Literature: An Introduction to Reading and Writing, Compact Edition / Edition 5

by Edgar V. Roberts, Robert Zweig

Overview

Literature: An Introduction to Reading and Writing, Compact Edition is founded on the principles of writing about literature. It is not an afterthought and it is not treated as a separate chapter or appendix; but rather, it is the carefully integrated philosophy of Professor Roberts’ approach to teaching literature and composition.

Complete coverage of writing about each element and a total of 28 MLA-format student essays with accompanying commentary ensure student comprehension of writing about literature and therefore, produce better student papers.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780205000340
Publisher:	Longman
Publication date:	02/10/2011
Edition description:	Compact
Pages:	1536
Product dimensions:	6.40(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.60(d)

About the Author

About Edgar V. Roberts

Edgar V. Roberts, Emeritus Professor of English at Lehman College of The City University of New York, is a native of Minnesota. He graduated from the Minneapolis public schools in 1946, and received his Doctorate from the University of Minnesota in 1960. He taught English at Minnesota, the University of Maryland Overseas Division, Wayne State University, Hunter College, and Lehman College. From 1979 to 1988, He was Chair of the English Department of Lehman College.

He served in the U.S. Army in 1946 and 1947, seeing duty in Arkansas, the Philippine Islands, and Colorado.

He published articles about the plays of Henry Fielding, the subject of his Ph.D. dissertation. In 1968 he published a scholarly edition of John Gay's The Beggar's Opera (1728), and in 1969 he published a similar edition of Fielding's The Grub-Street Opera (1731), both with the University of Nebraska Press. He first published Writing About Literature (then named Writing Themes About Literature) in 1964, with Prentice Hall. Since then, this book has undergone eleven separate revisions, for a total of twelve editions. In 1986, with Henry E. Jacobs of the University of Alabama, he published the first edition of Literature: An Introduction to Reading and Writing. After Professor Jacobs's untimely death in the summer of 1986, Professor Roberts continued working on changes and revisions to keep this text up to date. The Ninth Edition was published early in 2009, with Pearson Longman. The Fourth Compact Edition of Literature: An Introduction to Reading and Writing was published in 2008.

Professor Roberts is an enthusiastic devoté of symphonic music and choral singing, having sung in local church choirs for forty years. Recently he has sung (bass) with the New Choral Society of Scarsdale, New York (where he lives), singing in classic works by Handel, Beethoven, Bruckner, Bach, Orff, Britten, Brahms, and others. He is a fan of both the New York Mets and the New York Yankees. When the two teams play in inter-league games, he is uneasy because he dislikes seeing either team lose. He also likes both the Giants and the Jets. He has been an avid jogger ever since the early 1960s, and he enjoys watching national and international track meets.

Professor Roberts encourages queries, comments, and suggestions from students who have been using any of the various books. Use the following email address: [e-mail].

About Robert Zweig

Robert Zweig is a tenured, full professor at Manhattan Community College of the City University of New York. He teaches courses in Literature and Writing and for many years was the Intensive Writing Coordinator for the college.

He has a doctorate in English Literature from the City University of New York, a Masters from Queens College in creative writing and a bachelor’s degree from Queens College in English literature. Dr. Zweig has numerous peer-reviewed publications in journals, encyclopedias and books. In addition, he is currently writing two textbooks for McGraw-Hill on the writing process, due out in 2011, another textbook, Grammar in the Modern World (Pearson) due out in 2011 and is co-author of Literature: An Introduction to Reading and Writing, a bestselling introduction to literature textbook by Longman Publishers. His translations of the Italian poet and Nobel Laureate Eugentio Montale appear in this text.

Also, Dr. Zweig has lectured extensively throughout the United States and Italy on Victorian Literature, Poetics and contemporary culture. Some of the American universities he has addressed include Notre Dame, New York University, University of California, Harvard, University of Illinois, University of Delaware, Rutgers University and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York,

He has received several scholarships and awards, including a Mellon Fellowship and the Phi Beta Kappa award for “Outstanding Teaching Skills” as one of the Top Ten Professors at Manhattan Community College.

Table of Contents

***** NEW SECTIONS ARE INDICATED WITH "(NEW)" AT THE END OF THE LINE.

Detailed Contents

Topical and Thematic Contents

Preface

PART I The Process of Reading, Responding to, and Writing About Literature

What Is Literature, and Why Do We Study It?

Types of Literature: The Genres

Reading Literature and Responding to It Actively

Alice Walker Everyday Use

Mrs. Johnson, with her daughter Maggie, is visited by her citified daughter Dee, whose return home is accompanied by surprises.

Reading and Responding in a Computer File or Notebook

Sample Notebook Entries on Walker’s “Everyday Use”

Major Stages in Thinking and Writing about Literary Topics: Discovering Ideas, Preparing to Write, Making an Initial Draft of Your Essay, and Completing the Essay

Writing Does Not Come Easily–for Anyone

The Goal of Writing: To Show a Process of Thought

Discovering Ideas (“Brainstorming”)

