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The most popular Literature anthology continues to bring students the finest literature from fables to poetweets. The Twelfth Edition of Literature: An Introductiuon to Fiction, Poetry, Drama, and Writing,edited by X. J. Kennedy and Dana Gioia, includes eleven new stories from students' favorite authors: ZZ Packer's "Brownies," Ray Bradbury's, "The Sound of Thunder," Anne Tyler's, "Teenage Wasteland," David Leavitt's, "A Place I've Never Been" and Isabel Allende's "The Judge's Wife." More than 60 new accessible and engaging poems have been added including former Iraqi soldier Brian Turner's "The Hurt Locker," Katha Pollit's "The Mind-Body Problem" as well as poetweets from Lawrence Bridges and Robert Pinsky. In addition, there are new poems from Kay Ryan, Benjamin Alire Saenz, H. D, Gary Snyder, Joy Harjo, Tami Haaland, Robert Hayden, Denise Levertov, and William Carlos Williams. Three new one-act plays help "ease" students into the study of this genre. The new plays include two comedies-- David Ives's, Sure Thingand Jane Martin's Beautyas well as Edward Bok Lee's experimental drama El Santo Americano. In addition, Milcha Sanchez-Scott's The Cuban Swimmerhas been added .

X. J. Kennedy , after graduation from Seton Hall and Columbia, became a journalist second class in the Navy (“Actually, I was pretty eighth class”). His poems, some published in the New Yorker, were first collected in Nude Descending a Staircase (1961). Since then he has written six more collections, several widely adopted literature and writing textbooks, and seventeen books for children, including two novels. He has taught at Michigan, North Carolina (Greensboro), California (Irvine), Wellesley, Tufts, and Leeds. Cited in Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations and reprinted in some 200 anthologies, his verse has brought him a Guggenheim fellowship, a Lamont Award, a Los Angeles Times Book Prize, an award from the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters, an Aiken-Taylor prize, the Robert Frost Medal of the Poetry Society of America, and the Award for Poetry for Children from the National Council of Teachers of English. He now lives in Lexington, Massachusetts, where he and his wife Dorothy have collaborated on four books and five children.

Dana Gioia is a poet, critic, and teacher. Born in Los Angeles of Italian and Mexican ancestry, he attended Stanford and Harvard before taking a detour into business. After years of writing and reading late in the evenings after work, he quit a corporate vice presidency to write. He has published four collections of poetry, Daily Horoscope (1986), The Gods of Winter (1991), Interrogations at Noon (2001), which won the American Book Award, and Pity the Beautiful (2012); and three critical volumes, including Can Poetry Matter? (1992), an influential study of poetry’s place in contemporary America. Gioia has taught at Johns Hopkins, Sarah Lawrence, Wesleyan (Connecticut), Mercer, and Colorado College. From 2003-2009 he served as the Chairman of the National Endowments for the Arts. At the NEA he created the largest literary programs in federal history, including Shakespeare in American Communities and Poetry Out Loud, the national high school poetry recitation contest. He also led the campaign to restore active literary reading by creating The Big Read, which helped reverse a quarter century of decline in U.S. reading. He is currently the Judge Widney Professor of Poetry and Public Culture at the University of Southern California.

** = new selection versus prior edition

Contents

Preface

To the Instructor

About the Authors

Fiction

A Conversation with Amy Tan

1 Reading a Story

The Art of Fiction

Types of Short Fiction

W. Somerset Maugham n The Appointment in Samarra

A servant tries to gallop away from Death in this brief sardonic fable retold in memorable form by a popular storyteller.

**Aesop n The Fox and the Grapes

Ever wonder where the phrase “sour grapes” comes from? Find out in this classic fable.

**Bidpai n The Camel and His Friends

With friends like these, you can guess what the camel doesn’t need.

Chuang Tzu n Independence

The Prince of Ch’u asks the philosopher Chuang Tzu to become his advisor and gets a surprising reply in this classic Chinese fable.

Jakob and Wilhelm Grimm n Godfather Death

Neither God nor the Devil came to the christening. In this stark folktale,
a young man receives magical powers with a string attached.

Plot

The Short Story

John Updike n A & P

In walk three girls in nothing but bathing suits, and Sammy finds himself no longer an aproned checkout clerk but an armored knight.

Writing Effectively

Writers on Writing

John Updike on Writing n Why Write?

THINKING About Plot

Checklist: writing about plot

Writing Assignment on Plot

More Topics for Writing

Terms for Review

2 Point of View

Identifying Point of View

Types of Narrators

Stream of Consciousness

William Faulkner n A Rose for Emily

Proud, imperious Emily Grierson defied the town from the fortress of her mansion. Who could have guessed the secret that lay within?

**ZZ Packer n Brownies

A brownie troop of African American girls at camp declare war on a rival troop only to discover their humiliating mistake

**Eudora Welty n A Worn Path

When the man said to old Phoenix, “you must be a hundred years old, and scared of nothing,” he might have been exaggerating, but not by much.

James Baldwin n Sonny’s Blues

Two brothers in Harlem see life differently. The older brother is the sensible family man, but Sonny wants to be a jazz musician.

Writing Effectively

James Baldwin on Writing n Race and the African American Writer

THINKING about Point of View

CHECKLIST: Writing about Point of View

Writing Assignment on Point of View

More Topics for Writing

TERMS for Review

3 Character

Types of Characters

Katherine Anne Porter n The Jilting of Granny Weatherall

For sixty years Ellen Weatherall has fought back the memory of that terrible day, but now once more the priest waits in the house.

Nathaniel Hawthorne n Young Goodman Brown

Urged on through deepening woods, a young Puritan sees—or dreams he sees—good villagers hasten toward a diabolic rite

Katherine Mansfield n Miss Brill

Sundays had long brought joy to solitary Miss Brill, until one fateful day when she happened to share a bench with two lovers in the park.

Raymond Carver n Cathedral

He had never expected to find himself trying to describe a cathedral to a blind man. He hadn’t even wanted to meet this odd, old friend of his wife.

Writing Effectively

Raymond Carver on Writing n Commonplace but Precise Language

thinking about character

checklist: Writing about character

Writing Assignment on character

More Topics for Writing

TERMS for Review

4 Setting

Elements of Setting

Historical Fiction

Regionalism

Naturalism

Kate Chopin n The Storm

Even with her husband away, Calixta feels happily, securely married. Why then should she not shelter an old admirer from the rain?

Jack London n To Build a Fire

Seventy-five degrees below zero. Alone except for one mistrustful wolf dog,
a man finds himself battling a relentless force.

