

Index of Authors and Titles

Index of Terms

 

Authors

Michael Meyer

Michael Meyer has taught writing and literature courses for more than thirty years—since 1981 at the University of Connecticut and before that at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte and the College of William and Mary. In addition to being an experienced teacher, Meyer is a highly regarded literary scholar. His scholarly articles have appeared in distinguished journals such as American Literature, Studies in the American Renaissance, and Virginia Quarterly Review. An internationally recognized authority on Henry David Thoreau, Meyer is a former president of the Thoreau Society and coauthor (with Walter Harding) of The New Thoreau Handbook, a standard reference source. The American Studies Association awarded his first book, Several More Lives to Live: Thoreau’s Political Reputation in America, the Ralph Henry Gabriel Prize. . He is also the editor of Frederick Douglass: The Narrative and Selected Writings. He has lectured on a variety of American literary topics from Cambridge University to Peking University. His books for Bedford/St. Martin's include The Bedford Introduction to Literature; The Compact Bedford Introduction to Literature; Literature to Go; Poetry: An Introduction; and Thinking and Writing about Literature.


Spark a lifelong love of literature in your students.

Literature lives here.
 
This book can help you read, write about, and love literature. You’ll find wonderful stories, poems, and plays spanning time periods, cultures, and voices, including works by some of today’s best writers. And you will find plenty of instruction to help you read literature closely and work with it in your own writing. Spend time with the fiction, poetry, and drama in this book — and carefully practice the critical thinking, reading, and writing skills you need in order to succeed both inside and out of the classroom.

Table of Contents

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

FICTION  

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 "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

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"

Brainstorming

A Sample Brainstorming List

Revising: First and Second Drafts

A Sample First Draft: Separate Sorrows

A Sample Second Draft: Separate Sorrows

Final Paper: Fulfillment 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 "A Rose for Emily"

A SAMPLE STUDENT RESPONSE: Conflict in the Plot of 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 Dickens’s Hard Times

*JAMAICA KINCAID, Girl

XU XI, Famine

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"

ENCOUNTERING FICTION: COMICS AND GRAPHIC STORIES

LYNDA BARRY, Spelling

5. Setting

ERNEST HEMINGWAY, Soldier’s Home

PERSPECTIVE

ERNEST HEMINGWAY, On What Every Writer Needs

*F. SCOTT FITZGERALD, Ice Palace

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 Significance of Setting in Fay Weldon’s "IND AFF"   

6. Point of View

Third-Person Narrator

First-Person Narrator

JOHN UPDIKE, A&P

*ALICE MUNRO, Wild Swans

MAGGIE MITCHELL, It Would Be Different If

ENCOUNTERING FICTION: COMICS AND GRAPHIC STORIES

MARJANE SATRAPI, "The Trip," From Persepolis

7. Symbolism

TOBIAS WOLFF, That Room

RALPH ELLISON, Battle Royal

PERSPECTIVE

MORDECAI MARCUS, What Is an Initiation Story?

A SAMPLE CLOSE READING: An Annotated Section of "Battle Royal"

A SAMPLE STUDENT RESPONSE: Symbolism in Ellison’s "Battle Royal"

MICHAEL OPPENHEIMER, The Paring Knife

8. Theme

STEPHEN CRANE, The Bride Comes to Yellow Sky

KATHERINE MANSFIELD, Miss Brill

9. Style, Tone, and Irony

Style

Tone

Irony

RAYMOND CARVER, Popular Mechanics

PERSPECTIVE

JOHN BARTH, On Minimalist Fiction

A SAMPLE STUDENT RESPONSE: The Minimalist Style of Carver’s "Popular Mechanics"

SUSAN MINOT, Lust

*GEOFF WYSS, How to Be a Winner

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, Wakefield

NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE, Young Goodman Brown

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

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

CHRONOLOGY

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 Study of Dagoberto Gilb: The Author Reflects on Three Stories

A Brief Biography and An Introduction to His Work

INTRODUCTION: DAGOBERTO GILB, How Books Bounce

ESSAY: On Writing Love in L.A.

