Poetry: An Introduction

by Meyer, Michael

• ISBN13: 9781457607301
• ISBN10: 1457607301
• Edition: 7th
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2012-08-03
• Publisher: Bedford/St. Martin's

Summary

Flexible enough for any poetry course, this text is designed to make your students lifelong lovers of poetry. It combines classic poetry with today's hippest verse, mixing in lots of contemporary life, humor, and universal themes. In-depth chapters on authors such as Emily Dickinson and Billy Collins reveal the real-life contexts in which poets create. There is also plenty of support for students with thorough chapters on the poetic elements, six sensible chapters on critical reading and writing, and many helpful sample close readings, writing assignments, and student papers.

Author Biography

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

Table of Contents

List of Poets

Preface for Instructors

Thematic Contents

Introduction: Reading Imaginative Literature

The Nature of Literature

EMILY DICKINSON, A narrow Fellow in the Grass

The Value of Literature

The Changing Literary Canon

Encountering Poetry: Images of Poetry in Popular Culture

POSTER: Dorothy Parker, Unfortunate Coincidence

PHOTO: Carl Sandburg, Window

CARTOON: Roz Chast, The Love Song of J. Alfred Crew

PHOTO: Tim Taylor, I shake the delicate apparatus

POSTER: Eric Dunn and Mike Wigton, National Poetry Slam

PHOTO: Kevin Fleming

WEB SCREEN: Poetry-portal.com

WEB SCREEN: Ted Kooser, American Life in Poetry

POEM IN NEWSPAPER: MICHAEL MCFEE, Spitwads

THE ELEMENTS OF POETRY

1. Reading Poetry

Reading Poetry Responsively

LISA PARKER, Snapping Beans

ROBERT HAYDEN, Those Winter Sundays

JOHN UPDIKE, Dog’s Death

The Pleasure of Words

WILLIAM HATHAWAY, Oh, Oh

A SAMPLE CLOSE READING: An Annotated Version of "Oh, Oh"

ROBERT FRANCIS, Catch

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

ELIZABETH BISHOP, The Fish

PHILIP LARKIN, A Study of Reading Habits

ROBERT MORGAN, Mountain Graveyard

E. E. CUMMINGS, l(a

ANONYMOUS, Western Wind

REGINA BARRECA, Nighttime Fires

Suggestions for Approaching Poetry

BILLY COLLINS, Introduction to Poetry

Poetry in Popular Forms

HELEN FARRIES, Magic of Love

JOHN FREDERICK NIMS, Love Poem

BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN, Devils & Dust

S. PEARL SHARP, It’s the Law: A Rap Poem

PERSPECTIVE: ROBERT FRANCIS, On "Hard" Poetry

Poems for Further Study

MARY OLIVER, The Poet with His Face in His Hands

JIM TILLEY, The Big Questions

ALBERTO RÍOS, Seniors

ALFRED, LORD TENNYSON, Crossing the Bar

LI HO, A Beautiful Girl Combs Her Hair

EDGAR ALLAN POE, The Raven

CORNELIUS EADY, The Supremes

2. Writing about Poetry: From Inquiry to Final Paper

From Reading to Writing

Questions for Responsive Reading and Writing

ELIZABETH BISHOP, Manners

A SAMPLE CLOSE READING: An Annotated Version of "Manners"

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

3. Word Choice, Word Order, and Tone

Word Choice

Diction

Denotations and Connotations

RANDALL JARRELL, The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner

Word Order

Tone

COLETTE INEZ, Back When All Was Continuous Chuckles

MARILYN NELSON, How I Discovered Poetry

KATHARYN HOWD MACHAN, Hazel Tells LaVerne

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

MARTÍN ESPADA, Latin Night at the Pawnshop

PAUL LAURENCE DUNBAR, To a Captious Critic

Diction and Tone in Four Love Poems

ROBERT HERRICK, To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time

ANDREW MARVELL, To His Coy Mistress

ANN LAUINGER, Marvell Noir

SHARON OLDS, Last Night

PERSPECTIVE: ADAM KIRSCH, Literary Allusion in the Age of Google

Poems for Further Study

THOMAS HARDY, The Convergence of the Twain

DAVID R. SLAVITT, Titanic

JOANNE DIAZ, On My Father’s Loss of Hearing

MARY OLIVER, Oxygen

CATHY SONG, The Youngest Daughter

JOHN KEATS, Ode on a Grecian Urn

GWENDOLYN BROOKS, We Real Cool

JOAN MURRAY, We Old Dudes

ALICE JONES, The Larynx

LOUIS SIMPSON, In the Suburbs

Poets at Play

     BILLY COLLINS, Taking off Emily Dickinson’s Clothes

     JOAN MURRAY, Taking Off Billy Collins’s Clothes

     POSTCARD: BILLY COLLINS, To Joan Murray

GARRISON KEILLOR, The Anthem

A Note on Reading Translations

Three Translations of a Poem by Sappho

SAPPHO, Immortal Aphrodite of the broidered throne

(translated by Henry T. Wharton)