**Ray Bradbury n The Sound of Thunder

In 2055, you can go on a Time Safari to hunt dinosaurs 60 million years ago. But put one foot wrong, and suddenly the future’s not what it used to be.

Amy Tan n A Pair of Tickets

A young woman flies with her father to China to meet two half sisters she never knew existed.

Writing Effectively

Amy Tan on Writing n Setting the Voice

THINKING about setting

CHECKLIST: Writing about setting

Writing Assignment on setting

More Topics for Writing

TERMS for Review

5 Tone and Style

Tone

Style

Diction

Ernest Hemingway n A Clean, Well-Lighted Place

All by himself each night, the old man lingers in the bright café. What does he need more than brandy?

William Faulkner n Barn Burning

This time when Ab Snopes wields his blazing torch, his son Sarty faces a dilemma: whether to obey or defy the vengeful old man.

Irony

O. Henry n The Gift of the Magi

A young husband and wife find ingenious ways to buy each other Christmas presents, in the classic story that defines the word “irony.”

** Anne Tyler n Teenage Wasteland

With her troubled son, his teachers, and a peculiar tutor all giving her their own versions of what’s going on with him, what’s a mother to do?

Writing Effectively

Ernest Hemingway on Writing n The Direct Style

THINKING about tone and style

CHECKLIST: Writing about tone and style

Writing Assignment on tone and style

More Topics for Writing

TERMS for Review

6 Theme

Plot vs. Theme

Theme as Unifying Device

Finding the Theme

Stephen Crane n The Open Boat

In a lifeboat circled by sharks, tantalized by glimpses of land, a reporter scrutinizes Fate and learns about comradeship.

Alice Munro n How I Met My Husband

When Edie meets the carnival pilot, her life gets more complicated than she expects.

Luke 15:11–32 n The Parable of the Prodigal Son

A father has two sons. One demands his inheritance now and leaves to spend it with ruinous results.

Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. n Harrison Bergeron

Are you handsome? Off with your eyebrows! Are you brainy? Let a transmitter sound thought-shattering beeps inside your ear.

Writing Effectively

Kurt Vonnegut Jr. on Writing n The Themes of Science Fiction

THINKING about theme

CHECKLIST: Writing about theme

Writing Assignment on theme

More Topics for Writing

TERMS for Review

7 Symbol

Allegory

Symbols

Recognizing Symbols

John Steinbeck n The Chrysanthemums

Fenced-in Elisa feels emotionally starved—then her life promises to blossom with the arrival of the scissors-grinding man.

John Cheever n The Swimmer

A man decides to swim home through his neighbors’ pools, but the water turns out to be much deeper than he realized.

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

Omelas is the perfect city. All of its inhabitants are happy. But everyone’s prosperity depends on a hidden evil.

Shirley Jackson n The Lottery

Splintered and faded, the sinister black box had worked its annual terror for longer than anyone in town could remember.

writing effectively

Shirley Jackson on Writing n Biography of a Story

THINKING about symbols

CHECKLIST: Writing about symbols

Writing Assignment on Symbols

Sample Student Paper n an analysis of the symbolism in steinbeck’s “the chrysanthemums”

More Topics for Writing

TERMS for Review

8 Reading Long Stories and Novels

Origins of the Novel

Novelistic Methods

Reading Novels

Leo Tolstoy n The Death of Ivan Ilych

The supreme Russian novelist tells how a petty, ambitious judge, near the end of his wasted life, discovers a harrowing truth.

Franz Kafka n The Metamorphosis

“When Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from troubled dreams, he
found himself transformed in his bed into a monstrous insect.” Kafka’s famous opening sentence introduces one of the most chilling stories in
world literature.

Writing Effectively

Franz Kafka on Writing n Discussing The Metamorphosis

THINKING about long stories and novels

CHECKLIST: Writing about long stories and novels

Writing Assignment for a research paper

Sample Student Paper n Kafka’s greatness

More Topics for Writing

TERMS for Review

9 Latin American Fiction

“El Boom”

Magic Realism

After the Boom

Jorge Luis Borges n The Gospel According to Mark

A young man from Buenos Aires is trapped by a flood on an isolated ranch. To pass the time he reads the Gospel to a family with unforeseen results.

Gabriel García Márquez n A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings

What do you do when a worn-out angel crashes in your yard? Sell tickets or call the priest?

**Isabel Allende n The Judge’s Wife

Revenge can take many different forms, but few are as strange as the revenge taken in this passionate tale.

Inés Arredondo n The Shunammite

When Luisa went to visit her dying uncle, she had no idea that her life was about to change forever.

Writing Effectively

Gabriel García Márquez on Writing n My beginnings as a writer

Topics for Writing About “The gospel according to mark”

Topics for Writing About “The Judge’s Wife”

Topics for Writing About “a very old man with enormous wings”

Topics for Writing About “The shunammite”

TERMS for Review

10 Two Critical Casebooks: Edgar Allan Poe and Flannery O’Connor

EDGAR ALLAN POE

The Tell-Tale Heart

The smoldering eye at last extinguished, a murderer finds that, despite all his attempts at a cover-up, his victim will be heard.

** The Cask of Amontillado

His family motto is No one attacks me with impunity, and he takes it very seriously. A tale of twisted vengeance from the master of the macabre.

** The Fall of the House of Usher

A letter from a boyhood friend turns out to be an invitation to a world of horror and doom.

Edgar Allan Poe on Writing

**The Tale and Its Effect

**On Imagination

**The Philosophy of Composition

Critics on Edgar Allan Poe

**Daniel Hoffman n The Father-Figure in “The Tell-Tale Heart”

**Robert Louis Stevenson n Costume in “The Cask of Amontillado”

**Elena V. Baraban n The Motive for Murder in “The Cask of Amontillado”

**Charles Baudelaire n Poe’s Characters

**James Tuttleton n Poe’s Protagonists and the Ideal World

**Carl Moweryn Madness in Poe’s “The Fall of the House of Usher”

FLANNERY O’CONNOR

A Good Man Is Hard to Find

Wanted: The Misfit, a cold-blooded killer. An ordinary family vacation leads to horror—and one moment of redeeming grace.

Revelation

Mrs. Turpin thinks herself Jesus’ favorite child, until she meets a troubled college girl. Soon violence flares in a doctor’s waiting room.

Parker’s Back

A tormented man tries to find his way to God and to his wife—by having himself tattooed.

