To Read Literature
To the Student and to the Instructor. Part I: TO READ A STORY. 1. One Modern Short Story. 2. From Parable to Sketch to Short Story. 3. Telling Good Fiction from Bad. 4. Plot. 5. Character. 6. Setting. 7. Point of View and Irony. 8. Style and Tone. 9. Theme. 10. Symbolism. 11. Two Modes of Contemporary Fiction. 12. Longer Fiction: The Short Novel. STORIES FOR FURTHER READING. CHINUA ACHEBE, The Madman. TONI CADE BAMBARA, The Lesson. JORGE LUIS BORGE, The Secret Miracle. RAYMOND CARVER, A Small, Good Thing. KATE CHOPIN, The Story of An Hour. RALPH ELLISON, Battle Royal. NADINE GORDIMER, The Train from Rhodesia. LANGSTON HUGHES, On the Road. JAMAICA KINCAID, What I Have Been Doing Lately. D.H. LAWRENCE, The Rocking-Horse Winner. ALICE MATTISON, The Middle Ages. BHARATI MUKHERJEE, Jasmine. FRANK O'CONNOR, Guests of the Nation. EDGAR ALLAN POE, The Murders in the Rue Morgue. LESLIE MARMON SILKO, Storyteller. ISAAC BASHEVIS SINGER, Gimpel the Fool. JOHN STEINBECK, The Chrysanthemums. AMY TAN, Two Kinds. ALICE WALKER, Nineteen Fifty-Five. Part II: TO READ A POEM. 1. Good Poems. 2. Poems Are Made of Words. 3. Images. 4. Figures of Speech, Especially Metaphors. 5. Tone, with a Note on Intentions. 6. Symbols and Allusions. 7. The Sound of Poems. 8. Meter and Rhyme. 9. Forms and Types of Poetry. 10. Versions of the Same. 11. Four Poets. A GATHERING OF POEMS. A.R. AMMONS, Working with Tools. MATTHEW ARNOLD, Dover Beach. JOHN ASHBERY, Rivers and Mountains. MARGARET ATWOOD, You Are Happy. W.H. AUDEN, Musee des Beaux Arts. In Memory of W.B. Yeats. The Unknown Citizen. JIMMY SANTIAGO BACA, Perfecto Flores. IMAMU AMIRI BARAKA, Careers. WENDELL BERRY, The Wild Geese. JOHN BERRYMAN, from The Dream Songs. ELIZABETH BISHOP, The Fish. WILLIAM BLAKE, The Lamb. The Tyger. The Garden of Love. London. ROBERT BLY, Hunting Pheasants in a Cornfield. LOUISE BOGAN, Cartography. EMILY BRONTE, No Coward Soul Is Mine. GWENDOLYN BROOKS, The Bean Eaters. We Real Cool. ROBERT BROWNING, My Last Duchess. ROBERT BURNS, John Anderson My Jo. GEORGE GORDON, Lord Byron, Stanzas. THOMAS CAMPION, Rose-Cheeked Laura. LEWIS CARROLL, Jabberwocky. JOHN CLARE, I am. TOM CLARK, Poem. LUCILLE CLIFTON, my dream about the cows. my dream about the poet. HART CRANE, from The Bridge. from Voyages. ROBERT CREELY, The Rain. E.E. CUMMINGS, Poem, or Beauty Hurts Mr. Vinal. JAMES DICKEY, The Heaven of Animals. JOHN DONNE, The Canonization. Death, Be Not Proud. EDWARD DORN, On the Debt My Mother Owed to Sears Roebuck. RITA DOVE, Horse and Tree. JOHN DRYDEN, To the Memory of Mr. Oldham. ALAN DUGAN, On Hurricane Jackson. ROBERT DUNCAN, Poetry, A Natural Thing. RICHARD EBERHART, The Groundhog. T.S. ELIOT, The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock. Journey of the Magi. LOUISE ERDRICH, Owls. MARTIN ESPADA, The Savior is Abducted in Puerto Rico. EDWARD FITZGERALD, from the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. ROBERT FRANCIS, Three Woodchoppers. ALLEN GINSBERG, America. LOUISE GLUCK, Gratitude. ROBERT GRAVES, In Broken Images. THOM GUNN, On the Move. H.D. (Hilda Doolittle), Sea Rose. THOMAS HARDY, The Ruined Maid. ROBERT HAYDEN, Middle Passage. SEAMUS HEANEY, A Drink of Water. Song. Iron Spike. ANTHONY HECHT, The Dover Bitch: A Criticism of Life. GEORGE HERBERT, Church Monuments. ROBERT HERRICK, Delight in Disorder. GEOFFREY HILL, Merlin. Orpheus and Eurydice. LINDA HOGAN, The Rainy Season. GARRETT HONGO, The Legend. GERARD MANLEY HOPKINS, Spring and Fall. The Windhover. A.E. HOUSMAN, To an Athlete Dying Young. LANGSTON HUGES, Hope. Bad Luck Card. Homecoming. TED HUGES, Thrushes. RICHARD HUGO, Degrees of Gray in Philipsburg. RANDALL JARRELL, Eighth Air Force. ROBINSON JEFFERS, Hurt Hawks. BEN JOHNSON, To Heaven. DONALD JUSTICE, Counting the Mad. X.J. KENNEDY, In Prominent Bar Secaucus One Day. GALWAY KINNELL, The Bear. ETHERIDGE KNIGHT, Hard Rock Returns to Prison from the Hospital for the Criminal Insane. WALTER SAVAGE LANDOR, I Strove with None. PHILIP LARKIN, Mr. Bleaney. Aubade. D.H. LAWRENCE, The