F I F T E E N T H E D I T I O N

An Introductionto LiteratureFiction, Poetry, and Drama

SYLVAN BARNETTufts University

WILLIAM BURTOUniversity of Massachusetts at Lowell

WILLIAM E. CAINWellesky College

Preface xxixLetter to Students xxxviii

P A R T I

Reading, Thinking, and Writing Criticallyabout Literature 1

Reading and Responding to Literature 3W h a t Is L i t e r a t u r e ? 3 • ; ; • ? • •••••.:

Literature as Performance: Robert Frost, The Span of. Life 3Significance 4 •..•* . . - . , , ,Two Poems about Immigrants: 5 .......

Robert Frost,, Immigrants . 6Pat Mora, Immigrants 8

Two Contemporary Short Stories: l.ydi3Ll)avis\s Childcare andCity People 9 ... .'..,..•'

Thinking About a Classic Story: 7ybe Parable of theProdigal Son 11

Stories True and False 13 . ,,Grace Paley, Samuel 13 • ,

What's Past Is Prologue 16 ;. r .„Jamaica Kincaid, G/r/ 17 ,•....„ ..'.",.,,Tobias Wolff,; Powder, 18..-, .,,.-,., .rii,.';-'. .,i r",, t^,'James Merrill, Christmas tree 21 i .,

T h e Pleasures of Reading—and of W^rjtingcjArguments about Literature , ) 23 , : n ? v ; ; ; : ; ... •T h e O p e n Secret; of G o o d Writ ing! , : 24 i : - , , , , } ]••-;•,« \

E m i l y W u , 37;e Lesson of the Master ±24? !j,;-->iq.

Getting Ready to Write 25'h h-;\>-".:>)>Q>j:-^:«i:\M>.. ,}A StudenpWritesi From Jottings-to d^FinalJDraft: -?2

Contents

Less Is More: Characterization in "The Lessonof the Master" 27

The Student's Analysis Analyzed 29A Second Short Story, and a Student's Analysis 30

Tobias Wolff, Say Yes 30A Sample Student Essay:

He's the Problem 34The Analysis Briefly Analyzed 35

Three Poems 36 - - • . « • • - •

Diane Ackerman, Pumping Iron 36Anonymous, Tweed to Till 37WiUiam Blake, The Clod and the Pebble 37

Two Additional Stories 38Katherine Mansfield, Miss Brill 38Toni Cade Bambara, The Lesson 42

3 More about Writing about Literature:From Idea to Essay 48'Why Write Arguments about Literature? 48Getting Ideas: Pre-Writing 48Annotating a Text 49Brainstorming for Ideas for Writing 49

Kate Chopin, The Story of an Hour 50Focused Free Writing 52Listing and Clustering 53Developing afi Awareness of the Writer's Use of

Language 54Asking Questions 54Keeping a Journal 55Arguing a Thesis 56Writing a Draft 57

Sample Draft of an Essay on Kate Chopin's "The Storyof an Hour" 57

Ironies in an Hour 58Revising a Draft 59Peer Review 60

The Final Version 62A Brief Overview of the Final Version 64

Explication 64A Sample Explication 65 y

riWilliamButler Ycats^Th^.BallbdnMofHBe'Mincl v 65

Contents

Explication as Argument 68Comparison and Contrast: A Way of Arguing 68Review: How to Write an Effective Essay 69Additional Readings 72

Kate Chopin, Ripe Figs 72William Stafford, Traveling Through the Dark 73Lorna Dee Cervantes, Refugee Ship 14 ;Jose Armas, El Tonto del Barrio 75

Fiction 81

4 Approaching Fiction: Responding in Writing 83Ernest Hemingway, Cat in the Rain 83Responses: Annotations and Journal Entries 86A Sample Essay by a Student 90

Hemingway's American Wife 90

Stories and Meanings: Plot, Character, Theme 94Aesop, The Vixen and the Lioness 94W. Somerset Maugham, The Appointment in

Samarra 95Anonymous, Muddy Road 96Anton Chekhov, Misery 97Kate Chopin, Desiree's Baby 104Alice Walker, Everyday Use 109Margaret Atwood, Happy Endings 116William Carlos Williams, The Use of Force 119

Narrative Point of View 122Participant (or First-Person) Points of View, 123Nonparticipant (or Third-Person) Points of View 124The Point of a Point of View 125 , .