SAPPHO, Beautiful-throned, immortal Aphrodite

(translated by Thomas Wentworth Higginson)

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

Two Translations of a Poem by Pablo Neruda

PABLO NERUDA, Verbo (original Spanish version)

PABLO NERUDA, Word (translated by Ben Belitt)

PABLO NERUDA, Word (translated by Kristin Linklater)

4. Images

Poetry’s Appeal to the Senses

WILLIAM CARLOS WILLIAMS, Poem

WALT WHITMAN, Cavalry Crossing a Ford

DAVID SOLWAY, Windsurfing

THEODORE ROETHKE, Root Cellar

MATTHEW ARNOLD, Dover Beach

RUTH FORMAN, Poetry Should Ride the Bus

Poems for Further Study

AMY LOWELL, The Pond

H. D. [HILDA DOOLITTLE], Heat

RUTH FAINLIGHT, Crocuses

MARY ROBINSON, London’s Summer Morning

WILLIAM BLAKE, London

A SAMPLE STUDENT RESPONSE: Imagery in William Blake’s "London" and Mary Robinson’s "London’s Summer Morning"

WILFRED OWEN, Dulce et Decorum Est

PATTIANN ROGERS, In General

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

RAINER MARIA RILKE, The Panther

JANE KENYON, The Blue Bowl

SALLY CROFT, Home-Baked Bread

JOHN KEATS, To Autumn

EDWARD HIRSCH, Fall

EZRA POUND, In a Station of the Metro

CATHY SONG, The White Porch

MELANIE MCCABE, Paperboy

PERSPECTIVE: T. E. HULME, On the Differences between Poetry and Prose

5. Figures of Speech

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE, From Macbeth (Act V, Scene v)

Simile and Metaphor

MARGARET ATWOOD, you fit into me

EMILY DICKINSON, Presentiment — is that long Shadow—on the lawn—

ANNE BRADSTREET, The Author to Her Book

RICHARD WILBUR, The Writer

Other Figures

EDMUND CONTI, Pragmatist

DYLAN THOMAS, The Hand That Signed the Paper

JANICE TOWNLEY MOORE, To a Wasp

J. PATRICK LEWIS, The Unkindest Cut

Poems for Further Study

GARY SNYDER, How Poetry Comes to Me

A SAMPLE STUDENT RESPONSE: Metaphor in Gary Snyder’s "How Poetry Comes to Me"

LOUISE BOGAN, Several Voices Out of a Cloud

WILLIAM CARLOS WILLIAMS, To Waken an Old Lady

ERNEST SLYMAN, Lightning Bugs

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

SYLVIA PLATH, Mirror

WILLIAM WORDSWORTH, London, 1802

JIM STEVENS, Schizophrenia

WALT WHITMAN, A Noiseless Patient Spider

JOHN DONNE, A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning

LINDA PASTAN, Marks

KAY RYAN, Hailstorm

RONALD WALLACE, Building an Outhouse

ELAINE MAGARRELL, The Joy of Cooking

SCOTT HIGHTOWER, My Father

PERSPECTIVE: JOHN R. SEARLE, Figuring Out Metaphors

6. Symbol, Allegory, and Irony

Symbol

ROBERT FROST, Acquainted with the Night

Allegory

EDGAR ALLAN POE, The Haunted Palace

Irony

EDWIN ARLINGTON ROBINSON, Richard Cory

A SAMPLE STUDENT RESPONSE: Irony in Edwin Arlington Robinson’s "Richard Cory"

KENNETH FEARING, AD

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

STEPHEN CRANE, A Man Said to the Universe

Poems for Further Study

BOB HICOK, Making it in poetry

JANE KENYON, Surprise

MARTÍN ESPADA, Bully

KEVIN PIERCE, Proof of Origin

CARL SANDBURG, Buttons

WALLACE STEVENS, Anecdote of the Jar

DENISE DUHAMEL, How It Will End

WILLIAM STAFFORD, Traveling through the Dark

JULIO MARZÁN, Ethnic Poetry

MARK HALLIDAY, Graded Paper

CHARLES SIMIC, The Storm

JAMES MERRILL, Casual Wear

HENRY REED, Naming of Parts

ALLEN BRADEN, The Hemlock Tree

ROBERT BROWNING, My Last Duchess

RICHARD WILBUR, A Finished Man

WILLIAM BLAKE, The Chimney Sweeper

WALT WHITMAN, From Song of Myself

GARY SOTO, Behind Grandma’s House

PERSPECTIVE: EZRA POUND, On Symbols

7. Sounds

Listening to Poetry

ANONYMOUS, Scarborough Fair

JOHN UPDIKE, Player Piano

MAY SWENSON, A Nosty Fright

EMILY DICKINSON, A Bird came down the Walk—

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

ANYA KRUGOVOY SILVER, French Toast

Rhyme

RICHARD ARMOUR, Going to Extremes

ROBERT SOUTHEY, From "The Cataract of Lodore"

