Exploring Literature Writing and Arguing about Fiction, Poetry, Drama, and the Essay

by Madden, Frank

• ISBN13: 9780205184798
• ISBN10: 0205184790
• Additional ISBN(s): 9780134506586
• Edition: 5th
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2020-01-29
• Publisher: Pearson
• More Book Details

Summary

Featuring culturally rich and diverse literature, this anthology weaves critical thinking into every facet of its writing apparatus and guides students through the process of crafting their personal responses into persuasive arguments.#xA0; #xA0; With engaging selections, provocative themes, and comprehensive coverage of the writing process, Madden's anthology is sure to capture the reader's imagination. Exploring Literatureopens with five chapters dedicated to writing and arguing about literature. An anthology follows, organized around five themes. Each thematic unit includes an ethnically diverse collection of short stories, poems, plays, and essays, as well as a case study to help students explore literature from various perspectives.#xA0;

Author Biography

Frank Madden is SUNY Distinguished Professor and Chair of the English Department at SUNY Westchester Community College where he also holds the Carol Russett Endowed Chair for English. He has a Ph.D. from NYU, has taught in graduate programs at CCNY, Iona College, and the New School for Social Reserach, and in 1998 was Chair of the NCTE College Section Institute on the Teaching of Literature. He is a recipient of the SUNY Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Teaching, the SUNY Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Scholarship, the Foundation for Westchester Community College Award for Excellence in Scholarship, and the Phi Delta Kappan Educator of the Year Award from Iona College. He was awarded the 2003 Neil Ann Pickett Service Award, granted by the NCTE to an outstanding college teacher whose vision and voice have had a major impact, and who exemplifies such outstanding personal qualities as creativity, sensitivity, and leadership. He has been Chair of the College Section of the NCTE and Chair of TYCA, and served on the Executive Committee of the NCTE, the CCCC, the MLA ad hoc Committee on Teaching, and as NCTE delegate to the American Council of Learned Societies. His articles, chapters, and commentary about the teaching of literature have appeared in a variety of books and journals, including College English, PMLA, College Literature, English Journal, Computers and Composition, Computers and the Humanities, and the ADE Bulletin. 

Table of Contents

Detailed Contents

Alternate Contents by Genre

Preface to Instructors

About the Author

 

Part I Making Connections

 

Chapter 1 Participation: Personal Response and Critical Thinking 

The Personal Dimension of Reading Literature 

Personal Response and Critical Thinking 

Writing to Learn 

Your First Response 

Checklist: Your First Response 

Keeping a Journal or Reading Log 

Double-Entry Journals and Logs 

The Social Nature of Learning: Collaboration 

Personal, Not Private 

Ourselves as Readers 

Different Kinds of Reading 

Peter Meinke,  Advice to My Son 

Making Connections with Literature 

Images of Ourselves 

Connecting Through Experience 

Paul Zimmer, Zimmer in Grade School 

Culture, Experience, and Values 

Connecting Through Experience 

Robert Hayden, Those Winter Sundays 

Connecting Through Experience 

Marge Piercy, Barbie Doll 

Being in the Moment 

New York Times, “Birmingham Bomb Kills 4” 

Dudley Randall, Ballad of Birmingham 

Participating, Not Solving 

Using Our Imaginations 

The Whole and Its Parts 

 

Chapter 2 Communication: Writing a Personal Response Essay   

The Personal Response Essay 

Checklist: The Basics of a Personal Response Essay

Voice and Writing 

Voice and Response to Literature 

Connecting Through Experience 

Countee Cullen, Incident 

Writing to Describe 

Choosing Details 

Choosing Details from Literature 

Connecting Through Experience 

Sandra Cisneros, Eleven 

Writing to Compare 

Comparing and Contrasting Using a Venn Diagram 

Connecting Through Experience 

Anna Quindlen, Mothers 

Connecting Through Experience 

Langston Hughes, Salvation 

Possible Worlds 

From First Response to Final Draft 

The Importance of Revision 

Using First or Third Person in Formal Essays 

Step 1: Using Your First Response 

Choosing a Topic 

Brainstorming 

Semantic Mapping, or Clustering 

Mix and Match 

Generating Ideas Through Collaboration 

Step 2: Composing a Draft 

Developing a Thesis Statement 

Checklist: Thesis Statement 

Writing Effective Paragraphs

Checklist: Paragraphs 

Dierdre’s Draft 

Step 3: Revising the Essay 

Checklist: Revision 

Revising Dierdre’s Draft 

Formatting and Documenting Your Essay 

Checklist: Basics for a Literary Essay 

A Primer on  Punctuation

Checklist: Editing and Proofreading  

Step 4: Dierdre’s Revised Essay 

 