Study the Characters in the Work

Determine the Work’s Historical Period and Background

Analyze the Work’s Economic and Social Conditions

Explain the Work’s Major Ideas

Describe the Work’s Artistic Qualities

Explain Any Other Approaches That Seem Important

Preparing to Write

Build Ideas from Your Original Notes

Trace Patterns of Action and Thought

The Need for the Actual Physical Process of Writing

Raise and Answer Your Own Questions

Put Ideas Together Using a Plus-Minus, Pro-Con, or Either-Or Method

Originate and Develop Your Thoughts Through Writing

Making an Initial Draft of Your Essay

Base Your Essay on a Central Idea, Argument, or Statement

The Need for a Sound Argument in Essays About Literature

Create a Thesis Sentence as Your Guide to Organization

Begin Each Paragraph with a Topic Sentence

Select Only One Topic–No More–for Each Paragraph

Referring to the Names of Authors

Use Your Topic Sentences as the Arguments for Your Paragraph Development

The Use of Verb Tenses in the Discussion of Literary Works

Develop an Outline as the Means of Organizing Your Essay

Basic Writing Types: Paragraphs and Essays

Paragraph Assignment

Illustrative Student Essay (First Draft): Mrs. Johnson’s Overly Self-Assured Daughter, Dee, in Walker’s “Everyday Use” (NEW)

Completing the Essay: Developing and Strengthening Your Essay Through Revision

Make Your Own Arrangement of Details and Ideas

Use Literary Material as Evidence to Support Your Argument

Always Keep to Your Point; Stick to It Tenaciously

Check Your Development and Organization

Try to Be Original

Write with Specific Readers as Your Intended Audience

Use Exact, Comprehensive, and Forceful Language

Illustrative Student Essay (Improved Draft): Mrs. Johnson’s Overly Self-Assured Daughter, Dee, in Walker’s “Everyday Use” (NEW)

Commentary on the Essay

Essay Commentaries

A Summary of Guidelines

Writing Topics About the Writing Process

A Short Guide to the Use of References and Quotations in Essays About Literature

Integrate Passages and Ideas into Your Essay

Distinguish Your Thoughts from Those of Your Author

Integrate Material by Using Quotation Marks

Blend Quotations into Your Own Sentences

Indent Long Quotations and Set Them in Block Format

Use an Ellipsis to Show Omissions

Use Square Brackets to Enclose Words That You Add Within Quotations

Be Careful Not to Overquote

Preserve the Spellings in Your Source

PART II Reading and Writing About Fiction

1 Fiction: An Overview

Modern Fiction

The Short Story

Elements of Fiction I: Verisimilitude and Donnée

Elements of Fiction II: Character, Plot, Structure, and Idea or Theme

Elements of Fiction III: The Writer’s Tools

Visualizing Fiction: Cartoons, Graphic Narratives, Graphic Novels

Dan Piraro, Bizarro • Art Spiegelman, from Maus (Expanded)

Stories for Study

AMBROSE BIERCE An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge

A condemned man dreams of escape, freedom, and family.

SANDRA CISNEROS ’Mericans (NEW)

Through an evil act, a man learns goodness.

WILLIAM FAULKNER A Rose for Emily

Even seemingly ordinary people hide deep and bizarre mysteries.

TIM O’BRIEN The Things They Carried

During the Vietnam War, American soldiers carry not only their weighty equipment but many memories.

LUIGI PIRANDELLO War

During World War I in Italy, the loss of a loved one outweighs all rationalizations for the conflict.

Plot: The Motivation and Causality of Fiction

Writing About the Plot of a Story

Illustrative Student Essay: Plot in William Faulkner's "A Rose for Emily" (NEW)

Writing Topics About Plot in Fiction

2 Point of View: The Position or Stance of the Work’s Narrator or Speaker

An Exercise in Point of View: Reporting an Accident

Conditions That Affect Point of View

Point of View and Opinions

Determining a Work’s Point of View

Mingling Points of View

Point of View and Verb Tense

Summary: Guidelines for Points of View

Stories for Study

SHERMAN ALEXIE This is What it Means to Say Phoenix, Arizona (NEW)

Two old acquaintances friends embark on a journey to recover the body of one of their fathers.

SHIRLEY JACKSON The Lottery

What would it be like if the prize at a community-sponsored lottery were not the cash that people ordinarily hope to win?

JAMAICA KINCAID What I Have Been Doing Lately (NEW)

Life develops from the repetition and recirculation of dreams and fantasies.

LORRIE MOORE How to Become a Writer

There is more to becoming a writer than simply sitting down at a table and beginning to write.

Writing About Point of View

Illustrative Student Essay: Shirley Jackson’s Dramatic Point of View in “The Lottery”

Writing Topics About Point of View

3 Characters: The People in Fiction

Character Traits

How Authors Disclose Character in Literature

Types of Characters: Round and Flat

Reality and Probability: Verisimilitude

Stories for Study

T. C. BOYLE Greasy Lake (NEW)

Young men discover more than a way to kill time at this local hangout.

SUSAN GLASPELL A Jury of Her Peers

In a small farmhouse kitchen, the wives of men investigating a murder discover significant evidence that forces them to make an urgent decision.

KATHERINE MANSFIELD Miss Brill

Miss Brill goes to the park for a pleasant afternoon, but she does not find what she was expecting.

GUY DE MAUPASSANT The Necklace

To go to a ball, Mathilde Loisel borrows a necklace from a rich friend, but her rhapsodic evening has unforeseen consequences.

AMY TAN Two Kinds

Jing-Mei leads her own kind of life despite the wishes and hopes of her mother.

Writing About Character

Illustrative Student Essay: The Character of Minnie Wright in Glaspell’s “A Jury of Her Peers”

Writing Topics About Character

4 Setting: The Background of Place, Objects, and Culture in Stories

What Is Setting?

The Literary Uses of Setting

Stories for Study

JAMES JOYCE Araby

An introspective boy learns much about himself when he tries to keep a promise.