PERSPECTIVE: DAVID LENSON, On the Contemporary Use of Rhyme

Sound and Meaning

GERARD MANLEY HOPKINS, God’s Grandeur

Poems for Further Study

DIANE LOCKWARD, Linguine

LEWIS CARROLL (CHARLES LUTWIDGE DODGSON), Jabberwocky

HARRYETTE MULLEN, Blah-Blah

WILLIAM HEYEN, The Trains

JOHN DONNE, Song

ALEXANDER POPE, From An Essay on Criticism

HAKI R. MADHUBUTI, The B Network

WILFRED OWEN, Anthem for Doomed Youth

ANDREW HUDGINS, The Cow

PAUL HUMPHREY, Blow

ROBERT FRANCIS, The Pitcher

HELEN CHASIN, The Word Plum

RICHARD WAKEFIELD, The Bell Rope

JEAN TOOMER, Reapers

JOHN KEATS, Ode to a Nightingale

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

8. Patterns of Rhythm

Some Principles of Meter

WALT WHITMAN, From Song of the Open Road

WILLIAM WORDSWORTH, My Heart Leaps Up

Suggestions for Scanning a Poem

TIMOTHY STEELE, Waiting for the Storm

A SAMPLE STUDENT RESPONSE: The Rhythm of Anticipation in Timothy Steele’s "Waiting for the Storm"

WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS, That the Night Come

Poems for Further Study

WILLIAM TROWBRIDGE, Drumming Behind You in the High School Band

ALFRED, LORD TENNYSON, Break, Break, Break

ALICE JONES, The Foot

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

RITA DOVE, Fox Trot Fridays

CHRISTOPHER MERRILL, A Boy Juggling a Soccer Ball

RACHEL HADAS, The Red Hat

ROBERT HERRICK, Delight in Disorder

BEN JONSON, Still to Be Neat

SONIA SANCHEZ, Summer Words of a Sistuh Addict

WILLIAM BLAKE, The Lamb

WILLIAM BLAKE, The Tyger

CARL SANDBURG, Chicago

ALFRED, LORD TENNYSON, The Charge of the Light Brigade

JOHN MALONEY, Good!

THEODORE ROETHKE, My Papa’s Waltz

PERSPECTIVE: LOUISE BOGAN, On Formal Poetry

9. Poetic Forms

Some Common Poetic Forms

A. E. HOUSMAN, Loveliest of trees, the cherry now

ROBERT HERRICK, Upon Julia’s Clothes

Sonnet

JOHN KEATS, On First Looking into Chapman’s Homer

WILLIAM WORDSWORTH, The World Is Too Much with Us

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE, Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE, My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun

EDNA ST. VINCENT MILLAY, I will put Chaos into fourteen lines

A SAMPLE STUDENT RESPONSE: The Fixed Form in Edna St. Vincent Millay’s "I will put Chaos into fourteen lines"

SHERMAN ALEXIE, The Facebook Sonnet

MARK JARMAN, Unholy Sonnet

WILLIAM BAER, Letter of Resignation

X. J. KENNEDY, "The Purpose of Time Is to Prevent Everything from Happening at Once"

R.S. GWYNN, Shakespearean Sonnet

Villanelle

DYLAN THOMAS, Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night

EDWIN ARLINGTON ROBINSON, The House on the Hill

Sestina

ALGERNON CHARLES SWINBURNE, Sestina

FLORENCE CASSEN MAYERS, All-American Sestina

Epigram

SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE, What Is an Epigram?

A. R. AMMONS, Coward

DAVID MCCORD, Epitaph on a Waiter

PAUL LAURENCE DUNBAR, Theology

Limerick

ANONYMOUS, There was a young lady named Bright

LAURENCE PERRINE, The limerick’s never averse

Haiku

MATSUO BASHO, Under cherry trees

CAROLYN KIZER, After Basho-

SONIA SANCHEZ, c’mon man hold me

Elegy

BEN JONSON, On My First Son

THOMAS GRAY, Ode on the Death of a Favorite Cat, Drowned in a Tub of Gold

Fishes

THEODORE ROETHKE, Elegy for Jane

BRENDAN GALVIN, An Evel Knievel Elegy

Ode

PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY, Ode to the West Wind

Parody

BLANCHE FARLEY, The Lover Not Taken

Picture Poem

MICHAEL MCFEE, In Medias Res

PERSPECTIVE: ELAINE MITCHELL, Form

10. Open Form

WALT WHITMAN, From "I Sing the Body Electric"

