the norton introduction to literature - gbv · the norton introduction to literature seventh...

The Norton Introduction to

Literature

SEVENTH E D I T I O N

Instructor's Guide for the

Regular and Shorter Editions

and The Norton Introduction to Poetry

Kelly J.MaysNew Mexico State University

Gayla McGlameryBryan CrockettLoyola College in Maryland

W. W. NORTON & COMPANYNEW YORK • LONDON

Contents

Introduction xxxiAcknowledgments xxxvUsing the Instructor's Guide

Teaching Fiction i

Fiction: Reading, Responding, Writing 3

PLANNING IDEAS 3

Spencer Hoist, The Zebra Storyteller 3Audre Thomas, Kill Day on the Government Wharf 4

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 6

Guy de Maupassant, The Jewelry 7QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 8SUGGESTION FOR WRITING 8

Understanding the Text 9

1 PLOT 9

PLANNING IDEAS 9

Margaret Atwood, Happy Endings 1 oQUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 11

John Cheever, The Country Husband 11QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 14SUGGESTION FOR WRITING 15

James Baldwin, Sonny's Blues 15QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 17

SUGGESTIONS FOR WRITING 17

READING/WRITING IDEAS FOR CHAPTER 1 18

Essays about Plot 18Troubleshooting 18Plot-Focused Writing Exercises 19

vi CONTENTS

2 POINT OF VIEW 22PLANNING IDEAS 22

Edgar Allan Poe, The Cask of Amontillado 23


Ambrose Bierce, An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge 26

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 27SUGGESTION FOR WRITING 27

Timothy Findley, Dreams 27QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 30

READING/WRITING IDEAS FOR CHAPTER 2 31Essays about Point of View 31Troubleshooting 31Point-of-View-Focused Writing Exercises 32

3 CHARACTERIZATION 33

PLANNING IDEAS 33Eudora Welty, Why I Live at the P.O. 34


Charles Baxter, Fenstad's Mother 35


Doris Lessing, Our Friend Judith 38

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 40SUGGESTIONS FOR WRITING 40

Grace Paley, A Conversation with My Father 41QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 42SUGGESTION FOR WRITING 42

READING/WRITING IDEAS FOR CHAPTER 3 43Essays about Character 43Troubleshooting 45Character-Focused Writing Exercises 45

4 SETTING 47PLANNING IDEAS 47

Richard Dokey, Sanchez 48

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 49Amy Tan, A Pair of Tickets 49


Anton Chekhov, The Lady with the Dog 52

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 5.4READING/WRITING IDEAS FORCHAPTER4 54

Essays about Setting 54

CONTENTS

Troubleshooting 55Setting-Focused Writing Exercise 55

5 SYMBOLS 57

PLANNING IDEAS 57

Nathaniel Hawthorne, Young Goodman Brown 58QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 59SUGGESTION FOR WRITING 59

Franz Kafka, A Hunger Artist 59QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 61

Ann Beattie, Janus 62QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 65

SUGGESTION FOR WRITING 65


Essays about Symbols 65Troubleshooting 65Symbol-Focused Writing Exercise 66

6 THEME 69

PLANNING IDEAS 69

Katherine Mansfield, Her First Ball 70QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 71

James Joyce, Counterparts 71QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 73

Angela Carter, A Souvenir of Japan 73QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 75



Essays about Theme 76Troubleshooting 76Theme-Focused Writing Exercises 77

7 THE WHOLE TEXT 79

PLANNING IDEAS 79

Joseph Conrad, The Secret Sharer 80QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 83

Louise Erdrich, Love Medicine 83QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 85SUGGESTIONS FOR WRITING 86

Guy Vanderhaeghe, The Watcher 86QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 87



Essays on the Whole Text 88

viii CONTENTS

Troubleshooting 89Whole-Text Writing Exercises 89

Exploring Contexts 94

8 THE AUTHOR'S WORK AS CONTEXT: D. H. LAWRENCEAND FLANNERY O'CONNOR 94

PLANNING IDEAS 94

D. H. Lawrence 95Odour of Chrysanthemums 95QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 97

The Blind Man 98QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 101

The Rocking-Horse Winner 102QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 103SUGGESTION FOR WRITING 104

Flannery O'Connor 104A Good Man Is Hard to Find 104QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 106

The Lame Shall Enter First 107QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 109

Everything That Rises Must Converge 110QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 111



Essays about an Author's Work 112Troubleshooting 114Author's-Work-as-Context Writing Exercises 114

9 LITERARY KIND AS CONTEXT: INITIATION STORIES 117PLANNING IDEAS 117

Toni Cade Bambara, Gorilla, My Love 118QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 119SUGGESTION FOR WRITING 119