Part II Analysis, Argumentation, and Research

 

Chapter 3 Exploration and Analysis: Genre and the Elements of Literature 

Close Reading 

Annotating the Text 

First Annotation: Exploration 

Percy Bysshe Shelley, Ozymandias 

Second Annotation: Analysis 

Literature in Its Many Contexts 

Your Critical Approach 

Reading and Analyzing Fiction 

Narration 

Point of View 

Setting 

Conflict 

Plot 

Character 

Language and Style 

Diction 

Symbol 

Irony

Theme 

Checklist: Analyzing Fiction 

Getting Ideas for Writing About Fiction 

Kate Chopin,   The Story of an Hour 

Reading and Analyzing Poetry 

Billy Collins, Introduction to Poetry

Language and Style 

Denotation and Connotation 

Voice 

Tone 

Irony 

Stephen Crane, War Is Kind 

Imagery           

Helen Chasin, The Word Plum 

Robert Browning, Meeting at Night 

Parting at Morning 

Figurative Language: Everyday Poetry 

Langston Hughes, A Dream Deferred 

N. Scott Momaday, Simile 

Carl Sandburg, Fog 

James Stephens, The Wind Symbol 

Robert Frost, The Road Not Taken 

Sound and Structure 

Alliteration, Assonance, and Rhyme 

Rhyme and Rhythm: Limericks

Haiku Poetry: Chiyojo, Basho, Buson, Matsushita, Brutschy

Meter 

Formal Verse: The Sonnet 

Francis Petrarch, The Eyes that Drew from Me

William Shakespeare, Sonnet No. 29

Blank Verse 

Free or Open Form Verse 

Walt Whitman, When I Heard the Learn’d Astronomer 

Interpretation: What Does the Poem Mean? 

Explication 

Types of Poetry 

Lyric Poetry 

Narrative Poetry 

Checklist: Analyzing Poetry 

Getting Ideas for Writing About Poetry 

May Swenson, Pigeon Woman 

Reading and Analyzing Drama 

Reading a Play 

Point of View 

Set and Setting 

Conflict 

Plot 

The Poetics 

Tragedy 

Comedy 

Characterization 

Language and Style 

Diction 

Symbol

Irony 

Theme 

Periods of Drama: A Brief Background 

Greek Drama 

Shakespearean Drama 

Tips on Reading the Language of Shakespeare

Modern Drama

Checklist: Analyzing Drama 

Getting Ideas for Writing About Drama 

Edith Hamilton, from The Royal House of Thebes: “Oedipus”

Tips on Reading Antigone

Sophocles, Antigone

Reading and Analyzing Essays 

Types of Essays 

Narrative 

Expository 

Argumentative 

Language, Style, and Structure 

Formal or Informal 

Voice 

Irony 

Word Choice and Style 

Theme: What’s the Point? 

The Aims of an Essay: Inform, Preach, or Reveal

Checklist: Analyzing Essays 

Getting Ideas for Writing About the Essay 

Amy Tan, Mother Tongue

 

Chapter 4 Argumentation: Writing a Critical Essay 

The Critical Essay 

Suzanne’s Response to Antigone 

Interpretation and Evaluation 

Interpretation: What Does It Mean? 

Evaluation: How Well Does It Work? 

Options for a Critical Essay: Process and Product 

Checklist: Options for a Critical Essay 

An Analytical Essay 

A Comparative Essay 

A Thematic Essay 

A Philosophical or Ethical Evaluation

A Contextual Essay 

Argumentation: Writing a Critical Essay 

Other Models: Classical, Toulmin, and Rogerian 

The Shape of an Argument 

Checklist: Writing a Critical Essay

Planning Your Argument 

Supporting Your Argument: Induction and Substantiation 

Opening, Closing, and Revising Your Argument 

The Development of a Critical Essay 

Step 1: Using Your First Response 

Step 2: Composing a Draft 

Suzanne’s Draft 

Step 3: Revising the Essay 

Step 4: Suzanne’s Revised Essay 

 

Chapter 5 Research: Writing with Secondary Sources 

The Research Essay 

Creating, Expanding, and Joining Interpretive Communities 

It Is Your Interpretation 

Getting Started 

Choosing a Topic 

Some Popular Areas of Literary Research 

Your Search 

Peer Support 

The Library 

Reference Works 

Some Other Encyclopedias and Indexes Useful for Literary Research 

Some Bibliographies, Indexes, and Abstracts Useful for Literary Research  Finding Sources on the Internet 