PERSPECTIVE: WALT WHITMAN, On Rhyme and Meter

A SAMPLE STUDENT RESPONSE: The Power of Walt Whitman’s Open Form Poem "I Sing the Body Electric"

LOUIS JENKINS, The Prose Poem

DAVID SHUMATE, Shooting the Horse

RICHARD HAGUE, Directions for Resisting the SAT

ELLEN BASS, Gate C22

KELLY CHERRY, Alzheimer’s

WILLIAM CARLOS WILLIAMS, The Red Wheelbarrow

NATASHA TRETHEWEY, On Captivity

GARY GILDNER, First Practice

MARILYN NELSON WANIEK, Emily Dickinson’s Defunct

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

ROBERT MORGAN, Overalls

KEVIN YOUNG, Eddie Priest’s Barber Shop and Notary

LINDA PASTAN, To a Daughter Leaving Home

ANONYMOUS, The Frog

TATO LAVIERA, AmeRícan

KARL SHAPIRO, Lower the Standard

PETER MEINKE, The ABC of Aerobics

MARY STEWART HAMMOND, The Big Fish Story

Found Poem

DONALD JUSTICE, Order in the Streets

11. Combining the Elements of Poetry:

A Writing Process

The Elements Together

Mapping the Poem

JOHN DONNE, Death Be Not Proud

Asking Questions about the Elements

A SAMPLE CLOSE READING: An Annotated Version of "Death Be Not Proud"

A SAMPLE FIRST RESPONSE

Organizing Your Thoughts

A SAMPLE INFORMAL OUTLINE

The Elements and Theme

A SAMPLE EXPLICATION: The Use of Conventional Metaphors for Death in John Donne’s "Death Be Not Proud"

APPROACHES TO POETRY

12. A Study of Emily Dickinson

A Brief Biography

PHOTO: Emily Dickinson, age 16

SILHOUETTE: Emily Dickinson, age 14

PHOTO: Emily Dickinson, unauthenticated image

PHOTO: Edward Dickinson

LETTER AND CARTOON: Emily Dickinson to William Cowper Dickinson

PHOTO: Susan Gilbert Dickinson

LETTER AND CARTOON: Emily Dickinson to Susan Gilbert Dickinson

An Introduction to Her Work

EMILY DICKINSON, If I can stop one Heart from breaking

EMILY DICKINSON, If I shouldn’t be alive

EMILY DICKINSON, The Thought beneath so slight a film—

EMILY DICKINSON, To make a prairie it takes a clover and one bee

CHRONOLOGY

EMILY DICKINSON, Success is counted sweetest

EMILY DICKINSON, Water, is taught by thirst

EMILY DICKINSON, Safe in their Alabaster Chambers—(1859 version)

EMILY DICKINSON, Safe in their Alabaster Chambers—(1861 version)

EMILY DICKINSON, Portraits are to daily faces

EMILY DICKINSON, Some keep the Sabbath going to Church—

EMILY DICKINSON, "Heaven"— is what I cannot reach!

EMILY DICKINSON, "Hope" is the thing with feathers—

EMILY DICKINSON, I felt a Funeral in my Brain—

EMILY DICKINSON, I like a look of Agony

EMILY DICKINSON, Wild Nights—Wild Nights!

EMILY DICKINSON, I started Early—Took my Dog—

EMILY DICKINSON, What Soft—Cherubic Creatures—

EMILY DICKINSON, The Soul selects her own Society—

FACSIMILE: Manuscript Page for "What Soft—Cherubic Creatures—"

EMILY DICKINSON, Much Madness is divinest Sense—

EMILY DICKINSON, I dwell in Possibility—

EMILY DICKINSON, After great pain, a formal feeling comes—

EMILY DICKINSON, Pain—has an Element of Blank—

EMILY DICKINSON, I heard a Fly buzz—when I died—

EMILY DICKINSON, He fumbles at your Soul

EMILY DICKINSON, One need not be a Chamber—to be Haunted—

EMILY DICKINSON, Because I could not stop for Death—

EMILY DICKINSON, My Life had stood—a Loaded Gun—

EMILY DICKINSON, They say that "Time assuages"

EMILY DICKINSON, I felt a Cleaving in my Mind—

EMILY DICKINSON, The Bustle in a House

EMILY DICKINSON, Tell all the Truth but tell it slant—

EMILY DICKINSON, There is no Frigate like a Book

EMILY DICKINSON, Fame is the one that does not stay—

EMILY DICKINSON, From all the Jails the Boys and Girls

PERSPECTIVES ON EMILY DICKINSON

EMILY DICKINSON, A Description of Herself

THOMAS WENTWORTH HIGGINSON, On Meeting Dickinson for the First Time

MABEL LOOMIS TODD, The Character of Amherst

RICHARD WILBUR, On Dickinson’s Sense of Privation

SANDRA M. GILBERT AND SUSAN GUBAR, On Dickinson’s White Dress

CYNTHIA GRIFFIN WOLFF, On the Many Voices in Dickinson’s Poetry

PAULA BENNETT, On "I heard a Fly buzz— when I died—"

MARTHA NELL SMITH, On "Because I could not stop for Death—"

RONALD WALLACE, Miss Goff

TWO COMPLEMENTARY CRITICAL READINGS

CHARLES R. ANDERSON, Eroticism in "Wild Nights—Wild Nights!"