LU HSUN My Old Home (NEW)

A man revisits his childhood home.

CYNTHIA OZICK The Shawl

Can a mother in a Nazi concentration camp save her starving and crying baby?

EDGAR ALLEN POE The Cask of Amontillado

Writing About Setting

Illustrative Student Essay: The Interaction of Story and Setting in James Joyce’s “Araby” (NEW)

Writing Topics About Setting

5 Structure: The Organization of Stories

Formal Categories of Structure

Formal and Actual Structure

STORIES FOR STUDY

RALPH ELLISON Battle Royal

An intelligent black student, filled with hopes and dreams, is treated with monstrous indignity.

HA JIN Saboteur (NEW)

Wrongfully detained, a man has revenge as a meal to celebrate his escape.

JHUMPA LAHIRI The Interpreter of Maladies (NEW)

A tour guide learns about a troubled American family on a visit to ruins.

EUDORA WELTY A Worn Path

Phoenix Jackson, a devoted grandmother, walks a worn path on a mission of great love.

TOM WHITECLOUD Blue Winds Dancing

A Native American student leaves college in California to spend Christmas in his hometown in Wisconsin.

Writing About Structure in a Story

Illustrative Student Essay: The Structure of Eudora Welty’s ”A Worn Path”

Writing Topics About Structure

6 Tone and Style: The Words That Convey Attitudes in Fiction

Diction: The Writer’s Choice and Control of Words

Tone, Irony, and Style

Tone, Humor, and Style

Stories For Study

KATE CHOPIN The Story of an Hour

Louise Mallard is shocked and grieved by news that her husband has been killed, but she is about to have an even greater shock.

ERNEST HEMINGWAY Hills Like White Elephants

While waiting for a train, a man and woman reluctantly discuss an urgent situation.

ALICE MUNRO The Found Boat

After winter snows have melted in a small Canadian community, young people start making discoveries about themselves.

FRANK O’CONNOR First Confession

Jackie as a young man tells about his first childhood experience with confession.

JOHN UPDIKE A & P

As a checkout clerk at the A & P near the local beaches, Sammy learns about the consequences of a difficult choice.

Writing About Tone and Style

Illustrative Student Essay: Frank O’Connor’s Control of Tone and Style in “First Confession"

Writing Topics About Tone and Style

7 Symbolism and Allegory: Keys to Extended Meaning

Symbolism

Allegory

Fable, Parable, and Myth

Allusion in Symbolism and Allegory

Stories For Study

AESOP The Fox and the Grapes

What do people think about things that they can’t have?

NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE Young Goodman Brown

In colonial Salem, Goodman Brown has a bewildering encounter that changes his outlook on life.

LUKE The Parable of the Prodigal Son

Is there any limit to what a person can do to make divine forgiveness impossible?

GABRIEL GARCÍA MARQUEZ A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings

How do simple villagers respond to a miraculous visitor who appears in their town?

KATHERINE ANNE PORTER The Jilting of Granny Weatherall

As the end nears, Granny Weatherall has her memories and is surrounded by her loving adult children.

JOHN STEINBECK The Chrysanthemums

As a housewife on a small ranch, Elisa Allen experiences changes to her sense of self-worth.

Writing About Symbolism and Allegory

Illustrative Student Essay (Symbolism): Symbols of Light and Darkness in Porter’s “The Jilting of Granny Weatherall” Second Illustrative Student Essay (Allegory): The Allegory of Hawthorne’s “Young Goodman Brown”

Writing Topics About Symbolism and Allegory

8 Idea or Theme: The Meaning and the Message in Fiction

Ideas and Assertions

Ideas and Issues

Ideas and Values

The Place of Ideas in Literature

How to Find Ideas

Stories for Study

TONI CADE BAMBARA The Lesson

When a group of children visits a toy store for the wealthy, some of them draw conclusions about society and themselves.

ANTON CHEKHOV The Lady with the Dog

Bored with life, Dmitri Gurov meets Anna Sergeyevna and discovers previously unknown emotions and extremely new problems.

D. H. LAWRENCE The Horse Dealer’s Daughter

Dr. Jack Fergusson and Mabel Pervin find, in each other’s love, a new reason for being.

AMéRICO PAREDES The Hammon and the Beans

Is American liberty restricted to people of only one group, or is it for everyone?

Writing About a Major Idea in Fiction

Illustrative Student Essay: D. H. Lawrence’s “The Horse Dealer’s Daughter” as an Expression of the Idea that Loving Commitment is Essential in Life

Writing Topics About Ideas

9 Four Stories for Additional Enjoyment and Study

JOHN CHIOLES Before the Firing Squad

During World War II, in Nazi-occupied Greece, a young German soldier learns the importance of personal obligations.

CHARLOTTE PERKINS GILMAN The Yellow Wallpaper

Who is the woman who is trying to emerge from behind the yellow wallpaper?

FLANNERY O’CONNOR A Good Man Is Hard to Find

“The grandmother didn’t want to go to Florida. She wanted to visit some of her connections in east Tennessee. . . .”

TOBIAS WOOLF Powder

A young man and his father brave snowy roads hoping to meet an important deadline.