John Updike, A. &P 126Grace Paley, A Man Told Me the Story of His Life 131Jean Rhys, / Used to Live Here Once 132Anonymous, The fudgmentof Solomon 134

Contents

Ambrose Bierce,^4n Occurrence; at;Owl Greek \ \B r i d g e r*l$=> ; - • ; • # ' j - t :}«: ' ;TJ>"K. ' .> b : < ; ; f K ) > . ; " ; v - . r - - ,

Katherine Anne Porter,Thefiltihg of Granny iWeatherall 142 V" s n - t M H ^ f » - i :

Allegory and SyrhboUsrh s 149' " "J (-• - ^;

A Note on Setting 152- '•'-' VjV- 4--="tvv.,\ \:-\ ;;-u>;, ̂ ; ^ v .

Nathaniel Hawthorne, Young Goodman Brown 152J o h n Steinbeck, T/be Chrysanthemums 162Eudora Welty, 4̂ Wbm Paftb 170Gabriel Garcia Marquez, A Very Old Man with Enormous

Wings: A Tale for Children 176D. H. Lawrence, The Horse Dealer's Daughter 181 .

8 Students Writing about'Sto'ries 200Prompts for Writing about Plotj Character, Point of View,

Setting, Symbolism, Style, and Theme 200Fiction into Film 203 •-,

Asking Questions, Thinking Critically, andMaking Comparisons 203

Film as a Medium 203Film Techniques 205Theme 208Comparing Filmed and Printed Stones 209Getting Ready to Write '209Drafting an Essay 210

Checklist Getting Ideas for Writing Argumentsabout Film 211'

Your Turn: Thinking about Filming Fiction 212Seven Students Write about Short Stories 213Anne Geraghty Thinks about Character in Poe's "The Cask of

Amontillado" Notes' 213 'The Final'Version of the'Essay Revenge, '

Noble and Ignoble 215Gender Criticism: A Response to "The Judgment of"

-'- : Solomon' 218A Sample Essay How Wise Was

Solomon? 218 N ' v

Contents xiii

A Feminist Reading of James Thurber's;"The Secret Life ofWalter Mitty", 221

Working Toward a Thesis: Journal Entries 221Developing the Thesis: List Notes " 222Sample Draft: Walter Mitty Is No foke 222

A Note on Reading against the Grain 224A Skeptical Look at the Parable of the Prodigal Son 225The Parable of the Shrewd Son 225Talking, about Setting as Symbolic: Notes and an Essay on

Kate Chopin's "The Story of an Hour" w225Spring Comesto Mrs. Mallard * 2 2 6 i / ; - > : > -•: ,-:,.:•Two Students Interpret Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery": Notes

and Essays 230 .- I ; o \- .... ; :u-;

We All Participate in "The Lottery",. 232 . -..•:•,;

Is "The Lottery" Fair?., 235 •;. > \ '~.,i, '">.>'. .•• > :• ?

Sample Essay with Documentation ,240 JDo the Pink Ribbons in Hawthorne's "tYoung ,tt

Goodman Brown"Have a Meaning? ;240,

9 A Fiction Writer in Depth: Flannery O'Connor 248Flannery O'Connor: Three Stories and Comments about

Writing 248Flannery O'Connor, A Good Man Is Hard to Find 249Flannery O'Connor, Good Country People 261Flannery O'Connor, Revelation 114

On Fiction: Remarks from Essays and Letters 288From "The 1 iction Writer and His Country" 288From "Some Aspects of the Grotesque in Southern

Fiction" 289From "The Nature and Aim of Fiction" 289From "Writing Short Stories" 290"A Reasonable Use of the Unreasonable" 290

• : On Interpreting "A Good Man Is Hard to Find" 293

10 A Collection of Short Fiction 295Chris Adrian, Every Night for a Thousand Years 298Margaret Atwood, Gertrude Talks Back 307Jorge Luis Borges, The Gospel According to Mark 309Raymond Carver, Cathedral 313

Contents

• •.Oscar Casaresf K>Jowda< • 323 '• • :iin> "̂xi;. fe;..-;\:. .vi ADiana Chang, The Oriental Contingent' m329

Alice Elliot Dark;In the GloamingiRalph EUisomBattleRoyal? 35O f̂ ;';;'• :?;qrm;>Louise Erdrich, The Red Convertible ^?,6Qo j?o; <