DAVID S. REYNOLDS, Popular Literature and "Wild Nights—Wild Nights!"

Questions for Writing about an Author in Depth

A SAMPLE IN-DEPTH STUDY

EMILY DICKINSON, "Faith" is a fine invention

EMILY DICKINSON, I know that He exists

EMILY DICKINSON, I never saw a Moor—

EMILY DICKINSON, Apparently with no surprise

A SAMPLE STUDENT PAPER: Religious Faith in Four Poems by Emily Dickinson

Suggested Topics for Longer Papers

13. A Study of Robert Frost

A Brief Biography

PHOTO: Robert Frost, age 18

PHOTO: Robert Frost, age 47

PHOTO: Robert Frost at his writing desk

An Introduction to His Work

ROBERT FROST, The Road Not Taken

ROBERT FROST, The Pasture

CHRONOLOGY

ROBERT FROST, Mowing

ROBERT FROST, Storm Fear

ROBERT FROST, Mending Wall

ROBERT FROST, Home Burial

ROBERT FROST, The Wood-Pile

ROBERT FROST, After Apple-Picking

ROBERT FROST, Birches

ROBERT FROST, An Old Man’s Winter Night

ROBERT FROST, "Out, Out—"

ROBERT FROST, The Oven Bird

ROBERT FROST, Fire and Ice

ROBERT FROST, Dust of Snow

ROBERT FROST, Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening

ROBERT FROST, Good-by and Keep Cold

ROBERT FROST, The Need of Being Versed in Country Things

ROBERT FROST, Neither Out Far nor In Deep

FACSIMILE: Manuscript page of "Neither Out Far nor In Deep"

ROBERT FROST, Design

PERSPECTIVES ON ROBERT FROST

ROBERT FROST, "In White": An Early Version of "Design"

ROBERT FROST, On the Living Part of a Poem

AMY LOWELL, On Frost’s Realistic Technique

ROBERT FROST, On the Figure a Poem Makes

ROBERT FROST, On the Way to Read a Poem

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

PETER D. POLAND, On "Neither Out Far nor In Deep"

TWO COMPLEMENTARY CRITICAL READINGS

RICHARD POIRIER, On Emotional Suffocation in "Home Burial"

KATHERINE KEARNS, On the Symbolic Setting of "Home Burial"

Suggested Topics for Longer Papers

14. A Study of Billy Collins: The Author Reflects on Five Poems

PHOTO: Billy Collins

A Brief Biography and an Introduction to His Work

PHOTO: Billy Collins, first day as a student at St. Joan of Arc School

PHOTO: Billy Collins, first day at Holy Cross College

PHOTO: Billy Collins, senior photo, Holy Cross College

PHOTO: Billy Collins, with cigarette

PHOTO: Billy Collins, Scarsdale, NY

PHOTO: Billy Collins, in his office at Lehman College

CHRONOLOGY

BOOK COVER: Questions About Angels

BOOK COVER: The Art of Drowning

BOOK COVER: Nine Horses

BOOK COVER: The Trouble with Poetry

BILLY COLLINS, "How Do Poems Travel?"

BILLY COLLINS, Osso Buco

BILLY COLLINS, On Writing "Osso Buco"

BILLY COLLINS, Nostalgia

BILLY COLLINS, On Writing "Nostalgia"

BILLY COLLINS, Questions About Angels

BILLY COLLINS, On Writing "Questions About Angels"

BILLY COLLINS, Litany

BILLY COLLINS, On Writing "Litany"

BILLY COLLINS, Building with Its Face Blown Off

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

PHOTO: Billy Collins Action Poetry Web site

PHOTO: Poetry 180 Web site

FACSIMILES: Three manuscript pages

Suggested Topics for Longer Papers

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

PHOTO: Julia Alvarez

A Brief Biography

BOOK COVER: A Cafecito Story

PHOTO: Julia Alvarez and students at Alta Gracia

An Introduction to Her Work

CHRONOLOGY

JULIA ALVAREZ, On Writing "Queens, 1963"

PASSPORT PHOTO: Julia Alvarez, age 10

JULIA ALVAREZ, Queens, 1963

PHOTO: Queens Civil Rights Demonstration, 1963

PERSPECTIVE: MARNY REQUA, From an Interview with Julia Alvarez

JULIA ALVAREZ, On Writing "Housekeeping Cages" and Her Housekeeping Poems

JULIA ALVAREZ, Housekeeping Cages

JULIA ALVAREZ, On Writing "Dusting"