STORY: DAGOBERTO GILB: Love in L.A.

ESSAY: On Writing Shout

STORY: DAGOBERTO GILB: Shout

ESSAY: On Writing Uncle Rock

STORY: DAGOBERTO GILB: Uncle Rock

PERSPECTIVES

DAGOBERTO GILB, On Physical Labor

DAGOBERTO GILB, On Distortions of Mexican American Culture

INTERVIEW: Michael Meyer Interviews Dagoberto Gilb

FACSIMILIES: Two Draft Manuscript Pages

Suggested Topics for Longer Papers

15. A Thematic Case Study: War

TIM O’BRIEN, How to Tell a True War Story

*GAVIN FORD KOVITE, When Engaging Targets, Remember

*PHIL KLAY, Redeployment


16. An Album of Humor and Satire

ANNIE PROULX, 55 Miles to the Gas Pump

RON HANSEN, My Kid’s Dog

JOYCE CAROL OATES, Hi Howya Doin’

MARK TWAIN, The Story of the Good Little Boy

17. An Album of Remarkably Short Contemporary Stories

*LYDIA DAVIS, Negative Emotions

RON CARLSON, Max

MARK HALLIDAY, Young Man on Sixth Ave

MARK BUDMAN, The Diary of a Salaryman

PETER MEINKE, The Cranes

TERRY L. TILTON, That Settles That

A Collection of Stories

18. Stories for Further Reading

*TONI CADE BAMBERA, Sweet Town

*STEPHEN CRANE, An Episode of War

*CHARLOTTE PERKINS GILMAN, If I Were a Man

D. H. LAWRENCE, The Horse Dealer’s Daughter

JACK LONDON, To Build a Fire

EDGAR ALLAN POE, The Cask of Amontillado

POETRY

THE ELEMENTS OF POETRY

19. Reading Poetry

Reading Poetry Responsively

LISA PARKER, Snapping Beans

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 "Oh, Oh"

ROBERT FRANCIS, Catch

A SAMPLE STUDENT ANALYSIS: Tossing Metaphors Together in Robert Francis’s "Catch"

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

Poetry in Popular Forms

HELEN FARRIES, Magic of Love

JOHN FREDERICK NIMS, Love Poem

Poems for Further Study

MARY OLIVER, The Poet with His Face in His Hands

JIM TILLEY, The Big Questions

ALBERTO RÍOS, Seniors

*ALFRED, LORD TENNYSON, The Eagle

*EDGAR ALLAN POE, To Science

CORNELIUS EADY, The Supremes

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

WEB SCREEN: Ted Kooser, American Life in Poetry

POEM IN NEWSPAPER: MICHAEL MCFEE, Spitwads

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 "Manners"

A SAMPLE STUDENT ANALYSIS: Memory in Elizabeth Bishop’s "Manners"

21. Word Choice, Word Order, and Tone

Word Choice

Diction

Denotations and Connotations

RANDALL JARRELL, The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner

Word Order

Tone

MARILYN NELSON, How I Discovered Poetry

KATHARYN HOWD MACHAN, Hazel Tells LaVerne

A SAMPLE STUDENT RESPONSE: Tone in Katharyn Howd Machan’s "Hazel Tells LaVerne"

MARTÍN ESPADA, Latin Night at the Pawnshop

PAUL LAURENCE 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

PERSPECTIVE: BARNEY AND CLYDE, The Defenestration of Frog

Poems for Further Study

*WALT WHITMAN, The Dalliance of Eagles

THOMAS HARDY, The Convergence of the Twain

DAVID R. SLAVITT, Titanic

*DANUSHA LAMERIS, Names

MARY OLIVER, Oxygen

CATHY SONG, The Youngest Daughter

*ANGELA ALAIMO O’DONNELL, Messenger

JOHN KEATS, Ode on a Grecian Urn

GWENDOLYN BROOKS, We Real Cool

JOAN MURRAY, We Old Dudes

*ALICE JONES, The Lungs

LOUIS SIMPSON, In the Suburbs

GARRISON KEILLOR, The Anthem

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 Thomas Wentworth Higginson)

