Literature for Composition An Introduction to Literature

by Barnet, Sylvan; Burto, William; Cain, William E.

• ISBN13: 9780321829177
• ISBN10: 0321829174
• Additional ISBN(s): 9780135571224, 9780321450968
• Edition: 10th
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2013-01-02
• Publisher: Pearson
• More Book Details

Summary

The definitive book for literature for composition or introduction to literature courses-- Literature for Compositionoffers superior coverage of reading, writing, and arguing about literature in Barnet's clear and accessible style along with an anthology organized around ten thought-provoking themes.

Table of Contents

Part I     Getting Started: From Response to Argument                                        

 

Chapter 1      How to Write an Effective Essay: A Crash Course   

     The Basic Strategy  

     Looking Closely: Approaching a First Draft  

     Revising: Achieving a Readable Draft  

           Checklist for Revising a Draft  

     Peer Review  

     Preparing the Final Version  

 

Chapter 2      The Writer as Reader

     Reading and Responding  

Kate Chopin • Ripe Figs  

     Reading as Re-creation  

     Collecting Evidence, Making Reasonable Inferences  

     Reading with Pen in Hand  

     Recording Your First Responses  

     Identifying Your Audience and Purpose  

     Your Turn: Arguing a Thesis in an Essay  

          A Sample Essay by a Student: “Images of Ripening in Kate Chopin’s ‘Ripe Figs’”  

     The Argument Analyzed  

     Behind the Scenes: From Early Responses to Final Version  

     Other Possibilities for Writing  

     Looking Closely at Two Contemporary Mini-Stories: Lydia Davis’s “Childcare” and “City People”  

Lydia Davis • Childcare  

Lydia Davis • City People  

     A Story, with a Student’s Notes and Final Essay  

Ray Bradbury • August 2026: There Will Come Soft Rains  

          Student Essay with Preliminary Notes:  “The Lesson of August 2026”  

     Stories for Analysis  

Michele Serros • Senior Picture Day  

Guy de Maupassant • The Necklace  

T. Coraghessan Boyle • Greasy Lake***

 

Chapter 3      The Reader as Writer                                                

     Developing a Thesis, Drafting, and Writing an Argument  

     Prewriting: Getting Ideas  

     Annotating a Text  

     More about Getting Ideas: A Second Story by Kate Chopin

Kate Chopin • The Story of an Hour  

     Brainstorming for Ideas for Writing  

     Focused Free Writing 

     Listing

     Asking Questions

     Keeping a Journal

     Arguing with Yourself: Critical Thinking

     Arguing a Thesis

          Checklist: Thesis Sentence

     Drafting Your Argument

          A Sample Draft: “Ironies in an Hour”

     Revising an Argument

     Outlining an Argument

     Soliciting Peer Review, Thinking about Counterarguments

          Final Version of the Sample Essay: “Ironies of Life in Kate Chopin’s ‘The Story of an Hour’”

     A Brief Overview of the Final Version

     Writing on Your Computer

          Checklist: Writing with a Computer

     Your Turn: Additional Stories for Analysis

Kate Chopin • Désirée’s Baby

          A Student’s Analysis: “Race and Identity in ‘Désirée’s Baby’”

     Additional Stories for Study

Kate Chopin • The Storm

Anton Chekhov • Misery

V. S. Naipaul• The Night Watchman’s Occurrence Book

 

Chapter 4      The Pleasures of Reading--And of Writing --Arguments about Literature***

     The Open Secret of Good Writing***

Bruce Holland Rogers • Three Soldiers***

       Getting Ready to Write: A Student’s Responses, from  Jottings to Final Essay***

           A Sample Essay by a Student:  Thinking about Three Soldiers Thinking***

      The Student’s Analysis Analyzed***

      Additional Stories for Study

John Steinbeck • The Chrysanthemums

Bobbie Ann Mason • Shiloh 

 

Chapter 5      Writing as Performance***

     The Writer as Performer***

Robert Frost• The Span of Life***

      The Reader as Performer***

Jamaica Kincaid• Girl

Anatole France• Our Lady’s Juggler***

     2 Txt Poms***

Julia Bird• A txt msg pom***

Norman Silver• txt commandments ***

 

Chapter 6       Reading Literature Closely: Explication

    What Is Literature? 

