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Table of Contents

[* Indicates material new to this edition]

Preface for Instructors
Selections by Form and Theme

PART ONE: READING AND WRITING ABOUT LITERATURE

1. INTRODUCTION TO READING AND WRITING ABOUT LITERATURE
Why Read Literature?
Why Write about Literature?
What to Expect in a Literature Class
Literature and Enjoyment

2. THE ROLE OF GOOD READING
The Value of Rereading
Critical Reading
The Myth of "Hidden Meaning"
Active Reading
     Annotating
WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS, The Second Coming (Annotated Poem)
     Note Taking 
     Journal Keeping 
     Using Reference Materials
Questions for Active Reading: Fiction
Questions for Active Reading: Poetry
Questions for Active Reading: Drama
Asking Critical Questions of Literature
BEN JONSON, On My First Son (Annotated Poem)
Checklist for Good Reading

3. THE WRITING PROCESS
Prewriting
     Choosing a Topic 
     *Developing an Argument
*The Thesis 
     Gathering Support for Your Thesis
Organizing Your Paper
Drafting the Paper
Revising and Editing 
     Global Revision Checklist 
     Local Revision Checklist  
     Final Editing Checklist
Peer Editing and Workshops
Tips for Writing about Literature
Using Quotations Effectively
Quoting from Stories
Quoting from Poems
Quoting from Plays
Formatting Your Paper

4. COMMON WRITING ASSIGNMENTS
Summary
Response 
     *STUDENT ESSAY: Taylor Plantan, "A Response to ‘Sweat’"
*Explication 
     ROBERT HERRICK, Upon Julias Clothes
     STUDENT ESSAY: Jessica Barnes, "Poetry in Motion: Herricks Upon Julias Clothes"
*Analysis 
     ROBERT BROWNING, My Last Duchess
     STUDENT ESSAY: Adam Walker, "Possessed by the Need for Possession: Brownings My Last Duchess"
Comparison and Contrast 
     CHRISTINA ROSSETTI, After Death
     STUDENT ESSAY: Todd Bowen, "Speakers for the Dead: Narrators in My Last Duchess and After Death"
Essay Exams 
     WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE, Sonnet 73
     ROBERT HERRICK, To the Virgins, To Make Much of Time 
     STUDENT ESSAY EXAM: Midterm Essay

5. WRITING ABOUT STORIES
Elements of Fiction 
     Plot 
     Character 
     Point of View 
     Setting 
     Theme 
     Symbolism 
     Style
Stories for Analysis 
     KATE CHOPIN, The Story of an Hour (Annotated Story) 
     STUDENT ESSAY: An Essay that Compares and Contrasts: Melanie Smith, "Good Husbands in Bad Marriages"

6. WRITING ABOUT POEMS
Elements of Poetry
The Speaker
The Listener
Imagery
Sound and Sense
Two Poems for Analysis 
     WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE, Sonnet 116 (Annotated Poem) 
     T.S. ELIOT, The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock (Annotated Poem)
     STUDENT ESSAY: An Explication: Patrick McCorkle, "Shakespeare Defines Love"

7. WRITING ABOUT PLAYS
Elements of Drama 
     Plot, Character, and Theme 
     Diction 
     Spectacle 
     Setting
How to Read a Play 
     Watching a Play 
     The Director’s Vision
     STUDENT ESSAY: An Analysis: Sarah Johnson, "Moral Ambiguity and Character Development in Trifles"

8. WRITING A LITERARY RESEARCH PAPER
Finding Sources
Evaluating Sources
Working with Sources 
     Quotations 
     *Paraphrases and Summaries 
     Commentaries 
     Keeping Track of Your Sources
Writing the Paper 
     Refine Your Thesis 
     Organize Your Evidence 
     Start Your Draft 
     Revise 
     Edit and Proofread
*Understanding and Avoiding Plagiarism
What to Document and What Not to Document
Documenting Sources: MLA Format 
     In-Text Citations 
     Preparing Your Works Cited List
     *STUDENT ESSAY: Research Paper: Rachel McCarthy, "The Widening Gyres of Chaos in Yeats’s ‘The Second Coming’"