Flannery O’Connor on Writing

From “On Her Own Work”

On Her Catholic Faith

From “The Grotesque in Southern Fiction”

Yearbook Cartoons

Critics on Flannery O’Connor

J. O. Tate n A Good Source Is Not So Hard to Find: The Real Life Misfit

Mary Jane Schenck n Deconstructing “A Good Man Is Hard to Find”

Louise S. Cowann The Character of Mrs. Turpin in “Revelation”

Kathleen Feeley n The Mystery of Divine Direction: “Parker’s Back”

**Dean Flower n Listening to Flannery O’connor

Writing Effectively

Topics for Writing on EDGAR ALLAN POE

Topics for Writing on FLANNERY O’CONNOR

11 Critical Casebook: Two Stories in Depth

Charlotte Perkins Gilman

The Yellow Wallpaper

A doctor prescribes a “rest cure” for his wife after the birth of their child. The new mother tries to settle in to life in the isolated and mysterious country house they have rented for the summer. The cure proves worse than the disease in this Gothic classic.

Charlotte Perkins Gilman on Writing

Why I Wrote “The Yellow Wallpaper”

Whatever Is

The Nervous Breakdown of Women

Critics on “The Yellow Wallpaper”

Juliann Fleenor n Gender and Pathology in “The Yellow Wallpaper”

Sandra M. Gilbert and Susan Gubar n Imprisonment and Escape: The Psychology of Confinement

Elizabeth Ammons n Biographical Echoes in “The Yellow Wallpaper”

Alice Walker

Everyday Use

When successful Dee visits from the city, she has changed her name to reflect her African roots. Her mother and sister notice other things have changed, too.

Alice Walker on Writing

The Black Woman Writer in America

Reflections on Writing and Women’s Lives

Critics on “Everyday Use”

Barbara T. Christian n “Everyday Use” and the Black Power Movement

**Mary Helen Washington n “Everyday Use” as a Portrait of the Artist

Houston A. Baker and Charlotte Pierce-Baker n Stylish vs. Sacred in “Everyday Use”

Elaine Showalter n Quilt as Metaphor in “Everyday Use”

Writing Effectively

Topics for Writing About “Young goodman brown”

Topics for Writing About “The Yellow Wallpaper”

Topics for Writing About “Everyday Use”

12 Stories for Further Reading

Chinua Achebe n Dead Men’s Path

The new headmaster of the village school was determined to fight superstition, but the villagers did not agree.

Sherman Alexie n This Is What It Means to Say Phoenix, Arizona

The only one who can help Victor when his father dies is a childhood friend he’s been avoiding for years.

Margaret Atwood n Happy Endings

John and Mary meet. What happens next? This witty experimental story offers five different outcomes.

Toni Cade Bambara n The Lesson (See Chapter 47)

Miss Moore takes her boisterous class to an exclusive toy store for a lesson

in real world economics.

Ambrose Bierce n An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge

At last, Peyton Farquhar’s neck is in the noose. Reality mingles with dream in this classic story of the American Civil War.

T. Coraghessan Boyle n Greasy Lake 4

Murky and strewn with beer cans, the lake appears a wasteland. On its shore three “dangerous characters” learn a lesson one grim night.

Willa Cather n Paul’s Case

Paul’s teachers can’t understand the boy. Then one day, with stolen cash, he boards a train for New York and the life of his dreams.

Kate Chopin n The Story of an Hour

“There was something coming to her and she was waiting for it, fearfully. What was it? She did not know; it was too subtle and elusive to name.”

Sandra Cisneros n The House on Mango Street

Does where we live tell what we are? A little girl dreams of a new house, but things don’t always turn out the way we want them to.

Ralph Ellison n Battle Royal

A young black man is invited to deliver his high school graduation speech
to a gathering of a Southern town’s leading white citizens. What promises
to be an honor turns into a nightmare of violence, humiliation, and painful self-discovery.

Zora Neale Hurston n Sweat

Delia’s hard work paid for her small house. Now her drunken husband Sykes has promised it to another woman.

James Joyce n Araby

If only he can find her a token, she might love him in return. As night falls,
a Dublin boy hurries to make his dream come true.

Jamaica Kincaid n Girl

“Try to walk like a lady, and not like the slut you are so bent on becoming.” An old-fashioned mother tells her daughter how to live.

Jhumpa Lahiri n Interpreter of Maladies

Mr. Kapasi’s life had settled into a quiet pattern—and then Mrs. Das and her family came into it.

D. H. Lawrence n The Rocking-Horse Winner

Wild-eyed “as if something were going to explode in him,” the boy predicts each winning horse, and gamblers rush to bet a thousand pounds.

**David Leavitt n A Place I’ve Never Been

Nathan could never love Celia the way she wanted him to. Now, after his HIV diagnosis, he must spend the rest of his life in a place she’s never been.

Naguib Mahfouz n The Lawsuit

He thought he'd seen the last of his late father's second wife, but now she's back to trouble his peaceful existence.

Bobbie Ann Mason n Shiloh

After the accident Leroy could no longer work as a truck driver. He hoped to make a new life with his wife, but she seemed strangely different.

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

Alone in the house, Connie finds herself helpless before the advances of a spellbinding imitation teenager, Arnold Friend.

Tim O’Brien n The Things They Carried

What each soldier carried into the combat zone was largely determined by necessity, but each man’s necessities differed.

** Daniel Orozco n Orientation

Imagine an episode of The Office cowritten by Franz Kafka and Stephen King. No one needs a job this badly.

Tobias Wolff n The Rich Brother

Blood may be thicker than water, but sometimes the tension between brothers is thicker than blood.

Virginia Woolf n A Haunted House

Whatever hour you woke a door was shutting. From room to room the ghostly couple walked, hand in hand.

Poetry

A Conversation with Kay Ray

13 Reading a Poem

Poetry or Verse

Reading a Poem

Paraphrase

William Butler Yeats n The Lake Isle of Innisfree

Lyric Poetry

Robert Hayden n Those Winter Sundays

Adrienne Rich n Aunt Jennifer’s Tigers

Narrative Poetry

Anonymous n Sir Patrick Spence

Robert Frost n “Out, Out—”

Dramatic Poetry

Robert Browning n My Last Duchess

Didactic Poetry

Writing Effectively

Adrienne Rich on Writing n Recalling “Aunt Jennifer’s Tigers”

thinking about Paraphrase

William Stafford n Ask Me

William Stafford n A Paraphrase of “Ask Me”