. William Tauikher, A Rose for, Emily : 3673) >̂ ?•William Faulkner, Barn Burning = 377V a "

{Fjack'FoTbes^OnlyAppprovedilhdians Can Play:.UMadeinUSA 389' vif:'" •:.fn.:f.!u:l ; W

Charlotte Perkins Gihiian, The Yellow Wallpaper 391(..'•PatriciaiGraGe /̂i?ies;>v402-::->'.v.v-v-A •.*"r*-ni/ o-uv'

G i s h J e n , WJbo^s / r w / b ? 4 0 5 ' ^ - ; ;> • A W , -,

J a m e s J o y e e y y l r a i b y 4 1 2 :a'. '-r:-.>•.£> -AV .....•' •'.;.• ;•Franz Kafka, 1̂ Hunger Artist S4\l ' ^ ••Jack London, To Build aMre' 423 / ; ^ >:Bobbie AriiUMasori, S^7ofo ••/.-.•43'4,\v. ^-.n . ^ -..-.'iGiiy de Maupassant, Mademoiselle 444 .Guy de Maupassant, 7#e Necklace 441Katherine Min, Courting a Monk 453Lorrie Moore, //ow to Become a Writer 463 V

i Alice Munro, ^qys and Girls 468Gloria Naylor, The Two 478

'Joyce Carol Oates, Where Are You Going,Where Have You Been? 483

Tim O'Brien, The Things They Carried 495Cynthia Ozick, The Shawl 508 ,Edgar Allan Poe, The Tell-Tale Heart 511Edgar Allan Poe, The Cask of Amontillado 514Michele Serros, Senior Picture Day 519 'Leslie MarmonSilko, The Man to Send Rain

Clouds 52-3;.Amytfan+TwoKinds 526 •

r(;James5Thurber,va'e Secret Life of Walter Mitty 534 >Leo Tolstoy, The Death of Ivan Illych 538John Updike, The Rumor 577

Contents

11 Approaching Poetry: Responding in Writing 587Langston Hughes, Harlem 587

Thinking About Harlem 588Some Journal Entries 589A Sample Essay by a Student:Langston Hughes's

"Harlem" 591Aphra Behn, Song: Love Armed 594

Journal Entries 594A Sample Essay by a Student: The Double

Nature of Love 595

12 Narrative Poetry 598The Limerick, the Popular Ballad, and Other Narrative Poems

598Anonymous British Ballad, Sir Patrick Spence 600Anonymous British Ballad, The Demon Lover 602John Keats, La Belle Dame sans Merci 605Siegfried Sassoon, The General 607Countee Cullen, Incident 601Edward Arlington Robinson, Richard Cory 608Emily DicMnson, Because I could not stop for Death

609John Lennon and Paul McCartney, Eleanor Rigby 610E. E. Cummings, anyone lived in a pretty how

town 611

13 Lyric Poetry 613Anonymous, Michael Row the Boat Ashore 613Anonymous, Careless Love 613Anonymous, The Colorado Trail 615Anonymous, Western Wind 615Julia Ward Howe, Battle Hymn of the Republic 616William Shakespeare, Spring 618

Contents

William Shakespeare, Winter 619W. H. Auden, Stop All the Clocks, Cut Off the

Telephone 620Emily Bronte, Spellbound 621Spirituals, or Sorrow Songs 621Anonymous African-American, Go Down, Moses 622Anonymous African-American, Swing Low,

Sweet Chariot 625Langston Hughes, Evenin'Air Blues 626Li-Young Lee, I Ask My Mother to Sing 627Edna St. Vincent Millay, The Spring and the Fall 621Wilfred Owen, Anthem for Doomed Youth 628Walt Whitman, A Noiseless Patient Spider 629Joseph Addison, Ode 630John Keats, Ode on a Grecian Urn 631Paul Laurence Dunbar, Sympathy 633Jack Forbes, Something Nice 634Linda Past&n, Jump Cabling 654Billy Collins, The Names 635

14 The Speaking Tone of Voice 638Emily Dickinson, I'm Nobody/ Who are you? 639Gwendolyn Brooks, We Real Cool. 641Gwendolyn Brooks, The Mother 641Linda Pastan, Marks 642