9. LITERARY CRITICISM AND LITERARY THEORY
Formalism and New Criticism
Feminist and Gender Criticism
Queer Theory
Marxist Criticism
Cultural Studies
Postcolonial Criticism
Historical Criticism and New Historicism
Psychological Theories
Reader-Response Theories
Structuralism
Poststructuralism and Deconstruction
*Ecocriticism

PART TWO: 40 STORIES
NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE, Young Goodman Brown
EDGAR ALLAN POE, The Cask of Amontillado
* AMBROSE BIERCE, An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge
KATE CHOPIN, The Story of an Hour
ANTON CHEKHOV, The Lady with the Dog
CHARLOTTE PERKINS GILMAN, The Yellow Wallpaper
SUI SIN FAR (EDITH MAUD EATON), In the Land of the Free
*SHERWOOD ANDERSON, Hands
*JAMES JOYCE, The Dead
*VIRGINIA WOOLF, Kew Gardens
FRANZ KAFKA, The Metamorphosis
*KATHERINE MANSFIELD, Bliss
ZORA NEALE HURSTON, Sweat
WILLIAM FAULKNER, A Rose for Emily
ERNEST HEMINGWAY, Hills Like White Elephants
JOHN CHEEVER, Reunion
RALPH ELLISON, Battle Royal
SHIRLEY JACKSON, The Lottery
JAMES BALDWIN, Sonnys Blues
FLANNERY OCONNOR, A Good Man Is Hard to Find
GABRIEL GARCĺA MÁRQUEZ, A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings
RAYMOND CARVER, Cathedral
JOYCE CAROL OATES, Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been? MARGARET ATWOOD, Happy Endings
TONI CADE BAMBARA, The Lesson
ALICE WALKER, Everyday Use
TIM OBRIEN, The Things They Carried
JAMAICA KINCAID, Girl
LOUISE ERDRICH, The Red Convertible
* SANDRA CISNEROS, My Name
* GEORGE SAUNDERS, Sticks
* SHERMAN ALEXIE, This is What It Means to Say Phoenix, Arizona
* ALEXANDER CHEE, Mine
* TED CHIANG, The Great Silence
* JUNOT DĺAZ, Fiesta, 1980
* MAILE MELOY, Tome
YIYUN LI, A Thousand Years of Good Prayers
*ZZ PACKER, Brownies
* ADRIAN TOMINE, Echo Ave.
* CHIMIMANDA NGOZI ADICHIE, The Thing Around Your Neck