Alice Munro, Boys and Girls 119QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 121SUGGESTION FOR WRITING 121

Nicholson Baker, Pants on Fire 122QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 123

READING/WRITING IDEAS FOR CHAPTER 9 123Essays about Literary Kinds 123Troubleshooting 124Kind-Focused Writing Exercises 12 5

CONTENTS i

10 FORM AS CONTEXT: THE SHORT SHORT STORY 128

PLANNING IDEAS 128

Kate Chopin, The Story of an Hour 129



Gabriel Garcia Marquez, A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings 131


Ernest Hemingway, A Clean, Well-Lighted Place 132


Jamaica Kincaid, Girl 134


Yasunari Kawabata, The Grasshopper and the Bell Cricket 136




Essays about Form 137

Troubleshooting 139

11 CULTURE AS CONTEXT 140

PLANNING IDEAS 140

Katherine Anne Porter, Holiday 142



Margaret Laurence, The Rain Child 146



Jorge Luis Borges, Pierre Menard, Author of the Quixote 150


READING/WRITING IDEAS FOR CHAPTER 1 1 152

Essays about Cultural Context 152Troubleshooting 153Cultural Context-Focused Writing Exercises 153

12 CRITICAL CONTEXTS: A FICTION CASEBOOK 156

PLANNING IDEAS 156

Will iam Faulkner, A Rose for Emily 157




Essays about Critical Context 160

Troubleshooting 163

Critical Contexts-Focused Writing Exercises 163

CONTENTS

Evaluating Fiction i&7

PLANNING IDEAS 167Richard Connell, The Most Dangerous Game 168


William Faulkner, Barn Burning 170QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 172

Bharati Mukherjee, The Management of Grief 172QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 174SUGGESTION FOR WRITING 174

READING/WRITING IDEAS FOR EVALUATING FICTION 175Evaluative Essays 175Evaluation-Focused Writing Exercises 176

Reading More Fiction 177

Louisa May Alcott, My Contraband 177QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 179

Henry James, The Real Thing 180Charlotte Perkins Gilman, The Yellow Wallpaper 182


Edith Wharton, Souls Belated 185QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 186

Rudyard Kipling, Without Benefit of Clergy 187QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 190

Raymond Carver, Cathedral 190QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 192

Bobbie Ann Mason, Shiloh 193QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 194

Paul Ruffin, Lamar Loper's First Case 195QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 196

Teaching Poetry m

Poetry: Reading, Responding, Writing 201

PLANNING IDEAS 201

Rita Dove, Fifth Grade Autobiography 203QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 203

Anne Sexton, The Fury of Overshoes 203

CONTENTS


PRACTICING READING: SOME POEMS ON LOVE 205Anne Bradstreet, To My Dear and Loving Husband 205


William Shakespeare, [Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?] 206QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 206

Leigh Hunt, Rondeau 207QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 207SUGGESTION FOR WRITING 208

Denise Levertov, Love Poem 2 08QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 209

W. H. Auden, [Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone] 210QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 210

Audre Lorde, Recreation 210QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 210

Marge Piercy, To Have without Holding 210QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 210

Liz Rosenberg, Married Love 211QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 211

John Dryden, [Why should a foolish marriage vow] 211QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 211

Mary, Lady Chudleigh, To the Ladies 212QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 212SUGGESTION FOR WRITING 212

Richard Lovelace, To Althea, from Prison inQUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 213

Edna St. Vincent Millay, [What lips my lips have kissed, and where, andwhy] 213QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 213

Theodore Roethke, She 214QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 214

Karen Chase, Venison 214QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 214

Aphra Behn, On Her Loving Two Equally 215QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 215

William Shakespeare, [Let me not to the marriage of true minds] 215QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 215SUGGESTION FOR WRITING 215

READING/WRITING IDEAS FOR POETRY: READING, RESPONDING,WRITING 216

xii CONTENTS

Understanding the Text 21 s

13 TONE 218

PLANNING IDEAS 218

Marge Piercy, Barbie Doll 219


MANY TONES: POEMS ABOUT FAMILY RELATIONSHIPS 220

Galway Kinnell, After Making Love We Hear Footsteps 220


Seamus Heaney, Mid-Term Break 220


Pat Mora, Elena 221


Sharon Olds, / Go Back to May 1937 223


Li-Young Lee, Persimmons 224


Elizabeth Alexander, West Indian Primer 225


Eamon Grennan, Pause 225



Jimmy Santiago Baca, Green Chile 226



Robert Hayden, Those Winter Sundays 228


James Masao Mitsui, Because of My Father's Job 229


Simon J. Ortiz, My Father's Song 229


Susan Musgrave, You Didn't Fit 231


Erin Moure, Thirteen Years 231



Essays about Tone and Theme 232

Troubleshooting 233

CONTENTS

14 SPEAKER 235

PLANNING IDEAS 235

Sharon Olds, The Lifting 236QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 237