Checklist: Writing a Paraphrase

Writing Assignment on Paraphrasing

More Topics for Writing

TERMS FOR REVIEW

14 Listening to a Voice

Tone

Theodore Roethke n My Papa’s Waltz

Countee Cullen n For a Lady I Know

Anne Bradstreet n The Author to Her Book

Walt Whitman n To a Locomotive in Winter

Emily Dickinson n I like to see it lap the Miles

**Benjamin Alire Saenz, To the Desert

**Gwendolyn Brooks n Speech to the Young. Speech to the Progress-Toward

Weldon Kees n For My Daughter

The Person in the Poem

Natasha Trethewey n White Lies

Edwin Arlington Robinson n Luke Havergal

Ted Hughes n Hawk Roosting

**Anonymous n Dog Haiku

William Wordsworth n I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud

Dorothy Wordsworth n Journal Entry

James Stephens n A Glass of Beer

Anne Sexton n Her Kind

William Carlos Williams n The Red Wheelbarrow

Irony

Robert Creeley n Oh No

W. H. Auden n The Unknown Citizen

Sharon Olds n Rites of Passage

**Julie Sheehan, Hate Poem

Sarah N. Cleghorn n The Golf Links

Edna St. Vincent Millay n Second Fig

Thomas Hardy n The Workbox

For Review and Further Study

William Blake n The Chimney Sweeper

**William Jay Smith, American Primitive

**David Lehman n Rejection Slip

William Stafford n At the Un-National Monument Along the Canadian Border

Richard Lovelace n To Lucasta

Wilfred Owen n Dulce et Decorum Est

Writing Effectively

Wilfred Owen on Writing n War Poetry

thinking About TONE

Checklist: writing about Tone

Writing Assignment on Tone

Sample Student Paper n Word Choice, Tone, and Point of View in Roethke’s “My Papa’s Waltz”

More Topics for Writing

TERMS FOR REVIEW

15 Words

Literal Meaning: What a Poem Says First

William Carlos Williams n This Is Just to Say

Diction

Marianne Moore n Silence

Robert Graves n Down, Wanton, Down!

John Donne n Batter my heart, three-personed God, for You

The Value of a Dictionary

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow n Aftermath

** Kay Ryan n Mockingbird

J. V. Cunningham n Friend, on this scaffold Thomas More lies dead

** Samuel Menashe n Bread

Carl Sandburg n Grass

Word Choice and Word Order

Robert Herrick n Upon Julia’s Clothes

Kay Ryan n Blandeur

Thomas Hardy n The Ruined Maid

Richard Eberhart n The Fury of Aerial Bombardment

Wendy Cope n Lonely Hearts

For Review and Further Study

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

Billy Collins n The Names

** Christian Wiman n When the Time’s Toxin

Anonymous n Carnation Milk

Gina Valdés n English con Salsa

Lewis Carroll n Jabberwocky

Writing Effectively

Lewis Carroll n Humpty Dumpty Explicates “Jabberwocky”

thinking About Diction

Checklist: writing About diction

Writing Assignment on Word Choice

More Topics for Writing

TERMS FOR REVIEW

16 Saying and Suggesting

Denotation and Connotation

John Masefield n Cargoes

William Blake n London

Wallace Stevens n Disillusionment of Ten O’Clock

** Gwendolyn Brooks n The Bean Eaters

Timothy Steele n Epitaph

E. E. Cummings n next to of course god america i

Robert Frost n Fire and Ice

Diane Thiel n The Minefield

** H.D. n Storm

Alfred, Lord Tennyson n Tears, Idle Tears

Richard Wilbur n Love Calls Us to the Things of This World

Writing Effectively

Richard Wilbur on Writing n Concerning “Love Calls Us to the Things of This World”

thinking About Denotation and Connotation

Checklist: writing about What a Poem SAYS AND Suggests

Writing Assignment on Denotation and Connotation

More Topics for Writing

TERMS FOR REVIEW

17 Imagery

Ezra Pound n In a Station of the Metro

Taniguchi Buson n The piercing chill I feel

Imagery

T. S. Eliot n The winter evening settles down

Theodore Roethke n Root Cellar

Elizabeth Bishop n The Fish

Charles Simic n Fork

Emily Dickinson n A Route of Evanescence

Jean Toomer n Reapers

Gerard Manley Hopkins n Pied Beauty

About Haiku

Arakida Moritake n The falling flower

Matsuo Basho n Heat-lightning streak

Matsuo Basho n In the old stone pool

Taniguchi Buson n On the one-ton temple bell

Taniguchi Buson n Moonrise on mudflats

Kobayashi Issa n only one guy

Kobayashi Issa n Cricket

Haiku from Japanese Internment Camps

**Suiko Matsushita n Rain shower from mountain

Suiko Matsushita n Cosmos in bloom

Hakuro Wada n Even the croaking of frogs

**Neiji Ozawa n The war—this year

Contemporary Haiku

Etheridge Knightn Making jazz swing in

**Gary Snyder n After weeks of watching the roof leak

Penny Harter n broken bowl

Jennifer Brutschy n Born Again

**Adelle Foley n Learning to Shave

Garry Gay n Hole in the ozone

For Review and Further Study

John Keats n Bright star! would I were steadfast as thou art

Walt Whitman n The Runner

**H.D. n Oread

William Carlos Williams n El Hombre

Robert Bly n Driving to Town Late to Mail a Letter

Billy Collins n Embrace

**Chana Bloch n Tired Sex

**Gary Snyder n Mid-August at Sourdough Mountain

Kevin Prufer n Pause, Pause

Stevie Smith n Not Waving but Drowning

Writing Effectively

Ezra Pound on Writing n The Image

thinking About Imagery

Checklist: Writing about imagery

Writing Assignment on Imagery

Sample Student Paper n FADED BEAUTY: Elizabeth Bishop’s Use of Imagery in “The Fish”

More Topics for Writing

TERMS FOR REVIEW

18 Figures of Speech

Why Speak Figuratively?

Alfred, Lord Tennyson n The Eagle

William Shakespeare n Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?