PART THREE: 200 POEMS
*ANONYMOUS, The Wife’s Lament
*ANONYMOUS, Western Wind
SIR THOMAS WYATT, Whoso list to hunt
QUEEN ELIZABETH I, On Monsieur’s Departure
CHRISTOPHER MARLOWE, The Passionate Shepherd to His Love
WALTER RALEGH, The Nymph’s Reply to the Shepherd
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE, Sonnet 18 ("Shall I compare thee to a summers day?")
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE, Sonnet 73 ("That time of year thou mayst in me behold")
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE, Sonnet 116 ("Let me not to the marriage of true minds")
AEMILIA LANYER, Eve’s Apology in Defense of Women
JOHN DONNE, A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning
JOHN DONNE, Death, be not proud
BEN JONSON, On My First Son
ROBERT HERRICK, To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time
*GEORGE HERBERT, The Collar
*HESTER PULTER, The Eclipse
JOHN MILTON, When I consider how my light is spent
ANNE BRADSTREET, Here Follows Some Verses upon the Burning of Our House
ANDREW MARVELL, To His Coy Mistress
THOMAS GRAY, Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard
PHILLIS WHEATLEY, On Being Brought from Africa to America
WILLIAM BLAKE, The Lamb
WILLIAM BLAKE, The Tyger
*KOBAYASHI ISSA, ("All the time I pray to Buddha")
*KOBAYASHI ISSA, ("Don’t worry spiders")
*KOBAYASHI ISSA, ("Goes out,/Comes back" )
WILLIAM WORDSWORTH, Lines Composed a Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey
*SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE, Kubla Kahn
GEORGE GORDON, LORD BYRON, Prometheus
PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY, Ode to the West Wind
JOHN KEATS, When I have fears that I may cease to be
JOHN KEATS, Ode to a Nightingale
ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING, How do I love thee? Let me count the ways
EDGAR ALLAN POE, Annabel Lee
ALFRED, LORD TENNYSON, Ulysses
ROBERT BROWNING, My Last Duchess
WALT WHITMAN, from Song of Myself
*WALT WHITMAN, When I heard the learn’d astronomer
MATTHEW ARNOLD, Dover Beach
EMILY DICKINSON, Wild Nights — Wild Nights!
EMILY DICKINSON, I heard a Fly buzz — when I died
EMILY DICKINSON, Much Madness is divinest sense
EMILY DICKINSON, Because I could not stop for Death
EMILY DICKINSON, There’s a Certain Slant of Light
LEWIS CARROLL, Jabberwocky
*GERARD MANLEY HOPKINS, The Windhover
A.E. HOUSMAN, To an Athlete Dying Young
WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS, The Lake Isle of Innisfree
WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS, The Second Coming
WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS, Leda and the Swan
EDWIN ARLINGTON ROBINSON, Richard Cory
PAUL LAURENCE DUNBAR, We Wear the Mask
ROBERT FROST, After Apple-Picking
ROBERT FROST, The Road Not Taken
ROBERT FROST, Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening
ROBERT FROST, Acquainted with the Night
*RAINER MARIA RILKE, Archaic Torso of Apollo
WALLACE STEVENS, Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird
WALLACE STEVENS, The Emperor of Ice-Cream
*GUILLAUME APOLLINAIRE, Il Pleut/It’s Raining
MINA LOY, Moreover, the Moon
WILLIAM CARLOS WILLIAMS, The Red Wheelbarrow
WILLIAM CARLOS WILLIAMS, This Is Just to Say
EZRA POUND, In a Station of the Metro
EZRA POUND, The River-Merchants Wife: A Letter
H.D., Helen
MARIANNE MOORE, Poetry
T. S. ELIOT, The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock
CLAUDE MCKAY, America
EDNA ST. VINCENT MILLAY, What lips my lips have kissed
WILFRED OWEN, Dulce et Decorum Est
E. E. CUMMINGS, in Just-
E. E. CUMMINGS, "next to of course god america i
*FEDERICO GARCÍA LORCA, Dawn
LANGSTON HUGHES, The Negro Speaks of Rivers
LANGSTON HUGHES, The Weary Blues
LANGSTON HUGHES, Theme for English B
LANGSTON HUGHES, Harlem
COUNTEE CULLEN, Incident
*PABLO NERUDA, Body of a Woman
W. H. AUDEN, Funeral Blues ("Stop all the clocks")
THEODORE ROETHKE, My Papas Waltz
ELIZABETH BISHOP, The Fish
ELIZABETH BISHOP, One Art
*CZESLAW MILOSZ, Dedication
*ROBERT HAYDEN, Middle Passage
MURIEL RUKEYSER, Waiting for Icarus
DUDLEY RANDALL, Ballad of Birmingham
WILLIAM STAFFORD, Traveling through the Dark
