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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: edgar.roberts@verizon.net.
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.
***** 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
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