The Reader as the Speaker 643Stevie Smith, Not Waving but Drowning 643Wislawa Szymborska, The Terrorist, He Watches 644John Updike, Icarus 645 'Aurora Levins Morales, Child of the Americas 641Joseph Bruchac HI, Ellis Island 648

The Dramatic Monologue 648Robert Browning, My Last Duchess 649Paula Gunn Allen, Pocahontas to Her English Husband,

JohnRolfe 651Diction and Tone 652

Robert Herrick, To the Virgins, to Make Much ofTime 654

Ezra Pound, The River-Merchant's Wife:A Letter 655Wilfred Owens, Dulce et Decorum Est 656

Contents

Thomas Hardy, The Man He Killed 657Thomas Hardy, The Ruined Maid 658Walter de la Mare, An Epitaph 659Gerard Manley Hopkins, Spring and Fall:

To a Young Child 660Countee Guillen, For a Lady I Know 661Lyn Lifshin, My Mother and the Bed 661

The Voice of the Satirist 662E. E. Cummings, next to of course god america i 663Marge Piercy, Barbie Doll 664Louise Erdrich, Dear John Wayne 665Alexander Pope, Engraved on the Collar of a Dog

Which I gave to His Royal Highness 661

15 Figurative Language: Simile, Metaphor,Personification, Apostrophe 668Robert Burns, A Red, Red Rose 669Sylvia Plath, Metaphors 671Simile 671

Richard Wilbur, A Simile for Her Smile 672Metaphor 672

John Keats, On First Looking into Chapman'sHomer 613

Personification 674Michael Drayton, Since There's No Help 614

Apostrophe 675Edmund Waller, Song 675William Carlos Williams, The Red Wheelbarrow 677Alfred, Lord Tennyson, The Eagle 611Seamus Heaney, Digging 678Dana Gioia, Money 679Linda Pastan, Baseball 680Craig Raine, A Martian Sends a Postcard Home 681William Shakespeare, Sonnet 130 682

16 Imagery and Symbolism 683William Blake, The Sick Rose 684Walt Whitman, / Saw in Louisiana a Live-Oak

Growing 685

Contents

Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Kubla Khan 687Emma Lazarus, The New Colossus 690Alfred, Lord Tennyson, The Kraken 691Dan Chiasson, The Elephant 692Claude McKay, The Tropics in New York 693Adrienne Rich, Diving into the Wreck 694Christina Rossetti, Uphill 696Wallace Stevens, The Emperor of Ice-Cream 691Edgar Allan Poe, To Helen 698 .Herman Melville, DuPont's Round Fight 700Naomi Shihab Nye, The Traveling Onion 700

A Note on Haiku 701Moritake, Fallen petals rise 702Sokan, If only we could 702SUM, River in summer 702Writing a Haiku 703Taigi, Look, O look, there go 703Cyber-Haiku 703

17 Irony 705Percy Bysshe Shelley, Ozymandias 707Andrew MarveH, To His Coy Mistress 707John Donne, Holy Sonnet XTV ("Batter my heart,

three-personed God") 709Langston Hughes, Dream Boogie 710Martin Espada, Tony Went to the Bodega but He Didn't

Buy Anything 711Edna St. Vincent Millay, Love Is Not All: It Is Not Meat

nor Drink 713Sherman Alexie, Evolution 714Henry Reed, Naming of Parts 114Sarah N. Cleghorn, The Golf Links 715

18 Rhythm and Versification 717Ezra Pound, An Immorality 718A. E. l ousman , Eight O'Clock 720William Carlos Williams, The Dance 721Robert Francis, The Pitcher 722

Versification: Glossary for Reference 723

Contents xix

Meter 723Patterns of Sound 726Galway Kinnell, Blackberry Eating 727William Carlos Williams, The Artist 728Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Constantly Risking

Absurdity 729A Note about Poetic Forms 730

Stanzaic Patterns 732Three Complex Forms: The Sonnet, the Villanelle, and the

Sestina 732The Sonnet 732Six Sonnets 733

William Shakespeare, Sonnet 73 ("That time of yearthou mayst in me behold") 733

William Shakespeare, Sonnet 146 ("Poor soul, the centerof my sinful earth") 134

John Milton, When I Consider How My Light Is Spent 136John Crowe Ransom, Piazza Piece 737X. J. Kennedy, Nothing in Heaven Functions as It

Ought 738Billy Collins, Sonnet 739

The Villanelle 739Edward Arlington Robinson, The House on the Hill 740Dylan Thomas, Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night