     Literature and Form 

     Form and Meaning 

Robert Frost • The Span of Life 

     Reading in Slow Motion

     Explication

          A Sample Explication

Langston Hughes • Harlem

      Working Toward an Explication

      Some Journal Entries

           A Sample Essay by a Student (Final Version): “Langston Hughes’s ‘Harlem’”

     Explication as Argument

          Checklist: Drafting an Explication

     Why Write? Purpose and Audience

     Your Turn: Poems for Explication

William Shakespeare • Sonnet 73 (That time of year thou mayst in me behold)

John Donne • Holy Sonnet XIV (Batter my heart, three-personed God)

Emily Brontë • Spellbound

Li-Young Lee • I Ask My Mother to Sing

Randall Jarrell • The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner 

 

Chapter 7      Reading Literature Closely: Analysis

     Analysis

     Analyzing a Story from the Hebrew Bible: The Judgment of Solomon

The Judgment of Solomon

      Analyzing the Story

      Other Possible Topics for Analysis

     Analyzing a Story from the New Testament: The Parable of the Prodigal Son

The Parable of the Prodigal Son

     Summary

     Paraphrase

     Comparison: An Analytic Tool

          A Sample Essay by a Student: “Two New Women”

     Looking at the Essay

         Checklist: Revising a Comparison

     Evaluation in Explication and Analysis

     Choosing a Topic and Developing a Thesis in an Analytic Paper

     Analyzing a Story

James Thurber • The Secret Life of Walter Mitty

     Working Toward a Thesis: Journal Entries

     Developing the Thesis: Making Lists

          Sample Draft by a Student: “Walter Mitty Is No Joke”

     Developing an Argument

     Introductory Paragraphs

     Middle Paragraphs

     Concluding Paragraphs

     Coherence in Paragraphs: Using Transitions

          Checklist: Revising Paragraphs

     Review: Writing an Analysis

     A Note on Technical Terminology

     A Lyric Poem and a Student’s Argument

Aphra Behn • Song: Love Armed

     Journal Entries

          A Sample Essay by a Student: “The Double Nature of Love”

         Checklist: Editing a Draft

     Your Turn: Short Stories and Poems for Analysis

Edgar Allan Poe • The Cask of Amontillado

Katherine Anne Porter • The Jilting of Granny Weatherall

José Armas • El Tonto del Barrio

Leslie Marmon Silko • The Man to Send Rain Clouds

Billy Collins • Introduction to Poetry

Robert Frost • The Road Not Taken

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

Martín Espada • Bully

 

Cha pter 8      Arguing an Interpretation

     Interpretation and Meaning

      Is the Author’s Intention a Guide to Meaning?

     What Characterizes a Sound Interpretation?

     An Example: Interpreting Pat Mora’s “Immigrants”

Pat Mora • Immigrants

     Thinking Critically about Responses to Literature

          Checklist: Writing an Interpretation

     Two Interpretations by Students

Robert Frost • Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening

          Sample Essay by a Student: “Stopping by Woods—and Going On”

          Sample Essay by a Student: “‘Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening’ as a Short Story”

     Your Turn: Poems for Interpretation

Robert Frost • Mending Wall

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

John Keats • Ode on a Grecian Urn

Thomas Hardy • The Man He Killed

Gwendolyn Brooks • The Mother

     Stories for Interpretation

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

Jorge Luis Borges•The Lottery in Babylon***

Thinking Critically: Case Study on William Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily” 

     Overview of the Case Study 

William Faulkner • A Rose for Emily

     Typescript Showing Material Deleted from the Published Version

     William Faulkner • Comments on the Story

     Two Interpretations by Students, with Notes/Outlines

          Sample Essay by a Student: “Why Miss Emily Grierson Killed Homer Barron”

          Sample Essay by a Student: “Insight into Horror: The Role of the Narratorin ‘A Rose for Emily’”

 

Chapter 9       Arguing an Evaluation

     Criticism and Evaluation 

Jeffrey Whitmore• Bedtime Story

Douglas L. Haskins • Hide and Seek

Mark Plants • Equal Rites

     Are There Critical Standards? 

     Morality and Truth as Standards 

     Other Ways of Thinking about Truth and Realism 

     Your Turn: Poems and Stories for Evaluation

Sarah N. Cleghorn • The Golf Links

Wilfred Owen • Dulce et Decorum Est

Wilfred Owen • Anthem for Doomed Youth

Henry Reed • Naming of Parts

Katherine Mansfield • Miss Brill

W. Somerset Maugham • The Appointment in Samarra

Ambrose Bierce • An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge

Isabel Allende • If You Touched My Heart

Helena Maria Viramontes • The Moth

 

Chapter 10       Research Writing with Sources

What Research Is, and What Research Is Not

Primary and Secondary Materials

Locating Materials: First Steps

Other Bibliographic Aids

Electronic Sources

Encyclopedias: Print and Electronic Versions

The Internet/World Wide Web

Evaluating Sources on the World Wide Web

What Does Your Own Institution Offer?