9A Writing a Research Essay on Fiction

Selecting a Topic

Setting Up a Working Bibliography (NEW)

Locating Sources (NEW)

Searching the Internet (NEW)

Evaluating Sources (box) (NEW)

Searching Library Resources (NEW)

Important Considerations About Computer-Aided Research (box)

Review the Bibliographies in Major Critical Studies on your Topic

Consult Bibliographical Guides

Gaining Access to Books and Articles Through Databases (NEW)

Taking Notes and Paraphrasing Material

Plagiarism: An Embarrassing but Vital Subject—and a Danger to be Overcome (box)

Being Creative and Original While Doing Research

Documenting Your Work (NEW)

Strategies for Organizing Ideas in Your Research Essay

Illustrative Student Essay Using Research: The Structure of Katherine Mansfield’s “Miss Brill”

Writing Topics About How to Undertake a Research Essay

PART III Reading and Writing About Poetry

10 Meeting Poetry: An Overview

The Nature of Poetry

BILLY COLLINS Schoolsville

LISEL MUELLER Hope

ROBERT HERRICK Here a Pretty Baby Lies

Poetry of the English Language

How to Read a Poem

Studying Poetry

Anonymous Sir Patrick Spens

Poems for Study

GWENDOLYN BROOKS The Mother

WILLIAM COWPER The Poplar Field

EMILY DICKINSON Because I Could Not Stop for Death

ROBERT FRANCIS Catch

ROBERT FROST Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening

THOMAS HARDY The Man He Killed

JOY HARJO Eagle Poem

RANDALL JARRELL The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner

BEN JONSON On My First Daughter

DORIANNE LAUX The Life of Trees

EMMA LAZARUS The New Colossus

LOUIS MACNEICE Snow

JIM NORTHRUP Ogichidag

NAOMI SHIHAB NYE Where Children Live

JOYCE CAROL OATES Loving

OCTAVIO PAZ Two Bodies (NEW)

PHIL RIZZUTO They Own the Wind (NEW)

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE Sonnet 55: Not Marble, Nor the Gilded Monuments

PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY To – [“Music, When Soft Voices Die”

ELAINE TERRANOVA Rush Hour

WILLIAM WORDSWORTH Lines Composed a Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey

Writing a Paraphrase of a Poem

Illustrative Student Paraphrase: A Paraphrase of Thomas Hardy’s “The Man He Killed”

Writing an Explication of a Poem

Illustrative Student Essay: An Explication of Thomas Hardy’s “ Man He Killed”

Writing Topics About the Nature of Poetry

11 Words: The Building Blocks of Poetry

Choice of Diction: Specific and Concrete, General and Abstract

Levels of Diction

Special Types of Diction

Syntax

Decorum: The Matching of Subject and Word

Denotation and Connotation

Robert Graves The Naked and the Nude

Poems for Study

WILLIAM BLAKE The Lamb

ROBERT BURNS Green Grow the Rashes

LEWIS CARROLL Jabberwocky

HAYDEN CARRUTH An Apology for Using the Word “Heart” in Too Many Poems

E. E. CUMMINGS next to of course god america i

JOHN DONNE Holy Sonnet 14: Batter My Heart, Three-Personed God

RICHARD EBERHART The Fury of Aerial Bombardment

BART EDELMAN Chemistry Experiment

THOMAS GRAY Sonnet on the Death of Richard West

A. E. HOUSMAN Loveliest of Trees, the Cherry Now

CAROLYN KIZER Night Sounds

DENISE LEVERTOV Of Being

EUGENIO MONTALE English Horn (Corno Inglese)

JUDITH ORTIZ [COFER] Latin Women Pray

HENRY REED Naming of Parts

EDWIN ARLINGTON ROBINSON Richard Cory

THEODORE ROETHKE Dolor

KAY RYAN Crib (NEW)

STEPHEN SPENDER I Think Continually of Those Who Were Truly Great

WALLACE STEVENS Disillusionment of Ten O’Clock

MARK STRAND Eating Poetry

WILLIAM WORDSWORTH Daffodils (I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud)

JAMES WRIGHT A Blessing

Writing About Diction and Syntax in Poetry

Illustrative Student Essay: Diction and Character in Robinson’s “Richard Cory”

Writing Topics About the Words of Poetry

12 Imagery: The Poem’s Link to the Senses

Responses and the Writer’s Use of Detail

The Relationship of Imagery to Ideas and Attitudes

Types of Imagery

JOHN MASEFIELD Cargoes

WILFRED OWEN Anthem for Doomed Youth

ELIZABETH BISHOP The Fish

POEMS FOR STUDY

ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING Sonnets from the Portuguese, Number 14: If Thou Must Love Me

SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE Kubla Khan

T. S. ELIOT Preludes

LOUISE ERDRICH Indian Boarding School : The Runaways (NEW)

SUSAN GRIFFIN Love Should Grow Up Like a Wild Iris in the Fields

THOMAS HARDY Channel Firing

GEORGE HERBERT The Pulley

GERARD MANLEY HOPKINS Spring

A. E. HOUSMAN On Wenlock Edge

DENISE LEVERTOV A Time Past

THOMAS LUX The Voice You Hear When You Read Silently

EUGENIO MONTALE Buffalo (Buffalo)

MARIANNE MOORE The Fish

PABLO NERUDA Every Day You Play

OCTAVIO PAZ The Street (NEW)

EZRA POUND In a Station of the Metro

MIKLÓS RADNÓTI Forced March

FRIEDRICH RÜCKERT If You Love for the Sake of Beauty

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE Sonnet 13: My Mistress’ Eyes Are Nothing Like the Sun

STEPHEN STEPANCHEV Seven Horizons (NEW)