141Elizabeth Bishop, One Art 742

The Sestina 743Elizabeth Bishop, Sestina 144

Shaped Poetry or Pattern Poetry 745George Herbert, Easter Wings 146Lillian Morrison, The Sidewalk Racer 141

Blank Verse and Free Verse 748Walt Whitman, When I Heard the Learn'd Astronomer

748The Prose Poem 749

Carolyn Forche, The Colonel 149

Students Writing about Poems 751First Response 751Speaker and Tone 751

Contents

Audience 752Structure and Form 752Center of Interest and Theme 752Diction 752Sound Effects 752A Note on Explication 753Eight Essays by Students 753

Louise Gliick, Gretel in Darkness 754Jennifer Anderson's Annotations, Journal, and Final Draft 755

A Memory Poem:Louise Gluck's "Gretel in Darkness"758

Adrienne Rich, Aunt Jennifer's Tigers 761A Student's Annotations and Essay 761

Aunt Jennifer's Screen and AdrienneRich's Poem 162

A Student's Essay on a Theme in Several Poems byOne Poet 764

Religion and Religious Imagery in Emily Dickinson764

An Essay on the Structure of a Poem 767Robert Herrick, Upon Julia's Clothes 161Annotations 768Herrick's Julia, Julia's Herrick 769

An Essay on Metrics .770Sound and Sense inA.E. Housman's

"Eight O'clock" 111A Brief Overview of the Essay 774Three Essays, for Evaluation, on Robert Frost's "Stopping by

Woods on a Snowy Evening" 774Darrel MacDonald's Annotations and Essay 774Stopping by Woods—and Going On 775Sara Fong's Journal Entry and Essay 778"Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening"as a Short Story

779Peter Franken's Journal Entry and Essay 782The Meaning of "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening"

783

20 Poets at Work 785Walt Whitman, Enfans d'Adam, number 9 787Cathy Song, Out of Our Hands 788

Contents

William Butler Yeats, Leda and the Swan(three versions) 789

William Butler Yeats, Annunciation 791William Butler Yeats, Leda and the Swan (1924) 791William Butler Yeats, Leda and the Swan (1933) 792

21 Variations on Themes: Poems and Paintings 793Writing about Poems and Paintings 793A Sample Student Essay 794

Tina Washington, Two Ways of Looking at a StarryNight 194

Jane Flanders, Van Gogh's Bed 796Adrienne Rich, Mourning Picture 799Cathy Song, Beauty and Sadness 801Carl Phillips, Luncheon on the Grass 802Anne Sexton, The Starry Night 805W. H. Auden, Musee des Beaux Arts 807X. J. Kennedy, Nude Descending a Staircase 809Sherman Alexie, At Navajo Monument Valley Tribal

School 811John Updike, Before the Mirror 813Greg Pape, American Flamingo 815

22 Three Poets in Depth: Emily Dickinson, RobertFrost, and Langston Hughes 817On Reading Authors Represented in Depth 817

Emily Dickinson 819

These are the days when Birds come back 819Papa above! 820Wild Nights—Wild Nights! 820There's a certain Slant of light 821/ got so I could hear his name— 821The Soul selects her own Society 822This was a Poet—It is That 822/ heard a Fly Buzz—when I died 823The World is not Conclusion 824/ like to see it lap the Miles 824A narrow Fellow in the Grass 825Further in Summer than the Birds 825

Contents

Tell all the Truth but tell it slant 826A Route ofEvanesence 826Those—dying, then 826Apparently with no surprise 827I felt a funeral, in my Brain 828I felt a Cleaving in my Mind— 830The Dust behind I strove to join 830Letters about Poetry 830To Susan Gilbert (Dickinson) 831ToT.W.Higginson 831To T. W.Higginson 832Robert Frost 833The Pasture 833Mending Wall 834The Wood-Pile 835The Road Not Taken 835The Telephone 836The Oven Bird 836The Vanishing Red 837The Aim Was Song 838The Need of Being Versed in Country Things 838Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening 839Acquainted with the Night 840Desert Places 840Design 841Come In 841The Silken Tent 842The Most of It 843Robert Frost on Poetry 843The Figure a Poem Makes 843From "The Constant Symbol" 845Langston Hughes 845The Negro Speaks of Rivers 846Mother to Son 846The Weary Blues 841The South 847Ruby Brown 848Poet to Patron 849Ballad of the Landlord 849Too Blue 850Harlem [1] 850