Checklist: Using the World Wide Web

Taking Notes

Two Mechanical Aids: The Photocopier and the Computer

A Guide to Note-Taking

Drafting the Paper

Focus on Primary Sources

Avoiding Plagiarism

Checklist: Avoiding Plagiarism

 

Part II Up Close: Thinking Critically about Literary Works and Literary Forms 

 

Chapter 11       Critical Thinking: Arguing with Oneself, Asking Questions, and Making Comparisons

     What Is Critical Thinking?

     Asking and Answering Questions

     Comparing and Contrasting

     Analyzing and Evaluating Evidence

     Thinking Critically: Arguing with Oneself, Asking Questions, and Comparing—E. E. Cummings’s “Buffalo Bill ’s”

E. E. Cummings • Buffalo Bill ’s

     A Short-Short Story, and Its Revised Version

Raymond Carver • Mine

Raymond Carver • Little Things

     Your Turn: Writing an Argument about Carver’s Two Stories

 

Chapter 12      A Brief Guide: Writing about Literature

Standing Back: Kinds of Writing

Getting Close: Drafting the Essay

Generating Ideas

Revising a Draft

          Checklist: Reviewing the Basics

 

Chapter 13      Reading and Writing about Essays

     Types of Essays

     The Essayist’s Persona

     Voice

     Tone

     Prewriting: Identifying the Topic and Thesis

Brent Staples • Black Men and Public Space

     Summary and Analysis

     Preparing a Summary

     Stating the Thesis of an Essay

     Drafting a Summary

           Checklist: Getting Ideas for Writing about Essays

     Your Turn: Essays for Analysis

Langston Hughes • Salvation

Laura Vanderkam • Hookups Starve the Soul

 

Chapter 14  Reading and Writing about Stories

     Stories True and False

Grace Paley • Samuel

     Elements of Fiction

     Plot and Character

     Foreshadowing

     Setting and Atmosphere

     Symbolism

     Narrative Point of View

     Style and Point of View

    Theme

         Checklist: Getting Ideas for Writing about Stories

     Your Turn: Stories for Analysis

Diana Chang • The Oriental Contingent

Gish Jen • Who’s Irish?

Ron Wallace• Worry

 

Chapter 15  Thinking Critically: A Case Study about Flannery O’Connor

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

Flannery O’Connor • Revelation 

     Remarks from Essays and Letters 

     From “The Fiction Writer and His Country”

     From “Some Aspects of the Grotesque in Southern Fiction”

     From “The Nature and Aim of Fiction”

     From “Writing Short Stories”

    On Interpreting “A Good Man Is Hard to Find”

    “A Reasonable Use of the Unreasonable”

 

Chapter  16       Graphic Ficition***

     Letters and Pictures***

Grant Wood • “Death on  the Ridge Roasd”***

     Reading an Image: A Short Story Told in One Panel***

Tony  Carrillo •  “F Minus”***

     A Second Example of Reading Images: A Story Told in Sequential  Panels***

Art Spiegelman • “Nature vs. Nurture”***

Will Eisner • “Hamlet on a Rooftop”***

R. Crumb and David Zane Mairowitz • “A Hunger Artist” ***

           

Chapter 17       Reading and Writing about Plays

     Types of Plays: Tragedy and Comedy

     Elements of Drama

     Theme

     Plot

     Gestures

     Setting

     Characterization and Motivation

     Organizing an Analysis of a Character

     First Draft

     Revised Draft 

           Checklist: Getting Ideas for Writing Arguments about Plays

     Thinking about a Filmed Version of a Play

     Getting Ready to Write

           Checklist: Writing about a Filmed Play

     Your Turn: Plays for Analysis

Susan Glaspell, Trifles

David Ives • Sure Thing***

     A Note on Greek Tragedy

Sophocles • Oedipus Rex***

 

Chapter 18       Reading and Writing about Poems

     Elements of Poetry

     The Speaker and the Poet

Emily Dickinson • I’m Nobody! Who are you?