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

Metaphor and Simile

Emily Dickinson n My Life had stood – a Loaded Gun

Alfred, Lord Tennyson n Flower in the Crannied Wall

William Blake n To see a world in a grain of sand

Sylvia Plath n Metaphors

N. Scott Momaday n Simile

Emily Dickinson n It dropped so low – in my Regard

Jill Alexander Essbaum n The Heart

Craig Raine n A Martian Sends a Postcard Home

Other Figures of Speech

James Stephens n The Wind

Robinson Jeffers n Hands

Margaret Atwood n You fit into me

George Herbert n The Pulley

Dana Gioia n Money

Carl Sandburg n Fog

Charles Simic n My Shoes

For Review and Further Study

Robert Frost n The Silken Tent

Jane Kenyon n The Suitor

Robert Frost n The Secret Sits

A. R. Ammons n Coward

Kay Ryan n Turtle

**Emily Brontë n Love and Friendship

**April Lindner n Low Tide

Robert Burns n Oh, my love is like a red, red rose

Writing Effectively

Robert Frost on Writing n The Importance of Poetic Metaphor

thinking About Metaphors

Checklist: writing about metaphors

Writing Assignment on Figures of Speech

More Topics for Writing

TERMS FOR REVIEW

19 Song

Singing and Saying

Ben Jonson n To Celia

James Weldon Johnson n Sence You Went Away

** William Shakespeare n Fear no more the heat o’ the sun

Edwin Arlington Robinson n Richard Cory

Paul Simon n Richard Cory

Ballads

Anonymous n Bonny Barbara Allan

Dudley Randall n Ballad of Birmingham

Blues

Bessie Smith with Clarence Williams n Jailhouse Blues

W. H. Auden n Funeral Blues

Kevin Young n Late Blues

Rap

For Review and Further Study

Bob Dylan n The Times They Are a-Changin’

Aimee Mann n Deathly

Writing Effectively

**Bob Dylan on Writing n Excerpt from Dylan’s Chronicles

thinking About POETRY and Song

Checklist: writing about song lyrics

Writing Assignment on Song Lyrics

More Topics for Writing

TERMS FOR REVIEW

20 Sound

Sound as Meaning

Alexander Pope n True Ease in Writing comes from Art, not Chance

William Butler Yeats n Who Goes with Fergus?

John Updike n Recital

William Wordsworth n A Slumber Did My Spirit Seal

Aphra Behn n When maidens are young

Alliteration and Assonance

A. E. Housman n Eight O’Clock

James Joyce n All day I hear

Alfred, Lord Tennyson n The splendor falls on castle walls

Rime

William Cole n On my boat on Lake Cayuga

Hilaire Belloc n The Hippopotamus

**Bob Kaufman n No More Jazz at Alcatraz

William Butler Yeats n Leda and the Swan

Gerard Manley Hopkins n God’s Grandeur

Robert Frost n Desert Places

Reading and Hearing Poems Aloud

Michael Stillman n In Memoriam John Coltrane

**William Shakespeare n Hark, hark, the lark

Kevin Young n Doo Wop

T. S. Eliot n Virginia

Writing Effectively

T. S. Eliot on Writing n The Music of Poetry

thinking About a poem’s Sound

Checklist: Writing about a Poem’s sound

Writing Assignment on Sound

More Topics for Writing

TERMS FOR REVIEW

21 Rhythm

Stresses and Pauses

Gwendolyn Brooks n We Real Cool

Alfred, Lord Tennyson n Break, Break, Break

Ben Jonson n Slow, slow, fresh fount, keep time with my salt tears

Dorothy Parker n Résumé

Meter

Edna St. Vincent Millay n Counting-out Rhyme

**Edith Sitwell n Mariner Man

A. E. Housman n When I was one-and-twenty

William Carlos Williams n Smell!

Walt Whitman n Beat! Beat! Drums!

David Mason n Song of the Powers

Langston Hughes n Dream Boogie

Writing Effectively

Gwendolyn Brooks on Writing n Hearing “We Real Cool”

thinking About Rhythm

Checklist: scanning a poem

Writing Assignment on Rhythm

More Topics for Writing

TERMS FOR REVIEW

22 Closed Form

Formal Patterns

John Keats n This living hand, now warm and capable

Robert Graves n Counting the Beats

John Donne n Song (“Go and catch a falling star”)

Phillis Levin n Brief Bio

The Sonnet

William Shakespeare n Let me not to the marriage of true minds

Michael Drayton n Since there’s no help, come let us kiss and part

Edna St. Vincent Millay n What lips my lips have kissed, and where, and why

Robert Frost n Acquainted with the Night

Kim Addonizio n First Poem for You

Mark Jarman n Unholy Sonnet: After the Praying

A. E. Stallings n Sine Qua Non

**Amit Majmudar n Rites to Allay the Dead

R. S. Gwynn n Shakespearean Sonnet

The Epigram

Alexander Pope n Epigram Engraved on the Collar of a Dog

Sir John Harrington n Of Treason

**William Blake n To H—

Langston Hughes n Two Somewhat Different Epigrams

**Dorothy Parker n The Actress

J. V. Cunningham n This Humanist

John Frederick Nims n Contemplation

Anonymous n Epitaph of a dentist

Hilaire Belloc n Fatigue

Wendy Cope n Variation on Belloc’s “Fatigue”