JAMES TATE Dream On

Writing About Imagery

Illustrative Student Essay: Imagery in T. S. Eliot’s “Preludes”

Writing Topics About Imagery in Poetry

13 Figures of Speech, or Metaphorical Language: A Source of Depth and Range in Poetry

Metaphors and Similes: The Major Figures of Speech

Characteristics of Metaphorical Language

JOHN KEATS On First Looking into Chapman’s Homer

Vehicle and Tenor

Other Figures of Speech

JOHN KEATS Bright Star

JOHN GAY Let Us Take the Road

POEMS FOR STUDY

JACK AGÜEROS Sonnet for You, Familiar Famine

WILLIAM BLAKE The Tyger

ROBERT BURNS A Red, Red Rose

JOHN DONNE A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning

ABBIE HUSTON EVANS The Iceberg Seven-Eighths Under

THOMAS HARDY The Convergence of the Twain

JOY HARJO Remember

JOHN KEATS To Autumn

MAURICE KENNY Legacy

JANE KENYON Let Evening Come

HENRY KING Sic Vita

ROBERT LOWELL Skunk Hour

JUDITH MINTY Conjoined

PABLO NERUDA If You Forget Me

MARY OLIVER Showing the Birds (NEW)

MARGE PIERCY A Work of Artifice

MURIEL RUKEYSER Looking at Each Other

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE Sonnet 18: Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer’s Day?

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE Sonnet 30: When to the Sessions of Sweet Silent Thought

ELIZABETH TUDOR, QUEEN ELIZABETH I On Monsieur’s Departure

MONA VAN DUYN Earth Tremors Felt in Missouri

DEBORAH WARREN Clay and Flame (NEW)

WALT WHITMAN Facing West from California’s Shores

WILLIAM WORDSWORTH London, 1820

SIR THOMAS WYATT I Find No Peace

Writing About Figures of Speech

Illustrative Student Paragraph: Wordsworth’s Use of Overstatement in “London, 1820”

Illustrative Student Essay: A Study of Shakespeare’s Metaphors in Sonnet 3: “When to the Sessions of Sweet Silent Thought”

Writing Topics About Figures of Speech in Poetry

14 Tone: The Creation of Attitude in Poetry

Tone, Choice, and Response

CORNELIUS WHUR The First-Rate Wife

Tone and the Need for Control

WILFRED OWEN Dulce et Decorum Est

Tone and Common Grounds of Assent

Tone in Conversation and Poetry

Tone and Irony

THOMAS HARDY The Workbox

Tone and Satire

ALEXANDER POPE Epigram from the French

ALEXANDER POPE Epigram, Engraved on the Collar of a Dog Which I Gave to His Royal Highness

POEMS FOR STUDY

WILLIAM BLAKE On Another’s Sorrow

ROBERT BROWNING My Last Duchess

JIMMY CARTER I Wanted to Share My Father’s World

LUCILLE CLIFTON homage to my hips

BILLY COLLINS The Names

E. E. CUMMINGS she being Brand /-new

BART EDELMAN Trouble

MARTIN ESPADA Bully (NEW)

MARI EVANS I Am a Black Woman

SEAMUS HEANEY Mid-Term Break

WILLIAM ERNEST HENLEY When You Are Old

DAVID IGNATOW The Bagel

YUSEF KOMUNYAKAA Facing It

ABRAHAM LINCOLN My Childhood’s Home

PAT MORA La Migra

SHARON OLDS The Planned Child

ROBERT PINSKY Dying

ALEXANDER POPEfrom Epilogue to the Satires Dialogue I

SALVATORE QUASÍMODO Auschwitz

ANNE RIDLER Nothing Is Lost

THEODORE ROETHKE My Papa’s Waltz

JANE SHORE A Letter Sent to Summer

CATHY SONG Lost Sister (NEW)

JONATHAN SWIFT A Description of the Morning

DAVID WAGONER My Physics Teacher

C. K. WILLIAMS Dimensions

WILLIAM WORDSWORTH The Solitary Reaper

WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS When You Are Old

Writing About Tone in Poetry

Illustrative Student Essay: The Speaker’s Attitudes in Sharon Olds’s “The Planned Child”

Writing Topics About Tone in Poetry

15 Form: The Shape of Poems

Closed-Form Poetry

WILLIAM WORDSWORTH Fragment from The Prelude

ALEXANDER POPE Fragment from The Rape of the Locke

ALFRED, LORD TENNYSON The Eagle

JOHN MILTON Fragment from Lycidas

ANONYMOUS Spun in High, Dark Clouds

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE Sonnet 116: Let Me Not to the Marriage of True Minds

Open-Form Poetry

WALT WHITMAN Reconciliation

Visualizing Poetry: Poetry and Artistic Expression: Visual Poetry, Concrete Poetry, and Prose Poems

E. E. CUMMINGS Buffalo Bill’s Defunct

GEORGE HERBERT Colossians 3:3 (Our Life is Hid With Christ in God)

GEORGE HERBERT Easter Wings

CHARLES HARPER WEBB The Shape of History

JOHN HOLLANDER Swan and Shadow

WILLIAM HEYEN Mantle

MAY SWENSON Women

CAROLYN FORCHÉ The Colonel

POEMS FOR STUDY

ELIZABETH BISHOP One Art

BILLY COLLINS Sonnet

JOHN DRYDEN To the Memory of Mr. Oldham

ROBERT FROST Desert Places

ALLEN GINSBERG A Supermarket in California

ROBERT HASS Museum

GEORGE HERBERT Virtue

JOHN HALL INGHAM George Washington(from Ch. 17)