Emily Dickinson • Wild Nights—Wild Nights

     The Language of Poetry: Diction and Tone

William Shakespeare • Sonnet 146 (Poor soul, the center of my sinful earth) 

     Writing about the Speaker

Robert Frost • The Telephone

     Journal Entries

     Figurative Language

William Shakespeare • Sonnet 130 (My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun)

Dana Gioia • Money

Robert Frost • The Hardship of Accounting

Anonymous • Thirty Days Hath September

     Imagery and Symbolism

Edmund Waller • Song (Go, lovely rose)

William Blake • The Sick Rose

Linda Pastan • Jump Cabling

     Verbal Irony and Paradox

     Structure

Robert Herrick • Upon Julia’s Clothes

          A Sample Essay by a Student: “Herrick’s Julia, Julia’s Herrick”

     The Argument Analyzed

     Explication

     An Example

William Butler Yeats • The Balloon of the Mind

     Annotations and Journal Entries

          A Sample Essay by a Student: “Explication of W. B. Yeats’s ‘The Balloon of the Mind’” 

          Checklist: Explication

     Rhythm and Versification: A Glossary for Reference

     Meter

     Patterns of Sound

     Stanzaic Patterns

Billy Collins • Sonnet

     Blank Verse and Free Verse

           Checklist: Getting Ideas for Writing Arguments about Poems

     Your Turn: Poems about People

Robert Browning • My Last Duchess

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

Sylvia Plath • Daddy

Gwendolyn Brooks • We Real Cool

Etheridge Knight • For Malcolm, a Year After

Anne Sexton • Her Kind

James Wright • Lying in a Hammock at William Duffy’s Farm in Pine Island, Minnesota

 

Chapter 19       Thinking Critically about Poems: Two Case Studies

A Case Study about Emily Dickinson 

Emily Dickinson • I heard a Fly buzz—when I died— 

Emily Dickinson • The Soul selects her own Society 

Emily Dickinson • These are the days when Birds come back 

Emily Dickinson • Papa above! 

Emily Dickinson • There’s a certain Slant of light 

Emily Dickinson • This World is not Conclusion 

Emily Dickinson • I got so I could hear his name— 

Emily Dickinson • Those—dying, then 

Emily Dickinson • Apparently with no surprise 

Emily Dickinson • Tell all the Truth but tell it slant 

     A Sample Argument by a Student: “Religion and Religious Imagery in Emily Dickinson” 

A Case Study on Comparing Poems and Pictures 

     Word and Image

Jane Flanders • Van Gogh’s Bed

William Carlos Williams • The Great Figure

Adrienne Rich • Mourning Picture

Cathy Song • Beauty and Sadness

Mary Jo Salter • The Rebirth of Venus

Anne Sexton • The Starry Night

W. H. Auden • Musée des Beaux Arts

X. J. Kennedy • Nude Descending a Staircase

Greg Pape • American Flamingo

Carl Phillips • Luncheon on the Grass

John Updike • Before the Mirror

Wislawa Szymborska • Brueghel’s Two Monkeys

     A Sample Argument by a Student: “Two Ways of Looking at a Starry Night”

 

Part III      Standing Back: A Thematic Anthology

 

Chapter 20        The World Around Us

Essays  

Louise Erdrich, Ringo’s Gold***

BIll McKibben • Now or Never

Stories  

Aesop • The Ant and the Grasshopper

Aesop • The North Wind and the Sun

Jack London • To Build a Fire

Sarah Orne Jewett • A White Heron

Patricia Grace• Butterflies***

Poems  

Matthew Arnold • In Harmony with Nature

Thomas Hardy • Transformations

John Keats • To Autumn

Gerard Manley Hopkins • God’s Grandeur

Walt Whitman • A Noiseless Patient Spider

Emily Dickinson • “Nature” is what we see

Emily Dickinson • A narrow Fellow in the Grass

Joy Harjo • Vision ***

Mary Oliver • The Black Walnut Tree***

Kay Ryan • Turtle  ***

Thinking Critically: Case Study about Robert Frost

Robert Frost • The Pasture

Robert Frost • Mowing

Robert Frost • The Wood-Pile

Robert Frost • The Oven Bird

Robert Frost • The Need of Being Versed in Country Things

Robert Frost • The Most of It

Robert Frost • Design

Robert Frost on Poetry  

Robert Frost • The Figure a Poem Makes

 