JULIA ALVAREZ, Dusting

JULIA ALVAREZ, On Writing "Ironing Their Clothes"

JULIA ALVAREZ, Ironing Their Clothes

JULIA ALVAREZ, On Writing "Sometimes the Words Are So Close" (From the "33" Sonnet Sequence)

JULIA ALVAREZ, Sometimes the Words Are So Close

Drafts of "Sometimes the Words Are So Close": A Poet’s Writing Process

FACSIMILES: Four Draft manuscript pages

JULIA ALVAREZ, On Writing "First Muse"

PHOTO: Library Way Bronze Plaque of "Sometimes the Words Are So Close"

JULIA ALVAREZ, First Muse

IMAGE: Chiquita Banana

PERSPECTIVE: KELLI LYON JOHNSON, Mapping an Identity

16. A Critical Case Study: T. S. Eliot’s "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock"

PHOTO: T. S. Eliot, age 18

A Brief Biography

PAINTING: T. S. Eliot, by Wyndham Lewis

PHOTO: T. S. Eliot as Prufrock

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

PERSPECTIVES ON T. S. ELIOT

ELISABETH SCHNEIDER, Hints of Eliot in Prufrock

BARBARA EVERETT, The Problem of Tone in Prufrock

MICHAEL L. BAUMANN, The "Overwhelming Question" for Prufrock

FREDERIK L. RUSCH, Society and Character in "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock"

ROBERT SWARD, A Personal Analysis of "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock"

Suggested Topics for Longer Papers

17. A Cultural Case Study: Harlem Renaissance Poets Claude McKay, Langston Hughes, and Countee Cullen

PHOTO: Harlem Renaissance couple

PHOTO: The Lafayette Theatre

CHRONOLOGY

PHOTO: Harlem

IMAGE: Survey Graphic magazine, 1925

PHOTO: Cotton Club

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

PHOTO: Claude McKay

CLAUDE MCKAY, The Harlem Dancer

CLAUDE MCKAY, If We Must Die

CLAUDE MCKAY, The Tropics in New York

CLAUDE MCKAY, The Lynching

CLAUDE MCKAY, America

CLAUDE MCKAY, Outcast

CLAUDE MCKAY, On a Primitive Canoe

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

PHOTO: Langston Hughes

IMAGE: Langston Hughes stamp

PHOTO: Couples dancing in a Harlem nightclub

LANGSTON HUGHES, The Negro Speaks of Rivers

LANGSTON HUGHES, Jazzonia

LANGSTON HUGHES, Lenox Avenue: Midnight

LANGSTON HUGHES, Ballad of the Landlord

LANGSTON HUGHES, Harlem Sweeties

LANGSTON HUGHES, 125th Street

LANGSTON HUGHES, Harlem

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

PHOTO: Countee Cullen

COUNTEE CULLEN, Yet Do I Marvel

COUNTEE CULLEN, Incident

COUNTEE CULLEN, For a Lady I Know

COUNTEE CULLEN, Heritage

COUNTEE CULLEN, Tableau

COUNTEE CULLEN, From the Dark Tower

COUNTEE CULLEN, To Certain Critics

PERSPECTIVES

KAREN JACKSON FORD, Hughes’s Aesthetics of Simplicity

DAVID CHINITZ, The Romanticization of Africa in the 1920s

COUNTEE CULLEN, On Racial Poetry

ONWUCHEKWA JEMIE, On Universal Poetry

Suggested Topics for Longer Papers

18. A Thematic Case Study: Love and Longing

CHRISTOPHER MARLOWE, The Passionate Shepherd to His Love

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE, Not marble, nor the gilded monuments