Audre Lorde, Hanging Fire 237QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 238


John Betjeman, In Westminster Abbey 239QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 239

Henry Reed, Lessons of the War: Judging Distances 239QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 240

Gwendolyn Brooks, We Real Cool 240QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 240

Sir Thomas Wyatt, They Flee from Me 241QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 241

Walt Whitman, [/ celebrate myself, and sing myself] 242QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 242SUGGESTION FOR WRITING 242

Pat Mora, La Migra 243QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 243SUGGESTION FOR WRITING 244

Sylvia Plath, Mirror 244QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 244SUGGESTION FOR WRITING 244

Seamus Heaney, The Outlaw 245QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 245

Margaret Atwood, Death of a Young Son by Drowning 245QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 246

READING/WRITING IDEAS FOR CHAPTER 14 246Essay about Speakers 246Troubleshooting 247Speaker-Focused Writing Exercises 248

15 SITUATION AND SETTING 249PLANNING IDEAS 249

SITUATIONS 250

Margaret Atwood, Siren Song 250QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 251

Andrew Marvell, To His Coy Mistress 251Mary Oliver, Singapore 252


Louise Gliick, Labor Day 252

CONTENTS


John Donne, The Sun Rising 253QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 253

Hart Crane, Episode of Hands 253QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 253

Emily Bronte, The Night-Wind 254QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 254SUGGESTION FOR WRITING 254

TIMES 255

William Shakespeare, [Full many a glorious morning have I seen] 255QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 255

John Donne, The Good-Morrow 255QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 255

Sylvia Plath, Morning Song 255Jonathan Swift, A Description of the Morning 256Amy Clampitt, Meridian 256


W. H. Auden, As I Walked Out One Evening 256QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 257


William Shakespeare, Spring 258SUGGESTION FOR WRITING 259

Archibald Lampman, In November 259QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 259

PLACES 259

April Bernard, Praise Psalm of the City-Dweller 259QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 259


Anthony Hecht, A Hill 260QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 260

S u s a n M u s g r a v e , I Am Not a Conspiracy... 261


Thomas Gray, Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard 262QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 262

COMPARING PLACES AND TIMES: THE SENSE OF CULTURAL

OTHERNESS 262

Agha Shahid Ali, Postcard from Kashmir 262QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 263

Cathy Song, Heaven 263QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 264

Marilyn Chin, We Are Americans Now, We Live in the Tundra 265

CONTENTS


Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, Indian Movie, New Jersey 265QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 266

SUGGESTION FOR WRITING 266READING/WRITING IDEAS FOR CHAPTER 1 5 266

Essays about Situation and Setting 266Troubleshooting 267Situation- and Setting-Focused Writing Exercises 267

16 LANGUAGE 269PLANNING IDEAS 269

PRECISION AND AMBIGUITY 270

Sharon Olds, Sex without Love 270QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 271

Gerard Manley Hopkins, Pied Beauty 271QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 271

William Carlos Williams, The Red Wheelbarrow 272QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 272

E. E. Cummings, [in Just-] 272QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 272

Rita Dove, Parsley 273QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 273SUGGESTION FOR WRITING 274

Susan Musgrave, Hidden Meaning 27AQUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 275


Emily Dickinson, [/ dwell in Possibility—] 275QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 276


John Milton, FROM Paradise Lost 277QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 277

METAPHOR AND SIMILE 277

Randall Jarrell, The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner 278Dorothy Livesay, Other 27&


Hart Crane, Forgetfulness 279QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 280

Carolyn Forche, Taking Off My Clothes 280QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 281


Emily Dickinson, [Wild Nights—Wild Nights!] 281QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 282

xvi CONTENTS

Agha Shahid Ali, The Dacca Gauzes 282QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 283SUGGESTION FOR WRITING 283

John Donne, [Batter my heart, three-personed God. ..] 283QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 283

Anonymous, The Twenty-third Psalm 284QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 284SUGGESTION FOR WRITING 284

SYMBOL 284Edmund Waller, Song 285John Gay, [Virgins are like the fair flower in its luster] 285Emily Dickinson, [Go not too near a House of Rose—] 286