SAPPHO, Prayer to my lady of Paphos (translated by Mary Barnard)

22. Images

Poetry’s Appeal to the Senses

WILLIAM CARLOS WILLIAMS, Poem

WALT WHITMAN, Cavalry Crossing a Ford

DAVID SOLWAY, Windsurfing

MATTHEW ARNOLD, Dover Beach

RUTH FORMAN, Poetry Should Ride the Bus

Poems for Further Study

*ADELAIDE CRAPSEY, November Night

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

PATRICIA SMITH, What It’s Like to Be a Black Girl (for Those of You Who Aren’t)

*CHALRES SIMIC, Fork

SALLY CROFT, Home-Baked Bread

JOHN KEATS, To Autumn

*STEPHEN CRANE, The Wayfarer

LUISA LOPEZ, Junior Year Abroad

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

RICHARD WILBUR, The Writer

Other Figures

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"

WILLIAM CARLOS WILLIAMS, To Waken an Old Lady

ERNEST SLYMAN, Lightning Bugs

*MARTÍN ESPADA, The Mexican Cabdriver’s Poem for His Wife, Who Has Left Him

JUDY PAGE HEITZMAN, The Schoolroom on the Second Floor of the Knitting Mill

WILLIAM WORDSWORTH, London, 1802

JIM STEVENS, Schizophrenia

*LUCILLE CLIFTON, Come Home from the Movies

*KAY RYAN, Learning

RONALD WALLACE, Building an Outhouse

ELAINE MAGARRELL, The Joy of Cooking

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, Not Writing

KEVIN PIERCE, Proof of Origin

*CARL SANDBURG, A Fence

JULIO MARZÁN, Ethnic Poetry

MARK HALLIDAY, Graded Paper

JAMES MERRILL, Casual Wear

HENRY REED, Naming of Parts

ROBERT BROWNING, My Last Duchess

*WILLIAM BLAKE, A Poison Tree

*PAUL MULDOON, Symposium

PERSPECTIVE: EZRA POUND, On Symbols

25. Sounds

Listening to Poetry

ANONYMOUS, Scarborough Fair

JOHN UPDIKE, Player Piano

EMILY DICKINSON, A Bird came down the Walk—

A SAMPLE STUDENT RESPONSE: Sound in Emily Dickinson’s "A Bird came down the Walk—"

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

LEWIS CARROLL (CHARLES LUTWIDGE DODGSON), Jabberwocky

WILLIAM HEYEN, The Trains

JOHN DONNE, Song

*KAY RYAN, Dew

*ANDREW HUDGINS, The Ice Cream Truck

PAUL HUMPHREY, Blow

ROBERT FRANCIS, The Pitcher

HELEN CHASIN, The Word Plum

RICHARD WAKEFIELD, The Bell Rope

*JEAN TOOMER, Unsuspecting

JOHN KEATS, Ode to a Nightingale

HOWARD NEMEROV, Because You Asked about the Line between Prose and Poetry

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

*SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE, Mnemonic

JOHN MALONEY, Good!

WILLIAM TROWBRIDGE, Drumming Behind You in the High School Band

ALICE JONES, The Foot

A. E. HOUSMAN, When I was one-and-twenty

ROBERT HERRICK, Delight in Disorder

BEN JONSON, Still to Be Neat

*E.E. CUMMINGS, O Sweet Spontaneous

WILLIAM BLAKE, The Lamb

WILLIAM BLAKE, The Tyger

CARL SANDBURG, Chicago

*VIRGINIA HAMILTON ADAIR, Pro Snake

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

SHERMAN ALEXIE, The Facebook Sonnet

*THOMAS HARDY, At the Altar-Rail

R.S. GWYNN, Shakespearean Sonnet

Villanelle

DYLAN THOMAS, Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night

EDWIN ARLINGTON ROBINSON, The House on the Hill

Sestina

ALGERNON CHARLES SWINBURNE, Sestina

FLORENCE CASSEN MAYERS, All-American Sestina

Epigram

SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE, What Is an Epigram?