ANNE BRADSTREET, To My Dear and Loving Husband

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

EDNA ST. VINCENT MILLAY, Recuerdo

EDNA ST. VINCENT MILLAY, I, Being Born a Woman, Distressed

E. E. CUMMINGS, since feeling is first

ALBERTO RIOS, Teodoro Luna’s Two Kisses

JOAN MURRAY, Play-by-Play

BILLIE BOLTON, Memorandum

LUISA LOPEZ, Junior Year Abroad

Suggested Topics for Longer Papers

19. A Thematic Case Study: Humor and Satire

JOHN CIARDI, Suburban

HARRYETTE MULLEN, Dim Lady

RONALD WALLACE, In a Rut

HOWARD NEMEROV, Walking the Dog

LINDA PASTAN, Jump Cabling

E.E. CUMMINGS, may i feel said he

PETER SCHMITT, Friends with Numbers

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

DENISE DUHAMEL, Language Police Report

GEORGE BILGERE, Stupid

GARY SOTO, Mexicans Begin Jogging

BOB HICOK, Spam leaves an aftertaste

THOMAS MOORE, At the Berkeley Free Speech Café

LEE UPTON, Dyserotica

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

20. A Thematic Case Study: Crossing Boundaries

Transcendence and Borders

DIAGRAM: An Eighteenth-Century Slave Ship

PHILLIS WHEATLEY, On Being Brought from Africa to America

ADVERTISEMENT: A 1784 Slave-Auction Poster

Identity and Borders

PAT MORA, Legal Alien

IMAGE: Jacalyn López García, I Just Wanted to Be Me

Immigration and Borders

SANDRA M. GILBERT, Mafioso

PHOTO: Baggage Examined Here, Ellis Island

Expectations and Borders

CHITRA BANERJEE DIVAKARUNI, Indian Movie, New Jersey

SOUNDTRACK COVER: Rawal Films, Ladki Pasand Hai (I Like This Girl)

Beauty and Borders

JANICE MIRIKITANI, Recipe

PHOTO: Chiaki Tsukumo, Girl with Licca Doll

Freedom and Borders

THOMAS LYNCH, Liberty

PHOTO: Steve Dunwell, Somerville, Massachusetts

Suggested Topics for Longer Papers

21. A Thematic Case Study: The Natural World

TOM DISCH, Birdsong Interpreted

JANE HIRSHFIELD, Optimism

LESLIE MARMON SILKO, Love Poem

RICHARD EBERHART, Coast of Maine

GAIL WHITE, Dead Armadillos

DAVE LUCAS, November

WALT MCDONALD, Coming Across It

ALDEN NOWLAN, The Bull Moose

ROBERT B. SHAW, Wild Turkeys

KAY RYAN, Turtle

PAUL ZIMMER, What I Know about Owls

MARY OLIVER, Wild Geese

Suggested Topics for Longer Papers

22. A Thematic Case Study: The World of Work

DANA GIOIA, Money

TONY HOAGLAND, America

JAN BEATTY, My Father Teaches Me to Dream

MICHAEL CHITWOOD, Men Throwing Bricks

BARON WORMSER, Labor

ANGELA ALAIMO O’DONNELL, Touring the Mine

DAVID IGNATOW, The Jobholder

BOB HICOK, Calling him back from layoff

JOYCE SUTPHEN, Guys Like That

DEBORAH GARRISON, Worked Late on a Tuesday Night

DONALD HALL, To a Waterfowl

MARGE PIERCY, To be of use

Suggested Topics for Longer Papers

AN ANTHOLOGY OF POEMS

23. An Album of Contemporary Poems

MICHELLE BOISSEAU, Self-Pity’s Closet

EAMON GRENNAN, Herringbone

MARY STEWART HAMMOND, High Ground

TONY HOAGLAND, Hard Rain

RACHEL LODEN, Locked Ward: Newtown, Connecticut

SUSAN MINOT, My Husband’s Back

ROBERT MORGAN, Dew

ALLISON TOWNSEND, The Favorite

ANDREW HUDGINS, American Rendering

C. K. WILLIAMS, The United States

24. An Album of World Literature

ANNA AKHMATOVA (Russia), Lot’s Wife

CLARIBEL ALEGRÍA (El Salvador), I Am Mirror

YEHUDA AMICHAI (Israel), Jerusalem, 1985

FAZIL HÜSNÜ DA ˘GLARCA (Turkey), Dead

KISHWAR NAHEED (Pakistan), To the Masters of Countries with a Cold Climate

MARNE L. KILATES (Philippines), Python in the Mall

TASLIMA NASRIN (Bangladesh), At the Back of Progress . . .

PABLO NERUDA (Chile), We Are Many

OCTAVIO PAZ (Mexico), The Street

YOUSIF AL-SA´IGH (Iraq), An Iraqi Evening

SHU TING (China), O Motherland, Dear Motherland

TOMAS TRANSTRÖMER (Sweden), April and Silence

25. A Collection of Poems

ANONYMOUS, Bonny Barbara Allan

JACQUELINE BERGER, Why I’m Here

WILLIAM BLAKE, The Garden of Love

WILLIAM BLAKE, Infant Sorrow

ANNE BRADSTREET, Before the Birth of One of Her Children

ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING, When our two souls stand up erect and strong

ROBERT BROWNING, Meeting at Night

ROBERT BROWNING, Parting at Morning

ROBERT BURNS, A Red, Red Rose

GEORGE GORDON, LORD BYRON, She Walks in Beauty

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

E. E. CUMMINGS, Buffalo Bill’s

JOHN DONNE, The Apparition

JOHN DONNE, Batter My Heart

JOHN DONNE, The Flea

RITA DOVE, Golden Oldie

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

CHARLOTTE PERKINS GILMAN, Queer People

THOMAS HARDY, Hap

THOMAS HARDY, In Time of "The Breaking of Nations"

FRANCES E. W. HARPER, Learning to Read

GEORGE HERBERT, The Collar

GERARD MANLEY HOPKINS, Hurrahing in Harvest

GERARD MANLEY HOPKINS, Pied Beauty

GERARD MANLEY HOPKINS, The Windhover

A. E. HOUSMAN, Is my team ploughing

A. E. HOUSMAN, To an Athlete Dying Young

JULIA WARD HOWE, Battle-Hymn of the Republic

ANDREW HUDGINS, On the Killing Floor

BEN JONSON, To Celia

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

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

JOHN KEATS, La Belle Dame sans Merci

JOHN KEATS, Written in Disgust of Vulgar Superstition

EMMA LAZARUS, The New Colossus

HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW, Snow-Flakes

AMY LOWELL, A Decade

JILL MCDONOUGH, Accident, Mass. Ave.