Chapter 21       Journeys

Essays  

Joan Didion • On Going Home

Montesquieu • Persian Letters

Stories  

Nathaniel Hawthorne • Young Goodman Brown

Eudora Welty • A Worn Path

Toni Cade Bambara • The Lesson

Amy Hempel • Today Will Be a Quiet Day

James Joyce • Eveline

Poems  

John Keats • On First Looking into Chapman’s Homer

Percy Bysshe Shelley • Ozymandias

Alfred, Lord Tennyson • Ulysses

Countee Cullen • Incident

William Stafford • Traveling Through the Dark

Adrienne Rich • Diving into the Wreck 

Derek Walcott • A Far Cry from Africa

Sherman Alexie • On the Amtrak from Boston to New York City

William Butler Yeats • Sailing to Byzantium

Christina Rossetti • Uphill

Emily Dickinson • Because I could not stop for Death

A. E. Housman • To an Athlete Dying Young

A Note on Spirituals***

Anonymous • Swing Low, Sweet Chariot***

Anonymous • Didn’t My Lord Deliver Daniel***

 

Chapter 22       Love and Hate 

Essay  

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

Stories  

Ernest Hemingway • Cat in the Rain

     A Student’s Notes and Journal Entries on “Cat in the Rain”

     Asking Questions about a Story

     A Sample Essay by a Student: “Hemingway’s American Wife”

     A Second Example: An Essay Drawing on Related Material in the Chapter

     A Sample Essay by a Student: “Hemingway’s Unhappy Lovers”

Zora Neale Hurston • Sweat

Raymond Carver • Cathedral

Poems  

Anonymous • Western Wind

Christopher Marlowe • The Passionate Shepherd to His Love

Sir Walter Raleigh • The Nymph’s Reply to the Shepherd

John Donne • The Bait

William Shakespeare • Sonnet 29 (When, in disgrace with Fortune and men’s eyes)

William Shakespeare • Sonnet 116 (Let me not to the marriage of true minds)

John Donne • A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning

Andrew Marvell • To His Coy Mistress

Edna St. Vincent Millay • Love Is Not All: It Is Not Meat nor Drink

Robert Frost • The Silken Tent

Robert Pack • The Frog Prince

Nikki Giovanni • Love in Place

Play  

Terrence McNally • Andre’s Mother

 

Chapter 23        Making Men and Women

Essays  

Steven Doloff • The Opposite Sex

Gretel Ehrlich • About Men

Stories  

Charlotte Perkins Gilman • The Yellow Wallpaper

Richard Wright • The Man Who Was Almost a Man 

John Updike • Oliver’s Evolution  ***

Poems  

Anonymous • What Are Little Boys Made Of

Anonymous • Higamus, Hogamus

Dorothy Parker • General Review of the Sex Situation

Louise Bogan • Women

Rita Dove • Daystar

Theodore Roethke • My Papa’s Waltz

Sharon Olds • Rites of Passage

Frank O’Hara • Homosexuality

Julia Alvarez • Woman’s Work

Marge Piercy • Barbie Doll

Play  

Henrik Ibsen • A Doll’s House

 

Chapter 24        Innocence and Experience

Essay  

George Orwell • Shooting an Elephant

Stories  

Hans Christian Andersen • The Emperor’s New Clothes

James Joyce • Araby

Isaac Bashevis Singer • The Son from America

Ha Jin • Love in the Air***

ZZ Packer • Brownies***

Poems  

William Blake • Infant Joy

William Blake • Infant Sorrow

William Blake • The Echoing Green

William Blake • The Lamb

William Blake • The Tyger

Gerard Manley Hopkins • Spring and Fall

E. E. Cummings • in Just-

Louise Glück • The School Children

Louise Glück • Gretel in Darkness

Linda Pastan • Ethics

Play  

Thinking Critically: A Case Study about Shakespeare’s Hamlet

     A Note on the Elizabethan Theater

     A Note on Hamlet on the Stage 

     A Note on the Text of Hamlet 

William Shakespeare • The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark

Criticism

     Anne Barton • The Promulgation of Confusion

     Stanley Wells • On the First Soliloquy

     Elaine Showalter • Representing Ophelia

     Bernice W. Kliman • The BBC Hamlet: A Television Production

     Will Saretta • Branagh’s Film of Hamlet

 