William Carlos Williams, Poem [The rose fades] 286Mary Oliver, Roses, Late Summer 286Dorothy Parker, One Perfect Rose 287

QUESTIONS ON THE ROSE POEMS 287

Katha Pollitt, Two Fish 287QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 287

Roo Borson, After a Death 288QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 288


Essays about Language 288Language-Focused Writing Exercises 290

17 THE SOUNDS OF POETRY 291

PLANNING IDEAS 291

John Dryden, To the Memory of Mr. Oldham 292QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 292

William Shakespeare, [Like as the waves make towards the pebbledshore] 293

Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Break, Break, Break 293QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 293

Thomas Nashe, A Litany in Time of Plague 293QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 294

Edgar Allan Poe, The Raven 294Gerard Manley Hopkins, Spring and Fall 295


Emily Dickinson, [A narrow Fellow in the Grass] 295QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 295

Robert Herrick, To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time 296QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 296

CONTENTS


Essays on Sound (and Sense); Troubleshooting 296Sound-Focused Writing Exercise 298

18 INTERNAL STRUCTURE 299

PLANNING IDEAS 300

Anonymous, Sir Patrick Spens 300QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 301SUGGESTION FOR WRITING 301

T. S. Eliot, Journey of the Magi 301QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 301

Karl Shapiro, Auto Wreck 302QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 302

Richard Wilbur, The Pardon 302QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 303

Roo Borson, Save Us From 303William Carlos Williams, The Dance 304


Percy Bysshe Shelley, Ode to the West Wind 304SUGGESTION FOR WRITING 305


Essays about Internal Structure 305Troubleshooting 306Structure-Focused Writing Exercise 306

19 EXTERNAL FORM 308

PLANNING IDEAS 308

THE SONNET 309

John Keats, On the Sonnet 309QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 310

Dante Gabriel Rossetti, A Sonnet Is a Moment's Monument 310QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 311

Countee Cullen, Yet Do I Marvel 311QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 312

Gwen Harwood, In the Park 313QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 313

Emma Lazarus, The New Colossus 313Edwin Morgan, Opening the Cage 314John Milton, [When I consider how my light is spent] 315


Claude McKay, The Harlem Dancer 315QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 316

CONTENTS

Helene Johnson, Sonnet to a Negro in Harlem 316QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 317

William Wordsworth, The world is too much with us 317QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 318

Percy Bysshe Shelley, Ozymandias 318QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 318

Sir Charles G. D. Roberts, The Potato Harvest 318QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 318

Robert Frost, Once by the Pacific 319William Wordsworth, London, 1802 319


Gwendolyn Brooks, First Fight. Then Fiddle 320Claude McKay, The White House 320


William Shakespeare, [My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun] 321QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 321

Diane Ackerman, Sweep Me through Your Many-Chambered Heart 321QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 321

M O R E S O N N E T S : A LIST 322

STANZA FORMS 322Dylan Thomas, Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night 322


Marianne Moore, Poetry 323Elizabeth Bishop, Sestina 323Archibald MacLeish, Ars Poetica 324


THE WAY A POEM LOOKS 324

E. E. Cummings, [Buffalo Bill's] 324QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 324

George Herbert, Easter Wings 325QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 325

Robert Herrick, The Pillar of Fame 325QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 325

E. E. Cummings, [l(a] 325Earle Birney, Anglosaxon Street 326



Essays about External Form 327

CONTENTS

20 THE WHOLE TEXT 330

PLANNING IDEAS 330

W. H. Auden, Musee des Beaux Arts 331



George Herbert, The Collar 331


Emily Dickinson, [My Life had stood—a Loaded Gun—] 332

Robert Frost, Design 332


Anne Sexton, With Mercy for the Greedy 333




Essays on the Whole Text 334Troubleshooting 334Whole Text-Focused Writing Exercises 335


21 THE AUTHOR'S WORK AS CONTEXT: JOHN KEATS 341

PLANNING IDEAS 341

On First Looking into Chapman's Homer 342


On the Grasshopper and the Cricket 343


On Seeing the Elgin Marbles 344


When I Have Fears 345


Ode to a Nightingale 345


Ode on a Grecian Urn 346


Ode on Melancholy 348


To Autumn 349


Passages from Letters 350

QUESTIONS ON THE POETRY AND PROSE OF KEATS 351


xx CONTENTS

Essays on the Author's Work as Context 352Troubleshooting 356Author's Work as Context-Writing Exercises 356