Some Internet Sources Useful for Literary Research 

Evaluating Internet Sources 

Checklist: Evaluating Internet Sources 

Taking Notes 

Integrating Sources into Your Writing 

What Must Be Documented 

Where and How 

Paraphrasing and Summarizing 

Quoting 

Avoiding Plagiarism 

Examples of Paraphrasing, Summarizing, Quoting, and Plagiarizing 

From First Response to Research Essay 

Checklist: Writing a Research Essay 

Case Study in Research

James Joyce and “Eveline”

Step 1: Using Your First Response 

James Joyce, Eveline 

Step 2: Composing a Draft 

Professor Devenish’s Commentary 

Kevin’s Motivation and Process 

Step 3: Revising the Essay 

Step 4: Kevin’s Revised Essay 

 

Part III A Thematic Anthology

 

Family and Friends 

A Dialogue Across History 

Family and Friends: Exploring Your Own Values and Beliefs 

Reading and Writing About Family and Friends 

Fiction 

Connecting Through Comparison: Sibling Relationships 

James Baldwin, Sonny’s Blues 

Louise Erdrich, The Red Convertible 

Other Stories

Chinua Achebe, Marriage Is a Private Affair 

John Cheever, Reunion 

Linda Ching Sledge, The Road 

Connecting Through Comparison: Parent and Children 

Amy Tan, Two Kinds 

Poetry

Julia Alvarez, Dusting 

Janice Mirikitani, For My Father 

Theodore Roethke, My Papa’s Waltz 

Cathy Song, The Youngest Daughter 

Other Poems

Margaret Atwood, Siren Song 

Robert Frost, Mending Wall 

Seamus Heaney, Digging 

Philip Larkin, This Be the Verse 

Li-Young Lee, The Gift 

Sharon Olds, 35/10  

Susan Musgrave, You Didn’t Fit

William Stafford, Friends 

Connecting Through Comparison: Remembrance 

Elizabeth Gaffney, Losses That Turn Up in Dreams 

William Shakespeare, When to the Sessions of Sweet Silent Thought (Sonnet No. 30)                                                                                            

Drama 

Essays 

bell hooks, Inspired Eccentricity 

Graphic narrative:  Marjane Satrapi from PERSEPOLIS

Case Study in Biographical Context

Lorraine Hansberry and A Raisin in the Sun 

Lorraine Hansberry, A Raisin in the Sun 

Lorraine Hansberry–In Her Own Words 

In Others’ Words 

James Baldwin, Sweet Lorraine 

Julius Lester, The Heroic Dimension in A Raisin in the Sun 

Anne Cheney, The African Heritage in A Raisin in the Sun 

Steven R. Carter, Hansberry’s Artistic Misstep 

Margaret B. Wilkerson, Hansberry’s Awareness of Culture and Gender 

Michael Anderson, A Raisin in the Sun: A Landmark Lesson in Being Black 

A Student’s Research Essay 

Exploring the Literature of Family and Friends: Options for Making Connections, Building Arguments, and Using Research 

Writing About Connections Across Themes 

Collaboration: Writing and Revising with Your Peers 

A Writing/Research Portfolio Option 

 

Innocence and Experience 

A Dialogue Across History 

Innocence and Experience: Exploring Your Own Values and Beliefs 

Reading and Writing About Innocence and Experience 

Fiction 

Connecting Through Comparison: Illusion and Disillusion 

Liliana Heker, The Stolen Party 

James Joyce, Araby 

Other Stories

Julia Alvarez, Snow 

Toni Cade Bambara, The Lesson 

Thomas Bulfinch, The Myth of Daedalus and Icarus 

Ralph Ellison, Battle Royal 

Haruki Murakami, On Seeing the 100% Perfect Girl One Beautiful April Morning 

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

Colum McCann, Everything in this Country Must

Two Readers–Two Different Views: Exploring A&P and Making Connections 

John Updike, A&P 

Two Student Essays–Two Different Views 

Poetry 

Connecting Through Comparison: The City 

William Blake, London 

William Wordsworth, Composed upon Westminster Bridge, September 3, 1802 

Connecting Through Comparison: The Chimney Sweepers 

William Blake, The Chimney Sweeper (From Songs of Innocence) 

The Chimney Sweeper (From Songs of Experience) 

Other Poems

A. E. Housman, When I Was One-and-Twenty 

Alberto Rios, In Second Grade Miss Lee I Promised Never to Forget You and I Never Did 

Edwin Arlington Robinson, Richard Cory 

Anne Sexton, Pain for a Daughter 

Walt Whitman, There Was a Child Went Forth 

Stephen Crane, The Wayfarer 

Connecting Through Comparison: The Death of a Child 

Robert Frost, “Out, Out. . .” 