DAVID MCCORD, Epitaph on a Waiter

PAUL LAURENCE DUNBAR, Theology

Limerick

ARTHUR HENRY REGINALD BUTLER, There was a young lady named Bright

LAURENCE PERRINE, The limerick’s never averse

Haiku

MATSUO BASHO, Under cherry trees

CAROLYN KIZER, After Basho-

*AMY LOWELL, Last Night That It Rained

*GARY SNYDER, A Dent in a Bucket

Elegy

BEN JONSON, On My First Son

Ode

*ALEXANDER POPE, Ode on Solitude

Parody

BLANCHE FARLEY, The Lover Not Taken

Picture Poem

MICHAEL MCFEE, In Medias Res

PERSPECTIVE: ELAINE MITCHELL, Form

28. Open Form

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"

DAVID SHUMATE, Shooting the Horse

RICHARD HAGUE, Directions for Resisting the SAT

*MICHAEL RYAN, I

*E.E. CUMMINGS, Old Age Sticks

NATASHA TRETHEWEY, On Captivity

JULIO MARZÁN, The Translator at the Reception for Latin American Writers

*CHARLES HARPER WEBB, Descent

KEVIN YOUNG, Eddie Priest’s Barber Shop and Notary

ANONYMOUS, The Frog

*DAVID HERNANDEZ, All-American

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 "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 and 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

EMILY DICKINSON

Success is counted sweetest

Water, is taught by thirst

*Papa Above!

Safe in their Alabaster Chambers—(1859 version)

Safe in their Alabaster Chambers—(1861 version)

Portraits are to daily faces

Some keep the Sabbath going to Church—

*I taste a liquor never brewed—

"Heaven"— is what I cannot reach!

I like a look of Agony

Wild Nights—Wild Nights!

The Soul selects her own Society—

Much Madness is divinest Sense—

I dwell in Possibility—

I heard a Fly buzz—when I died—

Because I could not stop for Death—

The Bustle in a House

Tell all the Truth but tell it slant—

*
O Sumptuous moment

*
A Route of Evanescence

From all the Jails the Boys and Girls

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

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

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

Suggested Topics for Longer Papers  

31. A Study of Robert Frost

A Brief Biography and An Introduction to His Work

ROBERT FROST

The Road Not Taken

The Pasture

ROBERT FROST

Mowing

Mending Wall

Birches

"Out, Out—"

Fire and Ice

Dust of Snow

Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening

The Need of Being Versed in Country Things

*Nothing Gold Can Stay

*Once by the Pacific

Neither Out Far nor In Deep

Design

*
The Gift Outright

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

HERBERT R. COURSEN JR., A Parodic Interpretation of "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening"

Suggested Topics for Longer Papers

32. 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: On "Building with Its Face Blown Off": Michael Meyer Interviews Billy Collins

FACSIMILES: BILLY COLLINS, Three Draft Manuscript Pages

Suggested Topics for Longer Papers

33. A Study of Julia Alvarez: The Author Reflects on Five Poems

A Brief Biography and An Introduction to Her Work

ESSAY: JULIA ALVAREZ, On Writing "Queens, 1963"

POEM: JULIA ALVAREZ, Queens, 1963

PERSPECTIVE: 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, On Writing "Dusting"

POEM: JULIA ALVAREZ, Dusting

ESSAY: JULIA ALVAREZ, On Writing "Ironing Their Clothes"

POEM: JULIA ALVAREZ, Ironing Their Clothes

ESSAY: JULIA ALVAREZ, On Writing "Sometimes the Words Are So Close" (From

the "33" Sonnet Sequence)

POEM: JULIA ALVAREZ, Sometimes the Words Are So Close

FACSIMILES: JULIA ALVAREZ, Four Draft Manuscript Pages

ESSAY: JULIA ALVAREZ, On Writing "First Muse"