**Poetweets

**Lawrence Bridges n Two Poetweets

**Robert Pinsky n Low Pay Piecework

Other Forms

Dylan Thomas n Do not go gentle into that good night

Robert Bridges n Triolet

Elizabeth Bishop n Sestina

Writing Effectively

A. E. Stallings on Writing n On Form and Artifice

thinking About a sonnet

Checklist: Writing about a sonnet

Writing Assignment on a Sonnet

More Topics for Writing

TERMS FOR REVIEW

23 Open Form

Denise Levertov n Ancient Stairway

Free Verse

E. E. Cummings n Buffalo Bill ’s

W. S. Merwin n For the Anniversary of My Death

William Carlos Williams n The Dance

**Stephen Crane n The Wayfarer

Walt Whitman n Cavalry Crossing a Ford

**Ezra Pound n The Garden

Wallace Stevens n Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird

Prose Poetry

Charles Simic n The Magic Study of Happiness

** Joy Harjo, Mourning Song

Visual Poetry

George Herbert n Easter Wings

John Hollander n Swan and Shadow

Concrete Poetry

Richard Kostelanetz, Ramón Gómez de la Serna n Simultaneous Translations

Dorthi Charles n Concrete Cat

For Review and Further Study

E. E. Cummings n in Just-

**Francisco X. Alarcón n Frontera / Border

Carole Satyamurti n I Shall Paint My Nails Red

**David St. John n Hush

Alice Fulton n What I Like

Writing Effectively

Walt Whitman on Writing n The Poetry of the Future

thinking About Free Verse

Checklist: Writing about Line Breaks

Writing Assignment on Open Form

More Topics for Writing

TERMS FOR REVIEW

24 Symbol

The Meanings of a Symbol

T. S. Eliot n The Boston Evening Transcript

Emily Dickinson n The Lightning is a yellow Fork

The Symbolist Movement

Identifying Symbols

Thomas Hardy n Neutral Tones

Allegory

Matthew :– n The Parable of the Good Seed

**George Herbert n Redemption

**Suji Kwock Kim n Occupation

Robert Frost n The Road Not Taken

**Antonio Machado n The Traveler

Christina Rossetti n Uphill

For Review and Further Study

**William Carlos Williams n The Young Housewife

Ted Kooser n Carrie

Mary Oliver n Wild Geese

**Tami Haaland n Lipstick

Lorine Niedecker n Popcorn-can cover

Wallace Stevens n The Snow Man

Wallace Stevens n Anecdote of the Jar

Writing Effectively

William Butler Yeats on Writing n Poetic Symbols

thinking About Symbols

Checklist: writing about symbols

Writing Assignment on Symbolism

More Topics for Writing

TERMS FOR REVIEW

25 Myth and Narrative

Origins of Myth

Robert Frost n Nothing Gold Can Stay

William Wordsworth n The world is too much with us

H. D. n Helen

** Edgar Allan Poe n To Helen

Archetype

Louise Bogan n Medusa

John Keats n La Belle Dame sans Merci

Personal Myth

William Butler Yeats n The Second Coming

Gregory Orr n Two Lines from the Brothers Grimm

Myth and Popular Culture

Charles Martin n Taken Up

A. E. Stallings n First Love: A Quiz

Anne Sexton n Cinderella

Writing Effectively

Anne Sexton on Writing n Transforming Fairy Tales

THINKING ABOUT MYTH

Checklist: WRITINg About Myth

Writing Assignment on Myth

Sample Student Paper n The Bonds Between Love and Hatred in H. D.’s “Helen”

More Topics for Writing

TERMS FOR REVIEW

26 Poetry and Personal Identity

Confessional Poetry

Sylvia Plath n Lady Lazarus

Identity Poetics

Rhina Espaillat n Bilingual/Bilingüe

Culture, Race, and Ethnicity

Claude McKay n America

**Shirley Geok-lin Lim n Riding Into California

Francisco X. Alarcón n The X in My Name

Judith Ortiz Cofer n Quiñceañera

Sherman Alexie n The Powwow at the End of the World

Yusef Komunyakaa n Facing It

Gender

Anne Stevenson n Sous-Entendu

**Carolyn Kizer n Bitch

**Rafael Campo n For J. W.

Donald Justice n Men at Forty

Adrienne Rich n Women

For Review and Further Study

**Katha Pollitt n Mind-Body Problem

**Andrew Hudgins n Elegy for My Father, Who Is Not Dead

**Brian Turner n The Hurt Locker

Philip Larkin n Aubade

Writing Effectively

Rhina Espaillat on Writing n Being a Bilingual Writer

THINKING About Poetic Voice and Identity

ChecklisT: WRITING ABOUT VOICE AND Personal IDENTITY

Writing Assignment on Personal Identity

More Topics for Writing

27 Translation

Is Poetic Translation Possible?

World Poetry

Li Po n Yue Xia Du Zhuo (Chinese text)

Li Po n Moon-Beneath Alone Drink (l iteral translation)

Translated by Arthur Waley n Drinking Alone by Moonlight

Comparing Translations

Horace n “Carpe Diem” Ode (Latin text)

Horace n “Carpe Diem” Ode (literal translation)

Translated by Edwin Arlington Robinson n Horace to Leuconoe

Translated by A. E. Stallings n A New Year’s Toast

Translating Form

Omar Khayyam n Rubai XII (Persian text)

Omar Khayyam n Rubai XII (literal translation)

Translated by Edward FitzGerald n A Book of Verses underneath the Bough

Translated by Dick Davis n I Need a Bare Sufficiency

Omar Khayyam n Rubaiyat

Translated by Edward FitzGerald n Come, fill the Cup, and in the fire of Spring

Translated by Edward FitzGerald n Some for the Glories of this World

Translated by Edward FitzGerald n The Moving Finger writes

Translated by Edward FitzGerald n Ah Love! could you and I with Him conspire

Parody

Anonymous n We four lads from Liverpool are

Hugh Kingsmill n What, still alive at twenty-two?

** Andrea Paterson n Because I Could Not Dump

** Harryette Mullen n Dim Lady

Gene Fehler n If Richard Lovelace Became a Free Agent

Aaron Abeyta n thirteen ways of looking at a tortilla

Writing Effectively

Arthur Waley on Writing n The Method of Translation

THINKING ABOUT Parody

Checklist: WRITING A PARODY

Writing Assignment on Parody

More Topics for Writing

28 Poetry in Spanish: Literature of Latin America

Sor Juana n Presente en que el Cariño Hace Regalo la Llaneza

Translated by Diane Thiel n A Simple Gift Made Rich by Affection

Pablo Neruda n Muchos Somos

Translated by Alastair Reid n We Are Many

**Jorge Luis Borges n On his blindness

Translated by Robert Mezey n On His Blindness

Octavio Paz n Con los ojos cerrados

Translated by Eliot Weinberger n With eyes closed

Surrealism in Latin American Poetry

Frida Kahlo n The Two Fridas

César Vallejo n La cólera que quiebra al hombre en niños

Translated by Thomas Merton n Anger

Contemporary Mexican Poetry

José Emilio Pacheco n Alta Traición

Translated by Alastair Reid n High Treason

Tedi López Mills n Convalecencia

Translated by Cheryl Clark n Convalescence

**Pedro Serrano n Golondrinas

Translated by Anna Crowe n Swallows

Alastair Reid on Writing n Translating Neruda

Writing Assignment on Spanish Poetry

More Topics for Writing

29 Recognizing Excellence

Anonymous n O Moon, when I gaze on thy beautiful face

Emily Dickinson n A Dying Tiger – moaned for Drink

Sentimentality

Rod McKuen n Thoughts on Capital Punishment

William Stafford n Traveling Through the Dark

Recognizing Excellence

William Butler Yeats n Sailing to Byzantium

Arthur Guiterman n On the Vanity of Earthly Greatness

Percy Bysshe Shelley n Ozymandias

**Robert Hayden n Frederick Douglass

Elizabeth Bishop n One Art

**John Keats n Ode to a Nightingale

Walt Whitman n O Captain! My Captain!

Dylan Thomas n In My Craft or Sullen Art

Paul Laurence Dunbar n We Wear the Mask

Emma Lazarus n The New Colossus

Edgar Allan Poe n Annabel Lee

Writing Effectively

Edgar Allan Poe on Writing n A Long Poem Does Not Exist

THINKING ABOUT Evaluating a Poem

Checklist: WRITING AN EVALUATION

Writing Assignment on Evaluating a Poem

More Topics for Writing

TERMS FOR REVIEW

30 What Is Poetry?

Archibald MacLeish n Ars Poetica

Dante, Samuel Johnson, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, William Wordsworth, Thomas Hardy, Emily Dickinson, Gerard Manley Hopkins, Robert Frost, Wallace Stevens, Mina Loy, T. S. Eliot, W. H. Auden, José Garcia Villa, Christopher Fry, Elizabeth Bishop, Joy Harjo, Octavio Paz, Denise Levertov, Lucille Clifton, Charles Simic n Some Definitions of Poetry –

31 Two Critical Casebooks:
Emily Dickinson and Langston Hughes

Emily Dickinson

Success is counted sweetest

**I Taste a Liquor Never Brewed

Wild Nights – Wild Nights!