Seamus Heaney, Mid-Term Break 

Essays 

Judith Ortiz Cofer, I Fell in Love, or My Hormones Awakened 

David Sedaris, The Learning Curve 

Case Study in Theatrical Context

Hamlet and Performance 

Interpretation and Performance 

Multiple Interpretations of Hamlet 

William Shakespeare, Hamlet, Prince of Denmark 

Desperately Seeking Hamlet: Four Interpretations 

Olivier’s Hamlet 

Jacobi’s Hamlet 

Gibson’s Hamlet 

Branagh’s Hamlet 

From Part to Whole, from Whole to Part

A Student’s Critical Essay–Explication/Analysis of the “To be, or not to be” Soliloquy 

A Critic’s Influential Interpretation

Ernest Jones, Hamlet’s Oedipus Complex 

Hamlet On Screen 

Bernice W. Kliman, The BBC Hamlet 

Claire Bloom, Playing Gertrude on Television 

Stanley Kauffmann, Branagh’s Hamlet 

Russell Jackson, A Film Diary of the Shooting of Kenneth Branagh’s Hamlet 

Exploring the Literature of Innocence and Experience: Options for Making       Connections, Building Arguments, and Using  Research 

Writing About Connections Across Themes 

Collaboration: Writing and Revising with Your Peers 

A Writing/Research Portfolio Option 

Case Study in Aesthetic Context

Poetry and Painting 

 

Making Connections with Painting and Poetry 

Pieter Brueghel the Elder: Landscape with the Fall of Icarus 

W. H. Auden: Musée des Beaux Arts 

Alan Devenish: Icarus Again 

 Lun Yi Tsai  Disbelief

 Lucille Clifton--tuesday 9/11/01

Edward Hopper: Nighthawks 

Samuel Yellen: Nighthawks 

Vincent van Gogh: Starry Night 

Anne Sexton: The Starry Night 

Henri Matisse: Dance 

Natalie Safir: Matisse’s Dance 

Kitagawa utamaro: Two Women Dressing Their Hair 

Cathy Song: Beauty and Sadness 

Edwin Romanzo Elmer: Mourning Picture 

Adrienne Rich: Mourning Picture 

Jan Vermeer: The Loveletter 

Sandra Nelson: When a Woman Holds a Letter 

A Student’s Comparison and Contrast Essay: Process and Product 

Exploring Poetry and Painting: Options for Making Connections, Building Arguments, and Using Research 

 

Women and Men 

A Dialogue Across History 

Women and Men: Exploring Your Own Values and Beliefs 

Reading and Writing About Women and Men 

Fiction 

Robert Olen Butler, Jealous Husband Returns in Form of Parrot 

Charlotte Perkins Gilman, The Yellow Wallpaper 

Ernest Hemingway, Hills Like White Elephants 

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

Bobbie Ann Mason, Shiloh 

Rosario Morales, The Day It Happened 

Poetry 

Connecting Through Comparison: Be My Love 

Christopher Marlowe, The Passionate Shepherd to His Love 

Walter Raleigh, The Nymph’s Reply to the Shepherd 

Andrew Marvell, To His Coy Mistress 

Other Poems

Maya Angelou, Phenomenal Woman 

Margaret Atwood, You Fit into Me 

Elizabeth Barrett Browning, How Do I Love Thee? 

Robert Browning, Porphyria’s Lover 

Nikki Giovanni, Woman 

Sharon Olds, Rite of Passage

Judy Grahn, Ella, in a Square Apron, Along Highway

Donald Hall, The Wedding Couple 

Essex Hemphill, Commitments 

Michael Lassell, How to Watch Your Brother Die 

Edna St. Vincent Millay, What Lips My Lips Have Kissed, and Where, and Why Love Is Not All 

Sharon Olds, Sex Without Love 

Octavio Paz, Two Bodies 

Sylvia Plath, Mirror 

Connecting Through Comparison: Shall I Compare Thee? 