POEM: JULIA ALVAREZ, First Muse

PERSPECTIVE: KELLI LYON JOHNSON, Mapping an Identity

34. A Cultural Case Study: Harlem Renaissance Poets Claude McKay, Georgia Douglas Johnson, Langston Hughes, and Countee Cullen

INTRODUCTION

CLAUDE MCKAY, A Brief Biography and an Introduction to His Work

CLAUDE MCKAY

The Harlem Dancer

If We Must Die

The Tropics in New York

The Lynching

America

*The White City

*The Barrier

GEORGIA DOUGLAS JOHNSON, A Brief Biography and an Introduction to Her Work

GEORGIA DOUGLAS JOHNSON

Youth

Foredoom

Calling Dreams

Lost Illusions

Fusion

*Prejudice

LANGSTON HUGHES, A Brief Biography and an Introduction to His Work

LANGSTON HUGHES

The Negro Speaks of Rivers

Jazzonia

Lenox Avenue: Midnight

Ballad of the Landlord

125th Street

Harlem

COUNTEE CULLEN, A Brief Biography and an Introduction to His Work

COUNTEE CULLEN

Yet Do I Marvel

Incident

For a Lady I Know

Tableau

From the Dark Tower

To Certain Critics

PERSPECTIVES

KAREN JACKSON FORD, Hughes’s Aesthetics of Simplicity

DAVID CHINITZ, The Romanticization of Africa in the 1920s

ALAIN LOCKE, Review of Georgia Douglas Johnson’s Bronze: A Book of

Verse

COUNTEE CULLEN, On Racial Poetry

ONWUCHEKWA JEMIE, On Universal Poetry

Suggested Topics for Longer Papers

35. A Thematic Case Study: Humor and Satire

JOHN CIARDI, Suburban

HARRYETTE MULLEN, Dim Lady

RONALD WALLACE, In a Rut

*JIM TILLEY, Hello, Old Man

MARTÍN ESPADA, The Community College Revises Its Curriculum in Response to Changing Demographics

* E.E. CUMMINGS, When Serpents Bargain for the Right to Squirm

GARY SOTO, Mexicans Begin Jogging

THOMAS MOORE, At the Berkeley Free Speech Café

BILLIE BOLTON, Memorandum

X. J. KENNEDY, On a Young Man’s Remaining an Undergraduate for Twelve Years

[[COLOR INSERT]]