Contents xx:

Theme for English B 851Poet to Bigot 852Langston Hughes on Poetry 852The Negro and the Racial Mountain 852On the Cultural Achievements of African-Americans 856

23 Poetry and Translation 857A Poem Translated from Spanish, in an Essay by a Student 857

George Guzman, Garcia Lorca's "Despedida" 857A Note on Using the First-Person Singular Pronoun in

Essays 861Translating a Poem of your Choice, and Commenting on the

Translation 862Last-Minute Help: Three Spanish Poems 863Anonymous, Ya se van lospastores 863Anonymous, Una gallina con polios 863Gabriela Mistral, El Pensador de Rodin 864

Translating Haiku 865Basho, Old pond 865

Further Thoughts about Translating Poetry 867Catullus, Odi et amo 868

Can Poetry be Translated? 869Looking at Translations of a Poem by Charles Baudelaire 870

Charles Baudelaire, L'Albatros 871

24 A Collection of Poems 873Anonymous British Ballad, The Three Ravens 873Anonymous British Ballad, The Twa Corbies 814Anonymous British Ballad, Edward 875Anonymous, John Henry 877Sherman Alexie, On the Amtrak from Boston to

New York City 878Matthew Arnold, Dover Beach 879W. H. Auden, The Unknown Citizen 880Jimmy Santiago Baca, So Mexicans Are Taking Jobs

from Americans 881Amiri Baraka, A Poem for Black Hearts 883Elizabeth Bishop, The Fish 884William Blake, Infant Joy 886

Contents

William Blake, Infant Sorrow 886William Blake, The Lamb 886William Blake, The Tyger 887William Blake, London 887Robert Bly, Driving to Town Late to Mail a Letter 888Gwendolyn Brooks, Martin Luther King Jr. 888Gwendolyn Brooks, The Bean Eaters 889Robert Browning, Porphyria's Lover 890George Gordon, Lord Byron, She Walks in Beauty 891Lucille Clifton, in the inner city 892Judith Ortiz Cofer, My Father in the Navy:

A Childhood Memory 893John Donne, A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning 893John Donne, The Flea 894John Donne, Death be not proud 895Rita Dove, Daystar 896Bob Dylan, The Times They Are A-Changin' 896T. S. Eliot, The Love Song ofj. Alfred Prufrock 898Ralph Waldo Emerson, Concord Hymn 902Martin Espada, Bully 902Allen Ginsberg, A Supermarket in California 903Nikki Giovanni, Master Charge Blues 904Louise Gliick, The School Children 905H. D., Helen 906 'Thomas Hardy, Ah, Are You Digging on My Grave? 906Joy Harjo, Vision 907Robert Hayden, Those Winter Sundays 908Anthony Hecht, The Dover Bitch 909Robert Herrick, Delight in Disorder 910Gerard Manley Hopkins, God's Grandeur 910Gerard Manly Hopkins, Pied Beauty 911A. E. Housman, To an Athlete Dying Young 911A. E. Housman, When I Was One-and-Twenty 912A. E. Housman, Loveliest of Trees 912James Weldon Johnson, To America 913Ben Jonson, On My First Son 913Ben Jonson, Still to be Neat 914John Keats, To Autumn 914X. J. Kennedy, For Allen Ginsberg 916Yusef Komunyakaa, Facing It 916Archibald MacLeish, Ars Poetica 918

Contents xxv

Claude McKay, America 919Herman Melville, Misgivings 919Herman Melville, The Tuft of Kelp 919Pat Mora, Illegal Alien 920Pat Mora, Legal Alien 920Carol Muske, Chivalry 921Sharon Olds, Rites of Passage 922Linda Pastan, Love Poem 923Marge Piercy, To be of use 923Sylvia Plath, Daddy 924Ezra Pound, In a Station of the Metro 927Wyatt Prunty, Learning the Bicycle 927Dudley Randall, The Melting Pot 928Adrienne Rich, For the Felling of an Elm in the Harvard

Yard 928Adrienne Rich, Living in Sin 929Anne Sexton, Her Kind 930William Shakespeare, Sonnet 29 ("When, in disgrace with