I Felt a Funeral, in my Brain

I’m Nobody! Who are you?

The Soul selects her own Society

Some keep the Sabbath going to Church

After great pain, a formal feeling comes

Much Madness is divinest Sense

This is my letter to the World

I heard a Fly buzz – when I died

Because I could not stop for Death

Tell all the Truth but tell it slant

**There is no Frigate like a Book

Emily Dickinson on Emily Dickinson

Recognizing Poetry

Self-Description

Critics on Emily Dickinson

Thomas Wentworth Higginson n Meeting Emily Dickinson

Thomas H. Johnson n The Discovery of Emily Dickinson’s Manuscripts

Richard Wilbur n The Three Privations of Emily Dickinson

Cynthia Griffin Wolff n Dickinson and Death (A Reading of “Because I could not stop for Death”)

Judith Farr n A Reading of “My Life had stood – a Loaded Gun”

Sandra M. Gilbert and Susan Gubar n The Freedom of Emily Dickinson

Langston Hughes

The Negro Speaks of Rivers

My People

Mother to Son

Dream Variations

I, Too

The Weary Blues

Song for a Dark Girl

Prayer

Ballad of the Landlord

Theme for English B

**Nightmare Boogie

Harlem [Dream Deferred]

Homecoming

Langston Hughes on Langston Hughes

The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain

The Harlem Renaissance

Critics on Langston Hughes

Arnold Rampersad n Hughes as an Experimentalist

Rita Dove and Marilyn Nelson n Langston Hughes and Harlem

Darryl Pinckney n Black Identity in Langston Hughes

Peter Townsend n Langston Hughes and Jazz

Onwuchekwa Jemie n A Reading of “Dream Deferred”

Topics for Writing About Emily Dickinson

Topics for Writing About Langston hughes

32 Critical Casebook: T. S. Eliot’s “The Love Song
of J. Alfred Prufrock”

T. S. Eliot

The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock

Publishing “Prufrock”

The Reviewers on Prufrock

Unsigned n Review from Times Literary Supplement

Unsigned n Review from Literary World

Conrad Aiken n From “Divers Realists,” The Dial

Babette Deutsch n from “Another Impressionist,” The New Republic

Marianne Moore n From “A Note on T. S. Eliot’s Book,” Poetry

May Sinclair n From “Prufrock and Other Observations: A Criticism,” The Little Review

T. S. Eliot on Writing

Poetry and Emotion

The Objective Correlative

The Difficulty of Poetry

Critics on “Prufrock”

Denis Donoghue n One of the Irrefutable Poets

Christopher Ricks n What’s in a Name?

Philip R. Headings n The Pronouns in the Poem: “One,” “You,” and “I”

Maud Ellmann n Will There Be Time?