RANDALL JARRELL, The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner
DYLAN THOMAS, Do not go gentle into that good night
GWENDOLYN BROOKS, The Mother
GWENDOLYN BROOKS, We Real Cool
*ROBERT LOWELL, For the Union Dead
DENISE LEVERTOV, The Ache of Marriage
*JACK GILBERT, Failing and Flying
MAXINE KUMIN, Morning Swim
FRANK O’HARA, The Day Lady Died
ALLEN GINSBERG, A Supermarket in California
*GALWAY KINNELL, After Making Love We Hear Footsteps
GALWAY KINNELL, When One Has Lived a Long Time Alone
JOHN ASHBERY, They Knew What They Wanted
W. S. MERWIN, One of the Butterflies
JAMES WRIGHT, Lying in a Hammock at William Duffy’s Farm in Pine Island, Minnesota
PHILIP LEVINE, What Work Is
ANNE SEXTON, Cinderella
ADRIENNE RICH, Aunt Jennifers Tigers
ADRIENNE RICH, Diving Into the Wreck
ETHERIDGE KNIGHT, Hard Rock Returns to Prison from the Hospital for the Criminal Insane
LINDA PASTAN, love poem
SYLVIA PLATH, Morning Song
SYLVIA PLATH, Daddy
AUDRE LORDE, Coal
*MARY OLIVER, The Summer Day
LUCILLE CLIFTON, at the cemetery, walnut grove plantation, south carolina, 1989
LUCILLE CLIFTON, homage to my hips
C.K. WILLIAMS, On the Métro
CHARLES SIMIC, Eyes Fastened with Pins
SEAMUS HEANEY, Digging
SEAMUS HEANEY, Mid-Term Break
ROBERT PINSKY, Shirt
*MAHMOUD DARWISH, Identity Card
BILLY COLLINS, Forgetfulness
TOI DERRICOTTE, A Note on My Sons Face
RICHARD GARCIA, Why I Left the Church
SHARON OLDS, I Go Back to May 1937
LOUISE GLÜCK, Mock Orange
QUINCY TROUPE, A Poem for "Magic"
BERNADETTE MAYER, Sonnet ("You jerk you didn’t call me up")
MARILYN NELSON, from A Wreath for Emmett Till ("Emmett Till’s name still catches in my throat,")
YUSEF KOMUNYAKAA, Facing It
JANE KENYON, Happiness
LINDA HOGAN, Crow Law
VICTOR HERNÁNDEZ CRUZ, Problems with Hurricanes
*CAROLYN FORCHÉ, The Boatman
JORIE GRAHAM, Prayer
*LINDA GREGERSON, Prodigal
MARIE HOWE, Death: The Last Visit
*DANA GIOIA, Majority
*JOY HARJO, Fear Poem, or I Give You Back
JIMMY SANTIAGO BACA, Family Ties
*JUDITH ORTIZ COFER, Latin Deli
NAOMI SHIHAB NYE, Gate A4
GARY SOTO, Moving Away
MARY RUEFLE, Rain Effect
RITA DOVE, Fifth Grade Autobiography
ALBERTO RIOS, Nani
CHERRÍE MORAGA, Loving in the War Years
HARRYETTE MULLEN, Elliptical
MARK DOTY, A Display of Mackerel
TONY HOAGLAND, History of Desire
*LOUISE ERDRICH, Indian Boarding School: The Runaways
KIM ADDONIZIO, First Kiss
PATRICIA SMITH, Skinhead
MARILYN CHIN, How I Got That Name
CATHY SONG, Heaven
MARTÍN ESPADA, Alabanza
LI-YOUNG LEE, Eating Alone
*KATHY FISH, Collective Nouns for Humans in the Wild
CLAUDIA RANKINE, You are in the dark, in the car…
*SPENCER REECE, The Clerk’s Tale
*A. VAN JORDAN, from
TAYLOR MALI, What Teachers Make
*MARGARET NOODIN, What the Peepers Say / Agoozimakakiig Idiwag
NATASHA TRETHEWAY, History Lesson
SHERMAN ALEXIE, Postcards to Columbus
HONORÉE FANONNE JEFFERS, Unidentified Female Student, Former Slave
ALLISON JOSEPH, On Being Told I Dont Speak Like a Black Person
*ADRIENNE SU, Substitutions
BRIAN TURNER, What Every Soldier Should Know
*SUJI KWOCK KIM, Occupation
TERRANCE HAYES, Talk
*MONICA YOUN, Goldacre
JEN BERVIN, from Nets [erasure of Shakespeare’s Sonnet 64]
*OLIVER DE LA PAZ, Autism Screening Questionnaire
*TRACY SMITH, Declaration [erasure of the Declaration of Independence]
EDUARDO CORRAL, In Colorado My Father Scoured and Stacked Dishes
ROSS GAY, a small needful fact
*AIMEE NEZHUKUMATATHIL, Self-Portrait as Scallop
*KATY DIDDEN, "Embrace Them All"
*JERICHO BROWN, Bullet Points
*MAHOGANY L. BROWNE, Black Girl Magic
*ADA LIMÓN, How to Triumph Like a Girl
*MATTHEW OLZMANN, Letter Beginning with Two Lines by Czeslaw Milosz
*ARACELIS GIRMAY, Ode to the Watermelon
*ILYA KAMINSKY, We Lived Happily during the War
*MAGGIE SMITH, Good Bones
NATALIE DIAZ, When My Brother was an Aztec
*JENNY JOHNSON, Tail
AMIT MAJMUDAR, Arms and the Man
TARFIA FAIZULLAH, En Route to Bangladesh
PATRICIA LOCKWOOD, Rape Joke
*JACOB SAENZ, Blue Line Incident
*OCEAN VUONG, Aubade with Burning City
*KAVEH AKBAR, Portrait of the Alcoholic with Relapse Fantasy
*FATIMAH ASHGAR, Pluto Shits on the Universe
*DANEZ SMITH, alternate names for black boys
*JAVIER ZAMORA, El Salvador
*NOAH BALDINO, Passing
*LAYLI LONG SOLDER, 38