JOHN KEATS Ode to a Nightingale

YUSEF KOMUNYAKAA Grenade (NEW)

MAGUS MAGNUS Empirical/Imperial Demonstration (NEW)

CLAUDE McKAY In Bondage

HERMAN MELVILLE Shiloh (from Ch. 17)

JOHN MILTON On His Blindness (When I Consider How My Light Is Spent)

DUDLEY RANDALL Ballad of Birmingham

THEODORE ROETHKE The Waking

GEORGE WILLIAM RUSSELL (Æ) Continuity

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE Sonnet 73 (from Ch. 17)

PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY Ozymandias

DYLAN THOMAS Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night

JEAN TOOMER Reapers

PHYLLIS WEBB Poetics Aga the Angel of Death

WILLIAM CARLOS WILLIAMS The Dance

Writing About Form in Poetry

Illustrative Student Essay: Form and Meaning in George Herbert’s “Virtue”

Writing Topics About Poetic Form

16. Symbolism and Allusion: Windows to Wide Expanses of Meaning

Symbolism and Meanings

VIRGINIA SCOTT Snow

The Function of Symbolism in Poetry

Allusions and Meaning

Studying for Symbols and Allusions

POEMS FOR STUDY

EMILY BRONTË No Coward Soul Is Mine

PETER DAVISON Delphi

JOHN DONNE The Canonization

STEPHEN DUNN Hawk

RALPH WALDO EMERSON Concord Hymn (From Ch. 17)

ISABELLA GARDNER Collage of Echoes

DAN GEORGAKIS Hiroshima Crewman

JORIE GRAHAM The Geese

THOMAS HARDY In Time of “The Breaking of Nations”

GEORGE HERBERT The Collar

JOSEPHINE JACOBSEN Tears

ROBINSON JEFFERS The Purse-Seine

JOHN KEATS La Belle Dame Sans Merci: A Ballad

X. J. KENNEDY Old Men Pitching Horseshoes

TED KOOSER Year’s End

PHILIP LARKIN Next, Please

DAVID LEHMAN Venice Is Sinking

ANDREW MARVELL To His Coy Mistress

MARY OLIVER Wild Geese

KAY RYAN We’re Building the Ship as We Sail It (NEW)

GARY SNYDER Milton by Firelight

JUDITH VIORST A Wedding Sonnet for the Next Generation

WALT WHITMAN A Noiseless Patient Spider

RICHARD WILBUR Year’s End

WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS The Second Coming

Writing About Symbolism and Allusion in Poetry

Illustrative Student Essay: Symbolism in Oliver’s “Wild Geese”

Writing Topics About Symbolism and Allusion in Poetry

17. Four Major American Poets: Emily Dickinson, Robert Frost, Langston Hughes, and Sylvia Plath

EMILY DICKINSON’S Life and Work

Writing Topics About the Poetry of Emily Dickinson

POEMS BY EMILY DICKINSON (ALPHABETICALLY ARRANGED)

After Great Pain, a Formal Feeling Comes (J341, F372)

Because I Could Not Stop for Death (J712, F479) (Included in Chapter 11, p. )

The Bustle in a House (J178, F118)

I Cannot Live with You (J64, F76)

I Dwell in Possibility (F466, J657)

I Felt a Funeral in My Brain (J28, F34)

I Heard a Fly Buzz — When I Died (J465, F491)

I Like to See It Lap the Miles (J585, F383)

I Never Lost as Much but Twice (J49, F39)

I Taste a Liquor Never Brewed (J214, F27)

Much Madness Is Divinest Sense (J435, F62)

My Life Closed Twice Before Its Close (J1732, F1773)

My Triumph Lasted Till the Drums (J1227, F1212)

Safe in Their Alabaster Chambers (J216, F124)

Some Keep the Sabbath Going to Church (J324, F236)

The Soul Selects Her Own Society (J33, F49)

Success Is Counted Sweetest (J67, F112)

There’s a Certain Slant of Light (J258, F32)

Triumph May Be of Several Kinds (J455, F68),

Wild Nights — Wild Nights! (J249, F269)

Edited Selections from Criticism of Dickinson’s Poems

1. From “Orthodox Modernisms” • 2. “The Landscape of the Spirit” • 3. From “The American Plain Style” • 4. From “The Histrionic Imagination” • 5. From “The Gothic Mode”

ROBERT FROST’S Life and Work

Writing Topics About the Poetry of Robert Frost

POEMS BY ROBERT FROST (CHRONOLOGICALLY ARRANGED)

The Tuft of Flowers (1913)

Pan with Us (in Chapter 2, p. )

Mending Wall (1914)

Birches (1915)

The Road Not Taken (1915)

”Out, Out–” (1916)

The Oven Bird (1916)

Fire and Ice (192)

Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening (1923) (In Chapter 11, p. )

Misgiving (1923)

Nothing Gold Can Stay (1923)

Acquainted with the Night (1928)

Desert Places (1936) (In Chapter 18, p. )

Design (1936)

The Silken Tent (1936)

The Gift Outright (1941)

A Considerable Speck (1942)

Take Something Like a Star (1943)

LANGSTON HUGHES’ Life and Work

Writing Topics About the Poetry of Langston Hughes

POEMS OF LANGSTON HUGHES (ALPHABETICALLY ARRANGED)