Song of a Man Who Has Come Through. Bavarian Gentians. LI-YOUNG LEE, From Blossoms. DENISE LEVERTOV, October. PHILIP LEVINE, Salami. VACHEL LINDSAY, The Flower-Fed Buffaloes. JOHN LOGAN, The Picnic. AUDRE LORDE, Hanging Fire. ROBERT LOWELL, After the Surprising Conversations. Skunk Hour. For the Union Dead. DEREK MAHON, The Chinese Restaurant in Portrush. CHRISTOPHER MARLOWE, The Passionate Shepherd to His Love. SIR WALTER RALEGH, The Nymph's Reply to the Shepherd. ANDREW MARVELL, The Garden, To His Coy Mistress. WESLEY MCNAIR, Mina Bell's Cows. Where I Live. ARCHIBALD MACLEISH, You, Andrew Marvell. LOUIS MACNEICE, The Sunlight on the Garden. JAMES MERRILL, After Greece. JOHN MILTON, On His Blindness. MARIANNE MOORE, A Grave. THYLIAS MOSS, Sunrise Comes to Second Avenue. EDWARD MUIR, The Horses. DAVID MURA, Grandfather and Grandmother in Love. THOMAS NASHE, Adieu! Farewell Earth's Bliss! FRANK O'HARA, The Day Lady Died. SHARON OLDS, Sex without Love. CHARLES OLSON, Maximus, to Gloucester, Sunday, July 19. GREGORY ORR, The Sweater. WILFRED OWEN, Dulce et Decorum Est. JOYCE PESEROFF, The Hardness Scale. SYLVIA PLATH, Lady Lazarus. EDGAR ALLAN POE, The City in the Sea. ALEXANDER POPE, Atticus. EZRA POUND, The River-Merchant's Wife: A Letter. from Hugh Selwyn Mauberley. JOHN CROWE RANSOM, Captain Carpenter. SIR WALTER RALEGH, Verses Written the Night Before His Execution. LIAM RECTOR, Showing. KENNETH REXROTH, The Signature of All Things. EDWIN ARLINGTON ROBINSON, Eros Turannos. EDGAR ARLINGTON ROBINSON, Mr. Flood's Party. THEODORE ROETHKE, My Papa's Waltz. The Rose. The Meadow Mouse. CARL SANDBURG, Chicago. ANNE SEXTON, Wanting to Die. WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE, They that have power to hurt and will do none. PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY, Ode to the West Wind. SIR PHILIP SIDNEY, from Astrophel and Stella. LESLIE MARMON SILKO, Where Mountain Lion Lay Down with Deer. CHARLES SIMIC, Fork. Shelley. LOUIS SIMPSON, Walt Whitman at Bear Mountain. In the Suburbs. CHRISTOPHER SMART, from Jubilate Agno. W.D. SNODGRASS, Lobsters in the Window. GARY SNYDER, Above Pate Valley. CATHY SONG, A Small Light. ROBERT SOUTHWELL, The Burning Babe. WILLIAM STAFFORD, Travelling Through the Dark. WALLACE STEVENS, The Emperor of Ice-Cream. The Snow Man. Sunday Morning. MARK STRAND, Always. The End. ALFRED, LORD TENNYSON, Ulysses. The Eagle. DYLAN THOMAS, This Bread I Break. Fern Hill. Do not go gentle into that good night. EDWARD THOMAS, The Owl. CHARLES TOMLINSON, Paring the Apple. JEAN TOOMER, Reapers. JOHN UPDIKE, Ex-Basketball Player. DEREK WALCOTT, Sea Grapes. ROBERT PENN WARREN, Gold Glade. WALT WHITMAN, Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking. A Farm Picture. Cavalry Crossing a Ford. RICHARD WILBUR, Still, Citizen Sparrow. WILLIAM CARLOS WILLIAMS, This Is Just to Say. Spring and All. WILLIAM WORDSWORTH, Ode: Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood. The World Is Too Much with Us. JAMES WRIGHT, The First Days. JAY WRIGHT, Meta-A and the A of Absolutes. THOMAS WYATT, They Flee from Me. WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS, The Magi. The Second Coming. Sailing to Byzantium. Leda and the Swan. Among School Children. Crazy Jane Talks with the Bishop. LOUIS ZUFOSKY, "In Arizona." Part III: TO READ A PLAY. 1. The Mental Theatre. 2. Elements of Drama. 3. Greek Drama, Tragedy, and Sophocles. 4. Elizabethan Drama and Shakespeare. 5. Comedy and Wilde. 6. Modern Drama, Realism and Chekhov. 7. Nonrealistic Modern Drama, Theater of the Absurd, and Samuel Beckett. PLAYS FOR FURTHER READING. HENRIK IBSEN, Hedda Gabler. AUTHUR MILLER, Death of a Salesman. MARSHA NORMAN, 'night Mother. TENNESEE WILLIAMS, The Glass Menagerie. AUGUST WILSON, Fences. Part IV: TO WRITE ABOUT WRITING. 1. Ways of Attach, Methods of Approach, Common Pitfalls. 2. To Write the Theme. 3. One Student's Paper from Start to Finish. 4. To Write on Each Genre. Acknowledgements. Index. A Guide to Literary Terms.