Chapter 25      All in a Day’s Work***

Essays

Barbara Ehrenreich • Wal-Mart Orientation Program***

Stories

Stop Me If You’ve Heard This One: Jokes about Lines of Work***

            Jokes as Short Stories***

            The Role of Stereotypes***

                        Four Doctors Went Hunting***

                        A Businessman Interviewed Job Candidates***

                        The Absent-Minded Professor***

                        An American Businessman in Mexico***

                        Two New Yorkers on Vacation Are Hunting in Maine***

                        The Detective and the Logical Doctor***

                        The Heart Surgeon and the Mechanic***

                        The Rich Businessman at the Business School Commencement***

Jacob Grimm and Wilhelm Grimm • Mother Holle***

Will Eisner • The Day I Became a Professional***

Daniel Orozco   Orientation

John Updike • A & P

Lorrie Moore  How to Become a Writer

Poems

William Wordsworth • The Solitary Reaper

Walt Whitman • I hear America Singing

Carl Sandburg • Chicago

Gary Snyder • Hay for the Horses

Robert Hayden • Those Winter Sundays

Seamus Heaney • Digging

Marge Piercy • To be of use

Marge Piercy • The Secretary Chant

John Updike • Ex-Basketball Player 

Plays

Jane Martin• Rodeo

Arthur Miller, Death of a Salesman***

 

 

Chapter 26       Identity in America

Essays  

Anna Lisa Raya • It’s Hard Enough Being Me

Andrew Lam • Who Will Light Incense When Mother’s Gone?

Stories  

Amy Tan • Two Kinds

Alice Walker • Everyday Use

Poems  

Emma Lazarus • The New Colossus

Thomas Bailey Aldrich • The Unguarded Gates

Joseph Bruchac III • Ellis Island

Aurora Levins Morales • Child of the Americas

Gloria Anzaldúa • To Live in the Borderlands Means You

Jimmy Santiago Baca • So Mexicans Are Taking Jobs from Americans

Langston Hughes • Theme for English B

Pat Parker • For the White Person Who Wants to Know How to be my friend

Mitsuye Yamada • To the Lady

Nila northSun • Moving Camp Too Far

Plays  

Luis Valdez • Los Vendidos

Lorraine Hansberry • A Raisin in the Sun

 

Chapter 27        American Dreams and Nightmares

Essays  

Chief Seattle • My People

Elizabeth Cady Stanton • Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions

Abraham Lincoln•Address at the Dedication of the Gettysburg National Cemetery***

Studs Terkel • Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Dream

Stories

Kurt Vonnegut Jr. • Harrison Bergeron

Langston Hughes • One Friday Morning

William Carlos Williams • The Use of Force

Shirley Jackson • The Lottery

Grace Paley • A Man Told Me the Story of His Life

Tim O’Brien • The Things They Carried

Sherman Alexie • The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven***

Amy Sterling Casil •Perfect Stranger***

Ralph Ellison •Battle Royal

Poems  

Robert Hayden • Frederick Douglass

Lorna Dee Cervantes • Refugee Ship

Edwin Arlington Robinson • Richard Cory

W. H. Auden • The Unknown Citizen

Allen Ginsberg • A Supermarket in California

Marge Piercy • What’s that Smell in the Kitchen?

Yusef Komunyakaa • Facing It

Billy Collins • The Names

Gwendolyn Brooks • The Bean Eaters

Dorothy Parker • Résumé

Plays  

Tennessee Williams • The Glass Menagerie

 

Chapter 28        Law and Disorder

Essays  

Zora Neale Hurston • A Conflict of Interest

Martin Luther King Jr. • Letter from Birmingham Jail

Stories

Chinua Achebe•Civil Peace 

Elizabeth Bishop • The Hanging of the Mouse

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

William Faulkner • Barn Burning

Tobias Woolf•Powder

Poems  

Anonymous • Birmingham Jail

A. E. Housman • The Carpenter’s Son

A. E. Housman • Oh who is that young sinner

Claude McKay • If We Must Die

Jimmy Santiago Baca • Cloudy Day

Carolyn Forché • The Colonel

Plays

Billy Goda• No Crime***

Sophocles•Antigone 

 

Chapter 29       Worlds beyond Worlds***

Essay

Stephen King • Why We Crave Horror Movies***

Stories

Elizabeth Bowen•The Demon Lover***

Gabriel García-Márquez• A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings

Arthur C. Clarke•Nine Billion Names of God

Poems

A Note on Ballads***

Anonymous•The Demon Lover***

Anonymous•The Wife of Usher's Well***

John Keats• La belle dame sans merci

A. E. Housman• Is my team ploughing***

 

Appendix A      Writing about Literature: An Overview of Critical Strategies 

Appendix B      Remarks About Manuscript Form

Appendix C      How Much Do You Know about Citing Sources?  A Quiz with Answers

 

Index of Authors, Titles, and First Lines

Index of Terms