Bad Man

Cross

Dead in There

Dream Variations

Harlem

Let America Be America Again

Madam and Her Madam

Negro

The Negro Speaks of Rivers

125th Street

Po ’ Boy Blues

Silhouette

Subway Rush Hour

Theme for English B

The Weary Blues

SYLVIA PLATH’S Life and Work

Writing Topics About the Poetry of Sylvia Plath

POEMS OF SYLVIA PLATH (ALPHABETICALLY ARRANGED)

Ariel

The Colossus

Cut

Daddy

Edge

The Hanging Man

Lady Lazarus

Last Words

Metaphors

Mirror

The Rival

Song for a Summer’s Day

Tulips

18. Eighty-four Poems for Additional Enjoyment and Study

AI Conversation (NEW)

ANNA AKHMATOVA Willow (NEW)

MAYA ANGELOU Still I Rise Still (NEW)

ANONYMOUS (NAVAJO) Healing Prayer from the Beautyway Chant

W.H. AUDEN, Musee des Beaux Arts

LOUISE BOGAN Women

ARNA BONTEMPS A Black Man Talks of Reaping

EMILY BRONTE Love and Friendship (NEW)

ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING Sonnets from the Portuguese: Number 43, How Do I Love Thee

GEORGE GORDON, LORD BYRON She Walks in Beauty

LEONARD COHEN “The killers that run . . .”

BILLY COLLINS Days

STEPHEN CRANE Do Not Weep, Maiden, for War Is Kind

ROBERT CREELEY “Do you think . . .”

E. E. CUMMINGS if there are any heavens

CARL DENNIS The God Who Loves You

JOHN DONNE Holy Sonnet 1: Death Be Not Proud

PAUL LAURENCE DUNBAR Sympathy [I Know What the Caged Bird Feels]

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

JAMES EMANUEL The Negro

CHIEF DAN GEORGE The Beauty of the Trees

DANIEL HALPERN Snapshot of Hué

FRANCES E. W. HARPER She’s Free!

ROBERT HASS Spring Rain

ROBERT HAYDEN Those Winter Sundays

A. D. HOPE Advice to Young Ladies

GERARD MANLEY HOPKINS Pied Beauty

CAROLINA HOSPITAL Dear Tia

ROBINSON JEFFERS The Answer

JOHN KEATS Ode on a Grecian Urn

GALWAY KINNELL After Making Love We Hear Footsteps

YAHIA LABABIDI What Do Animals Dream? (NEW)

KATHERINE LARSON Statuary

IRVING LAYTON Rhine Boat Trip

PHILIP LEVINE Islands (NEW)

ALAN P. LIGHTMAN In Computers

LIZ LOCHHEAD The Choosing

AUDRE LORDE Every Traveler Has One Vermont Poem

AMY LOWELL Patterns

MAGUS MAGNUS Radical Crumb (NEW)

CLAUDE McKAY The White City

N. SCOTT MOMADAY The Bear

HOWARD NEMEROV Life Cycle of Common Man

JIM NORTHRUP wahbegan

MARY OLIVER Ghosts

SIMON ORTIZ A Story of How a Wall Stands

DOROTHY PARKER Résumé

LINDA PASTAN Marks

MARGE PIERCY The Secretary Chant

EDGAR ALLAN POE Annabel Lee

ALBERTO RÍOS The Vietnam Wall

LUIS OMAR SALINAS In a Farmhouse

CARL SANDBURG Chicago

SIEGFRIED SASSOON Dreamers

ALAN SEEGER I Have a Rendezvous with Death

BRENDA SEROTTE My Mother’s Face

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE Sonnet 29: When in Disgrace with Fortune and Men’s Eyes

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE Sonnet 146: Poor Soul, the Center of My Sinful Earth

KARL SHAPIRO Auto Wreck

STEVIE SMITH Not Waving But Drowning

GARY SOTO Oranges

WILLIAM STAFFORD Traveling Through the Dark

GERALD STERN Burying an Animal on the Way to New York

WALLACE STEVENS The Emperor of Ice-Cream

MAY SWENSON Question

DYLAN THOMAS A Refusal to Mourn the Death, by Fire, of a Child in London

JOHN UPDIKE Perfection Wasted

TINO VILLANUEVA Day-Long Day

JUDITH VIORST True Love
SHELLY WAGNER The Boxes

ALICE WALKER Revolutionary Petunias

EDMUND WALLER Go, Lovely Rose

WALT WHITMAN Beat! Beat! Drums!

WALT WHITMAN Dirge for Two Veterans

WALT WHITMAN Full of Life Now

WALT WHITMAN I Hear America Singing

JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER The Bartholdi Statue

RICHARD WILBUR Love Calls Us to the Things of the World (NEW)

WILLIAM CARLOS WILLIAMS The Red Wheelbarrow

LISA ZARAN Go On (NEW)

PAUL ZIMMER The Day Zimmer Lost Religion

18A Writing a Research Essay on Poetry

Topics to Discover in Research

Illustrative Student Essay Written with the Aid of Research: “Beat! Beat! Drums!” and “I Hear America Singing”: Two Whitman Poems Spanning the Civil War

Commentary on the Essay

PART IV Reading and Writing About Drama

19. The Dramatic Vision: An Overview

Drama as Literature

Performance: The Unique Aspect of Drama

Drama from Ancient Times to Our Own: Tragedy, Comedy, and Additional Forms

ANONYMOUS The Visit to the Sepulcher (Visitatio Sepulchri)

How do the Three Marys respond to the news told by the angel?