William Shakespeare, Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer’s Day? (Sonnet No. 18) 

            My Mistress’ Eyes Are Nothing Like the Sun (Sonnet No. 130) 

Howard Moss, Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer’s Day? 

Connecting and Comparing Across Genres: Cinderella 

Jacob Ludwig Karl Grimm and Wilhelm Karl Grimm, Cinderella 

Anne Sexton, Cinderella 

Bruno Bettelheim, Cinderella 

Drama 

Anton Chekhov, The Proposal 

Connecting and Comparing Across Genres: Fiction and Drama 

Susan Glaspell, Trifles 

            A Jury of Her Peers 

Essays 

Steven Doloff, The Opposite Sex 

Virginia Woolf, If Shakespeare Had a Sister 

Case Study in Historical Context

Women in Culture and History 

Henrik Ibsen, A Doll’s House 

The Adams Letters 

A Husband’s Letter to His Wife 

Sojourner Truth, Ain’t I a Woman 

Henrik Ibsen, Notes for the Modern Tragedy 

The Changed Ending of A Doll’s House for a German Production 

Speech at the Banquet of the Norwegian League for Women’s Rights 

Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Excerpt from “The Solitude of Self” 

Wilbur Fisk Tillett, Excerpt from “Southern Womanhood” 

Dorothy Dix, The American Wife 

Women and Suicide 

Charlotte Perkins Stetson (Gilman), Excerpt from “Women and Economics” 

Natalie Zemon Davis and Jill Ker Conway, The Rest of the Story 

A Student’s Personal Response Essay 

A Student’s Critical Essay

A Student’s Research Essay

Exploring the Literature of Women and Men: Options for Making Connections,     Building Arguments, and Using Research 

Writing About Connections Across Themes 

Collaboration: Writing and Revising with Your Peers 

A Writing/Research Portfolio Option 

 

Culture and Identity 

A Dialogue Across History 

Culture and Identity: Exploring Your Own Values and Beliefs 

Reading and Writing About Culture and Identity 

Fiction 

José Armas, EI Tonto del Barrio 

Kate Chopin, Désirée’s Baby 

William Faulkner, A Rose for Emily 

Jamaica Kincaid, Girl 

Thomas King, Borders 

Gabriel Garcia Marquez, The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World 

Tahira Naqvi, Brave We Are 

Alice Walker, Everyday Use 

Poetry 

Connecting Through Comparison: The Mask We Wear 

W. H. Auden, The Unknown Citizen 

Paul Laurence Dunbar, We Wear the Mask 

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

Other Poems

Sherman Alexie, Evolution 

Gloria Anzaldúa, To Live in the Borderlands Means You 

Elizabeth Bishop, In the Waiting Room 

Gwendolyn Brooks, We Real Cool 

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

Martin Espada, Coca-Cola and Coco Frío 

Connecting Through Comparison: Immigration 

Emma Lazarus, The New Colossus 

Shirley Geok-lin Lim, Learning to Love America 

Pat Mora, Immigrants 

John Updike, Ex-Basketball Player 

William Carlos Williams, At the Ball Game 

William Butler Yeats, The Lake Isle of Innisfree

Drama 

Connecting through Comparison: Modern Realism and Parody

Tennessee Williams, The Glass Menagerie

Christopher Durang, For Whom the Southern Belle Tolls

Connecting through Comparison: Political Satire across Time and Genre

Jonathan Swift, A Modest Proposal 

Luis Valdez, Los Vendidos 

Essays 

Connecting Through Comparison: Work and Identity 

Richard Rodriguez, Workers 

Marge Piercy, To Be of Use 

Other Essays

Frederick Douglass, Learning to Read and Write 

Martin Luther King, Jr., I Have a Dream 

Henry David Thoreau, From Civil Disobedience   

Case Study in Cultural Context

Writers of the Harlem Renaissance 

Alain Locke, The New Negro 

Langston Hughes, From The Big Sea 

The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain 

The Negro Speaks of Rivers 

I, Too 

The Weary Blues 

One Friday Morning 

Theme for English B 

Claude McKay, America 

Gwendolyn B. Bennett, Heritage 

Jean Toomer, Reapers 

Countee Cullen, Yet Do I Marvel 

            From the Dark Tower 

Anne Spencer, Lady, Lady 

Georgia Douglas Johnson, I Want to Die While You Love Me 

Zora Neale Hurston, Sweat 

Commentary on “The Negro Speaks of Rivers” 