JOHN MILTON, On the Late Massacre in Piedmont

JOHN MILTON, When I consider how my light is spent

SIR WALTER RALEIGH, The Nymph’s Reply to the Shepherd

WENDY ROSE, For the White Poets Who Would Be Indian

CHRISTINA GEORGINA ROSSETTI, Some Ladies Dress in Muslin Full and White

CHRISTINA GEORGINA ROSSETTI, In Progress

CHRISTINA GEORGINA ROSSETTI, The World

CHRISTINA GEORGINA ROSSETTI, Promises Like Pie-Crust

SIEGFRIED SASSOON, "They"

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE, That time of year thou mayst in me behold

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE, When forty winters shall besiege thy brow

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

PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY, Ozymandias

SIR PHILIP SIDNEY, Loving in Truth, and Fain in Verse My Love to Show

LYDIA HUNTLEY SIGOURNEY, Indian Names

WALLACE STEVENS, The Emperor of Ice-Cream

MARK STRAND, Pot Roast

ALFRED, LORD TENNYSON, Ulysses

ALFRED, LORD TENNYSON, Tears, Idle Tears

RICHARD WAKEFIELD, In a Poetry Workshop

WALT WHITMAN, I Heard You Solemn-Sweet Pipes of the Organ

WALT WHITMAN, When I Heard the Learn’d Astronomer

WALT WHITMAN, One’s-Self I Sing

MILLER WILLIAMS, Thinking about Bill, Dead of AIDS

WILLIAM CARLOS WILLIAMS, This Is Just to Say

WILLIAM WORDSWORTH, A Slumber Did My Spirit Seal

WILLIAM WORDSWORTH, I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud

WILLIAM WORDSWORTH, It Is a Beauteous Evening, Calm and Free

WILLIAM WORDSWORTH, The Solitary Reaper

WILLIAM WORDSWORTH, Mutability

STEFANIE WORTMAN, Mortuary Art

WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS, The Second Coming

WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS, Leda and the Swan

WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS, Sailing to Byzantium

CRITICAL THINKING AND WRITING ABOUT POETRY

26. Critical Strategies for Reading

Critical Thinking

The Literary Canon: Diversity and Controversy

Formalist Strategies

Biographical Strategies

Psychological Strategies

Historical Strategies

Literary History Criticism

Marxist Criticism

New Historicist Criticism

Cultural Criticism

Gender Strategies

Feminist Criticism

Gay and Lesbian Criticism

Mythological Strategies

Reader-Response Strategies

Deconstructionist Strategies

27. Reading and the Writing Process

The Purpose and Value of Writing about Literature

Reading the Work Closely

Annotating the Text and Journal Note-Taking

Choosing a Topic

Developing a Thesis

Arguing about Literature

Questions for Arguing Critically about Literature

Organizing a Paper

Writing a Draft

Writing the Introduction and Conclusion

Using Quotations

Revising and Editing

Questions for Revising and Editing

Manuscript Form

Types of Writing Assignments

Explication

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

EMILY DICKINSON, There’s a certain Slant of light

Analysis

A SAMPLE ANALYSIS: Disembodied Images in "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock"

Comparison and Contrast

A SAMPLE COMPARISON: Andrew Marvell and Sharon Olds Seize the Day

28. The Literary Research Paper

Writing a Literary Research Paper

Choosing a Topic

Finding Sources

Electronic Sources

Evaluating Sources and Taking Notes

Documenting Sources and Avoiding Plagiarism

The List of Works Cited

Parenthetical References

Incorporating Secondary Sources

Questions for Incorporating Secondary Sources

Developing a Thesis and Organizing the Paper

Revising

A SAMPLE RESEARCH PAPER: Individuality and Community in Frost’s "Mowing" and "Mending Wall"

29. Taking Essay Examinations

Preparing for an Essay Exam

Keep Up with the Reading

Take Notes and Annotate the Text

Anticipate Questions

Types of Exams

Closed-Book versus Open-Book Exams

Essay Questions

Strategies for Writing Essay Exams

Glossary of Literary Terms

Index of First Lines

Index of Authors and Titles

Index of Terms

Resources for Reading and Writing about Poetry