Visualizing Plays: Imagining Dramatic Scenes and Actions

PLAYS FOR STUDY

EDWARD ALBEE The Sandbox

Mommy and Daddy take Grandma to a beach, but they plan more than relaxing in the sun.

SUSAN GLASPELL Trifles

In a small farmhouse kitchen early in the twentieth century, the wives of men investigating a murder discover significant evidence that forces them to make an urgent decision .

BETTY KELLER Tea Party

How do two aged ladies try to invite other people to come in and visit?

JANE MARTIN Beauty (NEW)

As Carla and Bethany talk together, they go through a transformational experience.

EUGENE O’NEILL Before Breakfast

What happens to people facing disappointment, anger, alienation, and lost hope?

Writing About the Elements of Drama

Referring to Plays and Parts of Plays

Illustrative Student Essay: Eugene O’Neill’s Use of Negative Descriptions and Stage Directions in Before Breakfast as a Means of Revealing Character

Writing Topics About the Elements of Drama

20. The Tragic Vision: Affirmation Through Loss

The Origins of Tragedy

The Ancient Athenian Competitions in Tragedy

The Origin of Tragedy in Brief

Aristotle and the Nature of Tragedy

Aristotle’s View of Tragedy in Brief

Irony in Tragedy

The Ancient Athenian Audience and Theater

Ancient Greek Tragic Actors and Their Costumes

Performance and the Formal Organization of Greek Tragedy

Plays for Study

SOPHOCLES Oedipus the King

Can anyone, even a powerful king, evade destiny or his own character?

Renaissance Drama and Shakespeare’s Theater

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark

An initial act of evil is like an infestation.

Tragedy from Shakespeare’s Time to Our Own

Writing About Tragedy

Illustrative Student Essay: The Problem of Hamlet’s Apparent Delay

Writing Topics About Tragedy

21. The Comic Vision: Restoring the Balance

The Origins of Comedy

Comedy from Roman Times to the Renaissance

The Patterns, Characters, and Language of Comedy

Types of Comedy

Plays for Study

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE A Midsummer Night’s Dream

The problems of lovers are resolved through the magic of the natural world, not through custom and law.

Comedy Since Shakespeare

ANTON CHEKHOV The Bear, A Joke in One Act

A bachelor and a widow meet and immediately berate each other, but their lives are about to undergo great change.

Writing About Comedy

Illustrative Student Essay: Setting as Symbol and Comic Structure in Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream

Writing Topics About Comedy

22. Four Plays for Additional Study and Enjoyment

HENRIK IBSEN A Dollhouse (Et Dukkehjem)

In their seemingly perfect household, Nora and Torvald discover the severe differences between them.

LANGSTON HUGHES Mulatto

On a Southern plantation in the 193s, a young man tries to assert his rights, but there are those who will not grant him any rights at all.

LUIS VALDEZ Los Vendidos (NEW)

This play takes place in a “lot,” but not the kind of lot we might ordinarily expect.

August Wilson Biography

The Background of Fences

AUGUST WILSON Fences

Troy Maxson, who as a young athlete could knock baseballs over fences, has led a life enclosed by other fences.

Writing About Realistic and Nonrealistic

Illustrative Student Essay: Realism and Nonrealism in Tom’s Triple Role in The Glass Menagerie

Writing Topics About Dramatic Reality and Nonreality

22A Writing a Research Essay on Drama

Topics to Discover in Research

Illustrative Student Essay Written with the Aid of Research: “The Ghost in Hamlet”

PART V Special Writing Topics About Literature

23 Critical Approaches Important in the Study of Literature

Moral/Intellectual

Topical/Historical

New Critical/Formalist

Structuralist

Feminist Criticism/Gender Studies/Queer Theory

Economic Determinist/Marxist

Psychological/Psychoanalytic

Archetypal/Symbolic/Mythic

Deconstructionist

Reader-Response

24. Three Types of Writing about Literature

1. Comparison-Contrast and Extended Comparison-Contrast: Learning by Seeing Literary Works together

Guidelines for the Comparison-Contrast Method

The Extended Comparison-Contrast Essay

Citing References in a Longer Comparison-Contrast Essay

Writing a Comparison-Contrast Essay

Illustrative Student Essay (Two Works): The Treatment of Responses to War in Amy Lowell’s “Patterns” and Wilfred Owen’s “Anthem for Doomed Youth”

Illustrative Student Essay (Extended Comparison-Contrast): Literary Treatments of the Conflicts Between Private and Public Life

Writing Topics for Comparison and Contrast

2. Reader-Response: A Concentration on How a Reader’s Reactions Leads toward Interpretation

Important Elements of a Reader Response Essay

Illustrative Student Essay (Reader-Response): Opposite Personal Responses to W.H. Auden’s “Musée des Beaux Arts”

Writing Topics for Reader-Response

3. Argument: The Use of Persuasive Reasoning as a Means of Developing the Capacity to Improve Understanding by the Organized Use of Details

Defining an Argument Essay

Important Elements of an Argument Essay

Illustrative Student Essay (Literary Argument): Sammy’s Decision to Become an Adult

Writing Topics for Literary Argument

25. Taking Examinations on Literature

Answer the Questions That Are Asked

Systematic Preparation

Two Basic Types of Questions About Literature

Appendixes

I. Writing About Film

II. MLA Recommendations for Documenting Sources

A Glossary of Important Literary Terms

Credits

Index of Authors, Titles, and First Lines