Understanding Poetry
Why Study Literature I. Understanding Poetic Form 1. Introduction: Reading Poetry Marianne Moore, Poetry 2. Poetic Language: Diction, Word Choice, and Tone Seamus Heaney, Digging Gerard Manley Hopkins, The Windhover Janice Mirikitani, Breaking Tradition Randall Jarrell, The Knight, Death, and the Devil John Keats, This Living Hand Seamus Heaney, A Dream of Jealousy Richard Eberhart, The Fury of Aerial Bombardment Poems for Further Reading and Critical Writing William Stafford, Traveling Through the Dark Louise Bogan, Didactic Piece Marianne Moore, The Mind Is an Enchanting Thing 3. Poetic Imagery and Theories of the Modern Image Denise Levertov, O Taste and See Archibald MacLeish, Eleven Theories of the Modern Image Ezra Pound, In a Station of the Metro William Carlos Williams, The Great Figure Gary Snyder, Mid-August at Sourdough Mountain Lookout Poems for Further Reading and Critical Writing Denise Levertov, The Dead Butterfly Mina Loy, Mexican Desert H.D. (Hilda Doolittle), Sea Rose H.D. (Hilda Doolittle), Sea Violet T.S. Eliot, Preludes Critical Perspective: On Imagist Poetics Ezra Pound, from "A Few Don'ts for an Imagist" Critical Perspective: Modern Poetry and Formal Invention William Carlos Williams, from The Wedge 4. Figurative Language Sylvia Plath, Metaphors Anonymous, I Have a Yong Sister William Shakespeare, Sonnet 73 (That time of year thou mayst in me behold) Margaret Atwood, Habitation W.S. Merwin, Separation William Wordsworth, I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud Sharon Olds, Size and Sheer Will William Wordsworth, Composed upon Westminster Bridge, September 3, 1802 Emily Dickinson, Poem 328 (A Bird came down the Walk) Charles Simic, Watch Repair Dylan Thomas, Fern Hill Poems for Further Reading and Critical Writing Ted Hughes, The Thought-Fox Walt Whitman, from Song of Myself (Section 6) Robert Frost, The Silken Tent John Donne, A Valediction Forbidding Mourning Matthew Arnold, Dover Beach 5. Symbolism William Blake, The Lamb Dorothy Parker, One Perfect Rose William Blake, The Sick Rose Mary TallMountain, The Last Wolf Robert Frost, Mending Wall Sylvia Plath, The Moon and the Yew Tree W.S. Merwin, Strawberries Edward Taylor, Upon a Spider Catching a Fly Poems for Further Reading and Critical Writing Walt Whitman, When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd Walt Whitman, I Saw in Louisiana a Live-Oak Growing William Carlos Williams, The Yachts 6. Myth W.H. Auden, Musee des Beaux Arts Anne Sexton, To a Friend Whose Work Has Come to Triumph Louise Erdrich, Jacklight Poems for Further Reading and Critical Writing Louise Gluck, Mythic Fragment T.S. Eliot, Journey of the Magi Leslie Marmon Silko, Prayer to the Pacific Pat Mora, Coatlicue's Rules: Advice from an Aztec Goddess Walt Whitman, from Song of Myself (Section 24) Percy Bysshe Shelley, Ode to the West Wind 7. Emotive Poetics Theodore Roethke, Dolor Robert Bly, Waking from Sleep William Shakespeare, Sonnet 29 (When, in disgrace with fortune and men's eyes) Galway Kinnell, First Song Emily Dickinson, Poem 258 (There's a certain Slant of light) Poems for Further Reading and Critical Writing Emily Dickinson, Poem 512 (The Soul has Bandaged moments) Sylvia Plath, Fever 103 Walt Whitman, from Song of Myself (Section 26) 8. Prosody Sound Emily Dickinson, Poem 465 (I heard a Fly buzz--when I died) W.B. Yeats, The Lake Isle of Innisfree Sylvia Plath, Point