PART FOUR: 9 PLAYS
SOPHOCLES, Oedipus the King (Translated by David Greene)
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE, Othello, the Moor of Venice
HENRIK IBSEN, A Doll House (Translated by R. Farquharson Sharp)
SUSAN GLASPELL, Trifles
TENNESSEE WILLIAMS, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
AUGUST WILSON, Fences
*NILO CRUZ, Anna in the Tropics
*NEENA BEBER, Misreadings
*LYNN NOTTAGE, Sweat

Biographical Notes on the Authors

Glossary of Critical and Literary Terms

Index of Authors, Titles, and First Lines

Authors

Janet Gardner

Janet E. Gardner was Associate Professor of English at University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth, where she taught courses in drama, British and world literature, and writing for many years. She has published numerous articles, reviews, and chapters on contemporary drama, especially modern British drama and the work of Caryl Churchill.

Beverly Lawn

Beverly Lawn is Professor of English Emerita and taught undergraduate and graduate fiction and poetry courses for over three decades. She is editor or coeditor of several literature anthologies, including 40 Short Stories: A Portable Anthology and is also the author of Throat of Feathers, a book of poems.

Jack Ridl

Jack Ridl is Professor Emeritus of English at Hope College where he taught courses in literature, essay writing, poetry writing, and the nature of poetry for thirty-seven years. In 1996 The Carnegie (CASE) Foundation named him Michigan Professor of the Year. Jack’s poetry has been nominated for 18 Pushcart Prizes and includes his recent collection, Saint Peter and the Goldfinch (2019, Wayne State UP).

Peter Schakel

Peter Schakel was the Peter C. and Emajean Cook Professor of English at Hope College, where he taught for forty-eight years. He published numerous scholarly and pedagogical studies on Jonathan Swift and C. S. Lewis. Schakel passed away in 2024.

Joanne Diaz

Joanne Diaz is the recipient of fellowships from the Illinois Arts Council, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Sustainable Arts Foundation. She is the author of My Favorite Tyrants and The Lessons, the co-editor of The Little Magazine in Contemporary America, and the co-host of the Poetry for All podcast. She is the Isaac Funk Endowed Professor of English at Illinois Wesleyan University.

Related Titles

Literature with 2021 MLA Update

Janet Gardner; Joanne Diaz; Beverly Lawn; Jack Ridl; Peter Schakel | Fifth Edition | 2021 | ISBN:9781319462529

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Literature: A Portable Anthology

Janet Gardner; Joanne Diaz; Beverly Lawn; Jack Ridl; Peter Schakel | Sixth Edition | 2025 | ISBN:9781319474065

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