Poetry and the Visual Arts

Painting: GRANT WOOD, American Gothic

Poem: JOHN STONE, American Gothic

Woodblock print: KIAGAWA UTAMARO, Girl Powdering Her Neck

Poem: CATHY SONG, Girl Powdering Her Neck

Sculpture: MAYA LIN, The Vietnam Veteran’s Memorial

Poem: YUSEF KOMUNYAKAA, Facing It

Painting: PIETER BRUEGHEL THE ELDER, Two Chained Monkeys

Poem: WISLAWA SZYMBORSKA, Brueghel’s Two Monkeys

Painting: EDWARD HOPPER, House by the Railroad

Poem: EDWARD HIRSCH, Edward Hopper and the House by the Railroad

Painting: VERMEER, The Milkmaid

Poem: WISLAWA SZYMBORSKA, Vermeer

36. A Thematic Case Study: The Natural World

TOM DISCH, Birdsong Interpreted

*WENDELL BERRY, The Peace of Wild Things

GAIL WHITE, Dead Armadillos

DAVE LUCAS, November

WALT MCDONALD, Coming Across It

ALDEN NOWLAN, The Bull Moose

KAY RYAN, Turtle

*MAXIM KUMIN, The Whole Hog

MARY OLIVER, Wild Geese

Suggested Topics for Longer Papers

37. A Thematic Case Study: The World of Work

DANA GIOIA, Money

TONY HOAGLAND, America

JAN BEATTY, My Father Teaches Me to Dream

MICHAEL CHITWOOD, Men Throwing Bricks

BARON WORMSER, Labor

*TED KOOSER, Laundry

DAVID IGNATOW, The Jobholder

JOYCE SUTPHEN, Guys Like That

MARGE PIERCY, To be of use

Suggested Topics for Longer Papers

AN ANTHOLOGY OF POEMS

38. A Collection of Poems

ANONYMOUS, Bonny Barbara Allan

* APHRA BEHN, Song: Love Armed

W.H. AUDEN, The Unknown Citizen

WILLIAM BLAKE, Infant Sorrow

ANNE BRADSTREET, Before the Birth of One of Her Children

* WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT, To a Waterfowl

* ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING, How Do I Love Thee? Let Me Count the Ways

ROBERT BURNS, A Red, Red Rose

SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE, Kubla Khan: or, a Vision in a Dream

JOHN DONNE, Batter My Heart

*PAUL LAURENCE DUNBAR, Sympathy

GEORGE ELIOT (MARY ANN EVANS), In a London Drawingroom

T.S. ELIOT, The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock

*RALPH WALDO EMERSON, Days

*THOMAS HARDY, I Looked Up From My Writing

FRANCES E. W. HARPER, Learning to Read

*GERARD MANLEY HOPKINS, Spring and Fall

GERARD MANLEY HOPKINS, The Windhover

*A. E. HOUSMAN, Loveliest of Trees, The Cherry Now

BEN JONSON, To Celia

JOHN KEATS, To one who has been long in city pent

JOHN KEATS, When I have fears that I may cease to be

*JOHN KEATS, Bright Star! Would I Were Steadfast As Thou Art—

*
D.H. LAWRENCE, How Beastly the Bourgeois Is

EMMA LAZARUS, The New Colossus

JOHN MILTON, On the Late Massacre in Piedmont

JOHN MILTON, When I consider how my light is spent

*EDGAR ALLEN POE, To Helen

*CHRISTINA GEORGINA ROSSETTI, Uphill

*EDWARD ARLINGTON ROBINSON, Miniver Cheevy

SIEGFRIED SASSOON, "They"

*WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE, Winter

*WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE, Let me not to the marriage of true minds

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE, When, in disgrace with Fortune and men’s eyes

PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY, Ozymandias

LYDIA HUNTLEY SIGOURNEY, Indian Names

*JONATHAN SWIFT, A Description of the Morning

ALFRED, LORD TENNYSON, Ulysses

*EDMUND WALLER, Go, Lovely Rose

*WALT WHITMAN, As Adam Early in the Morning

WALT WHITMAN, When I Heard the Learn’d Astronomer

WILLIAM WORDSWORTH, A Slumber Did My Spirit Seal

*WILLIAM WORDSWORTH, Composed Upon Westminster Bridge

WILLIAM WORDSWORTH, The Solitary Reaper

WILLIAM WORDSWORTH, Mutability

WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS, Leda and the Swan

* WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS, The Lake Isle of Innisfree

DRAMA

The Study of Drama

39. Reading Drama

Reading Drama Responsively

SUSAN GLASPELL, Trifles

A SAMPLE CLOSE READING: An Annotated Section of Trifles

PERSPECTIVE

SUSAN GLASPELL, From the Short Story Version of Trifles

Elements of Drama  

MICHAEL HOLLINGER, Naked Lunch

Drama in Popular Forms

LARRY DAVID, "The Pitch," a Seinfeld Episode

40. Writing about Drama

From Reading to Writing

Questions for Responsive Reading and Writing

A SAMPLE STUDENT PAPER: The Feminist Evidence in Trifles

41. A Study of Sophocles  

Theatrical Conventions of Greek Drama

Tragedy

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

PERSPECTIVES ON SOPHOCLES

ARISTOTLE, On Tragic Character

SIGMUND FREUD, On the Oedipus Complex

MURIEL RUKEYSER, On Oedipus the King

DAVID WILES, On Oedipus the King as a Political Play

42. 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

Suggested Topics for Longer Papers

Plays in Performance

Photos of scenes from:

Oedipus the King

Othello

A Doll House

Other Desert Cities

Dead Right

Rodeo

Fences

Trying to Find Chinatown

No Child…

Playwriting 101

Naked Lunch

43. 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  

44. 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 A Doll House

45. A Thematic Case Study: An Album of Contemporary Humor and Satire

JANE ANDERSON, The Reprimand

SHARON E. COOPER, Mistaken Identity

*DAVID IVES, Moby-Dude, Or: The Three-Minute Whale

JANE MARTIN, Rodeo

JOAN ACKERMANN, Quiet Torrential Sound

RICH ORLOFF, Playwriting 101: The Rooftop Lesson

A Collection of Plays

46. Plays for Further Reading

*STEVEN DIETZ, The Spot

DAVID HENRY HWANG, Trying to Find Chinatown

NILAJA SUN, No Child…

*WENDY WASSERSTEIN, Tender Offer

AUGUST WILSON, Fences

PERSPECTIVE

DAVID SAVRAN, An Interview with August Wilson

Critical Thinking and Writing

47. Critical Strategies for Reading

Critical Thinking

The Literary Canon: Diversity and Controversy

Formalist Strategies

Biographical Strategies

Psychological Strategies

Historical Strategies

Literary History Criticism

Marxist Criticism

New Historicist Criticism

Cultural Criticism

Gender Strategies

Feminist Criticism

Gay and Lesbian Criticism

Mythological Strategies

Reader-Response Strategies

Deconstructionist Strategies

48. Reading and the Writing Process

The Purpose and Value of Writing about Literature

Reading the Work Closely

Annotating the Text and Journal Note Taking

Annotated Text

Journal Note

Choosing a Topic

Developing a Thesis

Arguing about Literature

Questions for Arguing about Literature

Organizing a Paper

Writing a Draft

Writing the Introduction and Conclusion

Using Quotations

Revising and Editing

Questions for Writing: A Revision Checklist

Manuscript Form

Types of Writing Assignments

Explication

A SAMPLE STUDENT EXPLICATION: A Reading of Dickinson’s "There’s a certain Slant of light"

EMILY DICKINSON, There’s a certain Slant of light

Analysis

A SAMPLE STUDENT ANALYSIS: "The A & P" as a State of Mind

Comparison and Contrast

A SAMPLE STUDENT COMPARISON: The Struggle for Women’s Self-Definition in "Eveline" and A Doll House

49. The Literary Research Paper

Choosing a Topic

Finding Sources

Annotated List of References

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 the Narrator Cultivates a Rose for Emily

50. Taking Essay Examinations

Preparing for an Essay Exam

Keep Up with the Reading

Take Notes and Annotate the Text

Anticipate Questions

Types of Exams

Closed-Book versus Open-Book Exams

Essay Questions

Strategies for Writing Essay Exams

Glossary of Literary Terms

Index of First Lines

Index of Authors and Titles

Index of Terms

 

Michael Meyer

Michael Meyer has taught writing and literature courses for more than thirty years—since 1981 at the University of Connecticut and before that at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte and the College of William and Mary. In addition to being an experienced teacher, Meyer is a highly regarded literary scholar. His scholarly articles have appeared in distinguished journals such as American Literature, Studies in the American Renaissance, and Virginia Quarterly Review. An internationally recognized authority on Henry David Thoreau, Meyer is a former president of the Thoreau Society and coauthor (with Walter Harding) of The New Thoreau Handbook, a standard reference source. The American Studies Association awarded his first book, Several More Lives to Live: Thoreau’s Political Reputation in America, the Ralph Henry Gabriel Prize. . He is also the editor of Frederick Douglass: The Narrative and Selected Writings. He has lectured on a variety of American literary topics from Cambridge University to Peking University. His books for Bedford/St. Martin's include The Bedford Introduction to Literature; The Compact Bedford Introduction to Literature; Literature to Go; Poetry: An Introduction; and Thinking and Writing about Literature.


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