Fortune and men's eyes") 930William Shakespeare, Sonnet 116 ("Let me not to the

marriage of true minds") 931Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Ulysses 932Kitty Tsui, A Chinese Banquet 933John Updike, Ex-Basketball Player 935Derek Walcott, A Far Cry from Africa 936Phillis Wheatley, On Being Brought from Africa to America

938Walt Whitman, Reconciliation 938Walt Whitman, A Sight in Camp in the Daybreak Gray

and Dim 938Walt Whitman, The Dalliance of the Eagles 939William Carlos Williams, Spring and All 939William Wordsworth, The World Is Too Much with Us

940William Wordsworth, / Wandered Lonely as a Cloud 941William Wordsworth, The Solitary Reaper 941James Wright, Lying in a Hammock at William Duffy's

Farm in Pine Island, Minnesota 942William Butler Yeats, Sailing to Byzantium 943

xxvi Contents

I PACatT: 0 W

Drama 945

25 How to Read a Play 947Thinking about the Language of Drama 947Plot and Character 950

Susan Glaspell, Trifles 953Tennessee Williams, The Glass Menagerie 963A Context for The Glass Menagerie 1009Tennessee Williams, Production Notes 1009

26 Tragedy 1014A Note on Greek Tragedy 1018Two Plays by Sophocles 1019

Sophocles, Oedipus the King 1019Sophocles, Antigone 1062

A Play by Shakespeare 1098A Note on the Elizabethan Theater 1098A Note on the Texts of Hamlet 1099Portfolio: Hamlet on the Stage 1105

William Shakespeare, Hamlet, Prince of Denmark 1108

27 Comedy 1220William Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night's

Dream 1223

28 Two Plays about Marriage 1280Henrik Ibsen, A Doll's House 1281

Contexts for A Doll's House 1334Henrik Ibsen, Notes for the Tragedy of Modern Times

1334Henrik Ibsen, Adaptations of A Doll's House for a German

Production 1335Henrik Ibsen, Speech at the Banquet of the Norwegian

League for Women's Rights 1335Clare Booth Luce, Slam the Door Softly 1337

Contents

29 Students Writing about Plays 1349Plot and Conflict 1349Character 1350Tragedy 1350Comedy 1351Nonverbal Language 1351The Play in Performance 1351Writing about a Filmed Version of a Play 1352Checklist: Writing about a Filmed Play 1353Five Essays by Students 1354

An Essay on Plot: The Solid Structure ofThe Glass Menagerie 1356

An Essay on Setting: What the Kitchenin Trifles Tells Us 1360

An Essay on Character and Theme: Fairy Mischief andMorality in A Midsummer Night'sDream 1363

An Essay on a Film: Branagh's Film ofHamlet 1366

A Sample Student Essay Using Sources: The Women inDeath of a Salesman 1372

A Collection of Plays 1383Arthur Miller, Death of a Salesman 1384A Context for Death of a Salesman 1452Arthur Miller, Tragedy and the Common

Man 1452Luis Valdez, Los Vendidos 1456A Context for Los Vendidos 1465Luis Valdez, TheActos 1465Jane Martin, Rodeo 1467August Wilson, Fences 1471A Context for Fences 1521August Wilson, Talking About Fences 1521David Ives, Sure Thing 1523Terrence McNally, Andre's Mother 1532

Contents

Critical Perspectives 1535

31 Critical Approaches: The Nature of Criticism 1536Formalist (or New) Criticism 1537Deconstruction 1539Reader-Response Criticism 1540Archetypal (or Myth) Criticism 1543Historical Scholarship 1544Marxist Criticism 1545The New Historicism 1545Biographical Criticism 1546Psychological (or Psychoanalytic) Criticism 1547Gender (Feminist, and Lesbian and Gay) Criticism 1548Suggestions for Further Reading 1555

Appendix A: Remarks about Manuscript Form 1559Basic Manuscript Form 1559Corrections in the Final Copy 1560Quotations and Quotation Marks 1561Documentation: Footnotes, Internal Parenthetical Citations,

- and a List of Works Cited (MLA format) 1565Citing Sources on the World Wide Web 1575

Appendix B: Writing Essay Examinations 1580Why Do Instructors give Essay Examinations 1580Getting Ready 1580Writing Essay Answers 1581

Appendix C: Glossary of Literary Terms 1584

Photo Credits 1595Literary Credits 1597Index of Terms 1609Index of Authors, Titles, and First Lines of Poems 1615