Langston Hughes 

Jessie Fauset 

Onwuchekwa Jemie 

R. Baxter Miller 

Alice Walker, Zora Neale Hurston: A Cautionary Tale and a Partisan View 

A Student’s Critical Essay 

Exploring the Literature of Culture and Identity: Options for Making Connections, Building Arguments, and Using Research  

Writing About Connections Across Themes 

Collaboration: Writing and Revising with Your Peers 

A Writing/Research Portfolio Option 

 

Faith and Doubt 

A Dialogue Across History 

Faith and Doubt: Exploring Your Own Values and Beliefs 

Reading and Writing About Faith and Doubt 

Fiction 

Raymond Carver, Cathedral 

Nathaniel Hawthorne, Young Goodman Brown 

Tim O’Brien, The Things They Carried 

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

Poetry 

Connecting Through Comparison: Facing Our Own Mortality 

John Donne, Death, Be Not Proud 

John Keats, When I Have Fears That I May Cease to Be 

Mary Oliver, When Death Comes 

Connecting Through Comparison: Nature and Humanity 

Matthew Arnold, Dover Beach 

Robert Bridges, London Snow 

Robert Frost, Fire and Ice 

Galway Kinnell, Saint Francis and the Sow 

William Stafford, Traveling Through the Dark 

Walt Whitman, Song of Myself   

Connecting Through Comparison: September   

Deborah Garrison, I Saw You Walking 

Brian Doyle, Leap 

Billy Collins, The Names 

Connecting Through Comparison: Belief in a Supreme Being 

Stephen Crane, A Man Said to the Universe 

Thomas Hardy, Hap 

Connecting Through Comparison: The Impact of War 

Thomas Hardy, The Man He Killed 

Wilfred Owen, Dulce et Decorum Est 

Carl Sandburg, Grass 

Yusef Komunyakaa, Facing It 

Connecting Through Comparison: Responding to the Deaths of Others 

Mark Doty, Brilliance 

A. E. Housman, To an Athlete Dying Young 

Pablo Neruda, The Dead Woman 

Dylan Thomas, Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night 

Drama 

David Mamet, Oleanna 

John Millington Synge, Riders to the Sea 

Anton Chekhov, The Swan Song 

John Galsworthy, The Sun

Essays 

Albert Camus, The Myth of Sisyphus 

Plato, The Allegory of the Cave 

Philip Simmons, Learning to Fall 

Case Study in Contextual Criticism

The Poetry of Emily Dickinson 

Her Life 

Her Work 

The Poems 

Success is counted sweetest 

Faith is a fine invention 

There’s a certain Slant of light 

I like a look of Agony 

Wild Nights–Wild Nights! 

The Brain–is wider than the Sky– 

Much Madness is divinest Sense– 

I’ve seen a Dying Eye 

I heard a Fly buzz–when I died– 

After great pain, a formal feeling comes– 

Some keep the Sabbath going to Church– 

This World is not Conclusion 

There is a pain–so utter– 

Because I could not stop for Death– 

The Bustle in a House 

Tell all the Truth but tell it slant– 

Emily Dickinson–In Her Own Words 

To Susan Gilbert (Dickinson) (1852) 

To T. W. Higginson (1862) 

In Others’ Words 

Thomas Wentworth Higginson, On Meeting Dickinson for the First Time (1870) 

Mabel Loomis Todd, The Character of Amherst (1881) 

Richard Wilbur, On Dickinson’s Sense of Privation (1960) 

Sandra M. Gilbert and Susan Gubar, On Dickinson’s White Dress (1979) 

Critical Commentary on Her Poetry 

Helen McNeil, Dickinson’s Method 

Cynthia Griffin Wolff, On the Many Voices in Dickinson’s Poetry 

Allen Tate, On “Because I could not stop for Death” 

Paula Bennett, On “I heard a Fly buzz–when I died–” 

Poems About Emily Dickinson 

Linda Pastan, Emily Dickinson 

Billy Collins, Taking Off Emily Dickinson’s Clothes 

A Student’s Critical Essay 

Exploring the Literature of Faith and Doubt: Options for Making Connections,     Building Arguments, and Using Research  

Using Research 

Writing About Connections Across Themes 

Collaboration: Writing and Revising with Your Peers 

A Writing/Research Portfolio Option 

 

Appendix A: Critical Approaches to Literature 

Appendix B: Writing About Film 

Appendix C: Documentation 

Glossary of Literary Terms 

Literary and Photo Credits 

Index of Author Names, Titles, and First Lines of Poems 

Index of Terms