Shirley Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Kubla Khan Rhyme Wilfred Owen, Arms and the Boy Meter and Rhythm Theodore Roethke, My Papa's Waltz 9. Poetic Forms Fixed Poetic Forms Blank Verse, Couplets, Tercets, and Quatrains Richard Wilbur, First Snow in Alsace Longer Fixed Stanza Forms The Sonnet John Milton, When I Consider How My Light Is Spent William Shakespeare, Sonnet 55 (Not marble, nor the gilded monuments) Edmund Spenser, Sonnet 75 (One day I wrote her name upon the strand) Gwendolyn Brooks, the rites for Cousin Vit The Villanelle Theodore Roethke, The Waking The Sestina Pattern Poetry, Concrete Poetics, and Vers Libre George Herbert, Easter Wings John Hollander, Swan and Shadow May Swenson, Bleeding Open Poetic Forms W.S. Merwin, The Well Featured Writer: John Keats On First Looking into Chapman's Homer On Seeing the Elgin Marbles Poems for Further Reading and Critical Writing Ode on a Grecian Urn Ode to a Nightingale La Belle Dame sans Merci The Eve of St. Agnes To Autumn Letters of John Keats Excerpt from Letter to Benjamin Bailey, November 22, 1817 Excerpt from Letter to George and Thomas Keats, December 21, 1817 Excerpt from Letter to John Taylor, February 27, 1818 Excerpt from Letter to John Hamilton Reynolds, May 3, 1818 Critical Perspective: On Keats and Critical Judgment Cynthia Chase, from "Viewless Wings: Keats's 'Ode to a Nightingale'" Critical Perspective: On Keats and Symbolism David Perkins, from "The 'Ode to a Nightingale'" Critical Perspective: On Imagination and Reality in the Odes Jack Stillinger, from "Imagination and Reality in the Odes" II. Poetry and History 10. Beyond Formalism: Poetry and New Historicism William Blake, London Anne Bradstreet, The Author to Her Book 11. Critical Perspectives: A Casebook on Poetry and Social Activism Between the Wars Poems for Further Reading and Critical Writing Kenneth Fearing, Dirge Kenneth Fearing, $2.50 Kenneth Fearing, X Minus X Langston Hughes, Goodbye Christ Langston Hughes, Johannesburg Mines Langston Hughes, Elevator Boy Alfred Hayes, In a Coffee Pot Tillie Lerner Olsen, I Want You Women Up North to Know Genevieve Taggard, Mill Town Edwin Rolfe, Credo Edwin Rolfe, Asbestos Edwin Rolfe, Not Men Alone Muriel Rukeyser, The Minotaur Joseph Kalar, Papermill Joseph Kalar, Worker Uprooted Critical Perspective: On Countee Cullen's "Incident" Cary Nelson, from Repression and Recovery Critical Perspective: On Depression Era Culture Rita Barnard, from The Great Depression and the Culture of Abundance 12. Critical Perspectives: A Casebook on Poetry, Trauma, and Testimony: Holocaust Verses Poems for Further Reading and Critical Writing Primo Levi, Shema Nelly Sachs, O the Chimneys Elie Wiesel, Never Shall I Forget Yevgeny Yevtushenko, Babii Yar Dan Pagis, Written in Pencil in the Sealed Railway-Car Paul Celan, Death Fugue Sylvia Plath, Lady Lazarus William Heyen, Kotov Anthony Hecht, The Book of Yolek Tadeusz Rozewicz, Pigtail Charles Reznikoff, from Holocaust Adrienne Rich, from Sources Rachel Blau DuPlessis, Draft 17: Unnamed Critical Perspective: On Holocaust Testimony Geoffrey H. Hartman, from "On Traumatic Knowledge and Literary Studies" Critical Perspective: On Paul Celan's Imagery Shoshana Felman, from Testimony (on Paul Celan's "Death Fugue") Critical Perspective: On Witnessing to the Holocaust Dori Laub, from Testimony Critical Perspective: On the Holocaust Survivor Terrence Des Pres, from The Survivor Critical Perspective: On Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Cathy Caruth, from Trauma: Explorations in Memory 13. Critical Perspectives: A Casebook on Beat Poetry Jack Kerouac, Belief & Technique for Modern Prose Allen Ginsberg, America Allen Ginsberg, A Supermarket in California Allen Ginsberg, First Party at Ken Kesey's with Hell's Angels Jack Kerouac, About the Beat Generation Jack Kerouac, 149th Chorus Jack Kerouac, 211th Chorus Jack Kerouac, The Thrashing Doves Gregory Corso, Dream of a Baseball Star Amiri Baraka (LeRoi Jones), Three Modes of History and Culture Diane Di Prima, On Sitting Down to Write, I Decide Instead to Go to Fred Herko's Concert Anne Waldman, College under Water 14. Critical Perspectives: A Casebook on Postmodern Poetics Poems for Further Reading and Critical Writing Bob Perelman, Virtual Reality Bob Perelman, Chronic Meanings Susan Howe, Turning Charles Bernstein, The Kiwi Bird in the Kiwi Tree Charles Bernstein, Ear Shot Charles Bernstein, House of Formaldehyde Critical Perspective: On Nonlinear Poetics Marjorie Perloff, from "After Free Verse: The New Nonlinear Poetries" Critical Perspective: On Postmodernism and Capitalism Fredric Jameson, from Postmodernism or, The Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism Critical Perspective: On "Language Writing" Bob Perelman, from The Marginalization of Poetry 15. Critical Perspectives: A Casebook on Performance and Performativity Performativity Performative Poetics Signifying Tracie Morris, Chief Song Performance Literature Guillermo Gomez-Pena, I Could Only Fight Back in My Poetry Amiri Baraka, KA 'BA Amiri Baraka, Black Dada Nihilismus Paul Beatty, Darryl Strawberry Asleep in a Field of Dreams Paul Beatty, A Three Point Shot from Andromeda Maggie Estep, The Stupid Jerk I'm Obsessed With Tracie Morris, Project Princess Tracie Morris, Gangsta Suite Miguel Pinero, The Book of Genesis According to St. Miguelito Ntozake Shange, Blood Rhythms--Blood Currents--Black Blue N Stylin' III. Understanding Poetic Representation 16. Race and Representation Color and Representation Robert Herrick, The White Island, or Place of the Blest Thomas Campion, Follow Thy Fair Sun Sir Philip Sidney, from Sonnet 71 (Who will in fairest book of Nature know) Poetry and the Harlem Renaissance Langston Hughes, Dream Variations Helene Johnson, What Do I Care for Morning Poetry and Double-Consciousness Countee Cullen, Heritage Gwendolyn B. Bennett, Heritage Poems for Further Reading and Critical Writing Paul Laurence Dunbar, We Wear the Mask Claude McKay, The Harlem Dancer Claude McKay, America Jean Toomer, Portrait in Georgia Georgia Douglas Johnson, The Heart of a Woman Georgia Douglas Johnson, The True American Helene Johnson, My Race Gwendolyn B. Bennett, To a Dark Girl Critical Perspective: On "Double-Consciousness" W.E.B. Du Bois, from The Souls of Black Folk Critical Perspective: On Race and Art Langston Hughes, "The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain" Critical Perspective: On New Representations of Race Alain Locke, from The New Negro Critical Perspective: On Women Writers of the Harlem Renaissance Gloria T. Hull, from Color, Sex, and Poetry in the Harlem Renaissance Critical Perspective: On Formal Mastery and the Harlem Renaissance Houston Baker, from Modernism and the Harlem Renaissance Critical Perspective: On the White Gaze and Race Representation Walter Kalaidjian, from American Culture Between the Wars Critical Perspective: On Langston Hughes ...