Burton Raffel n “Indeterminacy” in Eliot’s Poetry

John Berryman n Prufrock’s Dilemma

M. L. Rosenthal n Adolescents Singing

Topics for Writing

33 Poems for Further Reading

Anonymous n Lord Randall

Anonymous n The Three Ravens

Anonymous n Last Words of the Prophet

Matthew Arnold n Dover Beach

John Ashbery n At North Farm

Margaret Atwood n Siren Song

W. H. Auden n As I Walked Out One Evening

W. H. Auden n Musée des Beaux Arts

Jimmy Baca n Spliced Wire

Elizabeth Bishop n Filling Station

William Blake n The Tyger

William Blake n The Sick Rose

Gwendolyn Brooks n The Mother

Gwendolyn Brooks n The Rites for Cousin Vit

Elizabeth Barrett Browning n How Do I Love Thee? Let Me Count the Ways

Robert Browning n Soliloquy of the Spanish Cloister

Charles Bukowski n Dostoevsky

**Lorna Dee Cervantes n Cannery Town in August

Geoffrey Chaucer n Merciless Beauty

John Ciardi n Most Like an Arch This Marriage

Samuel Taylor Coleridge n Kubla Khan

Billy Collins n Care and Feeding

Hart Crane n My Grandmother’s Love Letters

E. E. Cummings n somewhere i have never travelled,gladly beyond

Marisa de los Santos n Perfect Dress

John Donne n Death be not proud

John Donne n The Flea

John Donne n A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning

Rita Dove n Daystar

T. S. Eliot n Journey of the Magi

Robert Frost n Birches

Robert Frost n Mending Wall

Robert Frost n Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening

Allen Ginsberg n A Supermarket in California

Thomas Hardy n The Convergence of the Twain

Thomas Hardy n The Darkling Thrush

Thomas Hardy n Hap

Seamus Heaney n Digging

Anthony Hecht n The Vow

George Herbert n Love

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

Tony Hoagland n Beauty

Gerard Manley Hopkins n Spring and Fall

Gerard Manley Hopkins n The Windhover

A. E. Housman n Loveliest of trees, the cherry now

A. E. Housman n To an Athlete Dying Young

Randall Jarrell n The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner

**Robinson Jeffers n Rock and Hawk

Ha Jin n Missed Time

Ben Jonson n On My First Son

Donald Justice n On the Death of Friends in Childhood

John Keats n Ode on a Grecian Urn

John Keats n When I have fears that I may cease to be

John Keats n To Autumn

Ted Kooser n Abandoned Farmhouse

Philip Larkin n Home is so Sad

Philip Larkin n Poetry of Departures

D. H. Lawrence n Piano

**Denise Levertov n O Taste and See

Shirley Geok-lin Lim n Learning to Love America

Robert Lowell n Skunk Hour

Andrew Marvell n To His Coy Mistress

Edna St. Vincent Millay n Recuerdo

John Milton n When I consider how my light is spent

Marianne Moore n Poetry

Marilyn Nelson n A Strange Beautiful Woman

Howard Nemerov n The War in the Air

Lorine Niedecker n Sorrow Moves in Wide Waves

Sharon Olds n The One Girl at the Boys’ Party

Wilfred Owen n Anthem for Doomed Youth

Sylvia Plath n Daddy

Edgar Allan Poe n A Dream within a Dream

Alexander Pope n A little Learning is a dang’rous Thing

Ezra Pound n The River-Merchant’s Wife: A Letter

Dudley Randall n A Different Image

John Crowe Ransom n Piazza Piece

Henry Reed n Naming of Parts

Adrienne Rich n Living in Sin

Edwin Arlington Robinson n Miniver Cheevy

Theodore Roethke n Elegy for Jane

William Shakespeare n When, in disgrace with Fortune and men’s eyes

William Shakespeare n That time of year thou mayst in me behold

**William Shakespeare n When to the sessions of sweet silent thought

William Shakespeare n My mistress’ eyes are nothing likethe sun

Charles Simic n The Butcher Shop

Christopher Smart n For I will consider my Cat Jeoffry

Cathy Song n Stamp Collecting

William Stafford n The Farm on the Great Plains

Wallace Stevens n The Emperor of Ice-Cream

Jonathan Swift n A Description of the Morning

Alfred, Lord Tennyson n Ulysses

Dylan Thomas n Fern Hill

John Updike n Ex-Basketball Player

**Derek Walcott n Sea Grapes

**Margaret Walker n For Malcolm X

Edmund Waller n Go, Lovely Rose

Walt Whitman n from Song of the Open Road

Walt Whitman n I Hear America Singing

Richard Wilbur n The Writer

William Carlos Williams n Spring and All

**William Carlos Williams n Queen-Anne’s-Lace

William Wordsworth n Composed upon Westminster Bridge

James Wright n Autumn Begins in Martins Ferry, Ohio

Mary Sidney Wroth n In this strange labyrinth

Sir Thomas Wyatt n They flee from me that sometime did me sekë

William Butler Yeats n Crazy Jane Talks with the Bishop

William Butler Yeats n The Magi

William Butler Yeats n When You Are Old

Drama

A Conversation with David Ives

34 Reading a Play

Theatrical Conventions

Elements of a Play

Susan Glaspell n Trifles

Was Minnie Wright to blame for the death of her husband? While the menfolk try to unravel a mystery, two women in the kitchen turn up revealing clues.

Analyzing Trifles

Writing Effectively

Susan Glaspell on Writing n Creating Trifles

THINKING About a play

CHECKLIST: Writing about a play

Writing Assignment on Conflict

Sample Student Paper n Outside Trifles

More Topics for Writing

TERMS for review

35 Modes of Drama: Tragedy and Comedy

Tragedy

Christopher Marlowe n Scene From Doctor Faustus (Act 2, Scene 1)

In this scene from the classic drama, a brilliant scholar sells his soul to the devil. How smart is that?

Comedy

**David Ives n Sure Thing

Bill wants to pick up Betty in a cafe, but he makes every mistake in the book. Luckily, he not only gets a second chance, but a third and a fourth as well.

Writing Effectively

David Ives on Writing n On the one-act play

thinking about comedy

checklist: Writing about comedy

Writing Assignment on comedy

Topics for Writing About tragedy

Topics for Writing About Comedy

Terms for Review

36 Critical Casebook: Sophocles

The Theater of Sophocles

The Civic Role of Greek Drama

Aristotle’s Concept of Tragedy

Sophocles

The Origins of Oedipus the King

Sophocles n Oedipus the King (Translated by Dudley Fitts and Robert Fitzgerald)

“Who is the man proclaimed / by Delphi’s prophetic rock / as the bloody handed murderer / the doer of deeds that none dare name? / . . . Terrribly close on his heels are the Fates that never miss.”

The Background of Antigonê

Sophocles n Antigoné (Translated by Dudley Fitts and Robert Fitzgerald)

In one of the great plays of classical Greek drama, a daughter of Oedipus strives to give the body of her slain brother a proper burial. Soon she finds herself in conflict with a king.

Critics on Sophocles

Aristotle n Defining Tragedy

Sigmund Freud n The Destiny of Oedipus

E. R. Dodds n On Misunderstanding Oedipus

A. E. Haigh n The Irony of Sophocles

David Wiles n The Chorus as Democrat

Patricia M. Lines n what is Antigon é’s Flaw?

Writing Effectively

Writers on Writing

Robert Fitzgerald n Translating Sophocles into English

THINKING About Greek Tragedy

CHECKLIST: writing about greek drama

Writing Assignment on Sophocles

More Topics for Writing

Terms for Review

37Critical Casebook: Shakespeare

The Theater of Shakespeare

William Shakespeare

A Note on Othello

William Shakespeare n Othello, the Moor of Venice

Here is a story of jealousy, that “green-eyed monster which doth mock / The meat it feeds on”—of a passionate, suspicious man and his blameless wife, of a serpent masked as a friend.

The Background of Hamlet

William Shakespeare n Hamlet, Prince of Denmark

In perhaps the most celebrated play in English, a ghost demands that young Prince Hamlet avenge his father’s “most foul and unnatural murder.” But how can Hamlet be sure that the apparition is indeed his father’s spirit?

The Background of A Midsummer Night’s Dream

William Shakespeare n A Midsummer Night’s Dream

“The course of true love never did run smooth” is the right motto for this romantic comedy in which love, magic, and mistaken identity combine for madcap results.

Critics on Shakespeare

Anthony Burgess n An Asian Culture Looks at Shakespeare 1658

W. H. Auden n Iago as a Triumphant Villain 1664

Maud Bodkin n Lucifer in Shakespeare’s Othello 1665

Virginia Mason Vaughan n Black and White in Othello 1665

A. C. Bradley n Hamlet’s Melancholy 1659

Rebecca West n Hamlet and Ophelia 1660

Jan Kott n Producing Hamlet 1662

**Johann von Goethe n Hamlet as a Hero Unfit for his Destiny

**Edgar Allan Poe n Hamlet as a Fictional Character

Clare Asquith n Shakespeare’s Language as a Hidden Political Code 1666

Germaine Greer n Shakespeare’s “Honest Mirth” 1667

Linda Bamber n Female Power in A Midsummer Night’s Dream 1668

Writing Effectively

Ben Jonson on Writing n On His Friend and Rival William Shakespeare 1669

*Understanding Shakespeare

*Checklist:writing about shakespeare

Writing Assignment on Tragedy 1671

Student Paper n Othello: Tragedy or Soap Opera? 1671

More Topics for Writing

Terms for Review

39 Evaluating a Play 1759

Judging a Play 1677

CHECKLIST: Evaluating a play

Writing Assignment on Evaluation 1761

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Literature An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, Drama, and Writing

Literature An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, Drama, and Writing

0205230385

Summary

Author Biography

Table of Contents

Supplemental Materials