22 THE AUTHOR'S WORK IN CONTEXT: ADRIENNE RICH 358

PLANNING IDEAS 358

At a Bach Concert 359QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 360

Storm Warnings 360QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 360

Living in Sin 361QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 362

Snapshots of a Daughter-in-Law 362QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 364

Planetarium 366QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 367

Dialogue 367


Diving into the Wreck 369QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 369

Power 370


For the Record 371


[My mouth hovers across your breasts] 371


Walking down the Road 372QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 372

Delta 372


History 373


QUESTIONS ON THE POETRY AND PROSE OF RICH 375

READING/WRITING IDEAS FOR CHAPTER 22 376Essays on the Author's Work in Context 376Troubleshooting 377Author's Work in Context-Focused Writing Exercises 379

23 LITERARY TRADITION AS CONTEXT 381PLANNING IDEAS 382

ECHO AND ALLUSION 383

William Blake, The Lamb 383QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 383

CONTENTS xxi

Howard Nemerov, Boom! 384QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 384

Marianne Moore, Love in America? 385QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 386

Robert Hollander, You Too? Me Too—Why Not? Soda Pop 386QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 386

POETIC "KINDS" 386

Samuel Taylor Coleridge, What Is an Epigram? 388Ben Jonson, Epitaph on Elizabeth, L. H. 389


Martial, [You've told me, Man, whilst you live] 389QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 389

Richard Crashaw, An Epitaph upon a Young Married Couple, Dead andBuried Together 389QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 389

X. J. Kennedy, Epitaph for a Postal Clerk 390QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 390

Countee Cullen, For a Lady I Know 390QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 390

Mary Barber, To Novella, on her saying deridingly, that a Lady of greatMerit, and fine Address, was bred in the Old Way 391QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 391

Peter Pindar, Epigram 391QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 391QUESTIONS ON THE EPIGRAMS 391QUESTIONS ON HAIKU 392

IMITATING AND ANSWERING 393

Sir Walter Ralegh, The Nymph's Reply to the Shepherd 393William Carlos Williams, Raleigh Was Right 393


E. E. Cummings, [(ponder,darling,these busted statues] 394QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 394

Peter De Vries, To His Importunate Mistress 394QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 394

Kenneth Koch, Variations on a Theme by William Carlos Williams 395Anthony Hecht, The Dover Bitch 395


Wendy Cope, [Not only marble, but the plastic toys] 395QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 395SUGGESTION FOR WRITING 395

CULTURAL BELIEF AND TRADITION 396

John Hollander, Adam's Task 396

CONTENTS

Susan Donnelly, Eve Names the Animals 396

Christina Rossetti, Eve 396

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 396QUESTIONS ON THE ADAM AND EVE POEMS 397SUGGESTION FOR WRITING 397

Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Ulysses 398


Miriam Waddington, Ulysses Embroidered 400


Edna St. Vincent Millay, An Ancient Gesture 401

QUESTIONS ON THE ULYSSES POEMS 402

Langston Hughes, The Negro Speaks of Rivers 402


June Jordan, Something Like a Sonnet for Phillis Miracle Wheatley 403


Maya Angelou, Africa 404


Derek Walcott, A Far Cry from Africa 404


Ishmael Reed, / Am a Cowboy in the Boat ofRa 405

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 405QUESTIONS ON THE POEMS ABOUT AFRICA 406


Judith Ortiz Cofer, How to Get a Baby 407


Alberto Alvaro Rios, Advice to a First Cousin 408


Louise Erdrich, Jacklight 409



Literary-Tradition-as-Context Essays 410

Troubleshooting 412

Literary Tradition-Focused Writing Exercises 413

24 HISTORICAL AND CULTURAL CONTEXTS 414

PLANNING IDEAS 414

TIMES, PLACES, AND EVENTS 415

Miller Williams, Thinking about Bill, Dead of AIDS 415


Irving Layton, From Colony to Nation 416


CONTENTS xxiii

Mary Jo Salter, Welcome to Hiroshima 416QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 416

Dwight Okita, Notes for a Poem on Being Asian American 417QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 417

Donald Justice, Children Walking Home from School through GoodNeighborhood 417QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 417

Claude McKay, America 417QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 417SUGGESTION FOR WRITING 418

Langston Hughes, Harlem (A Dream Deferred) 418Robert Hayden, Frederick Douglass 418


Mbuyiseni Oswald Mtshali, Boy on a Swing 419Thomas Hardy, The Convergence of the Twain 419


Wilfred Owen, Duke et Decorum Est 421QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 421

Dudley Randall, Ballad of Birmingham 421QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 421

Ai, Riot Act, April 29, 1992 422QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 422SUGGESTIONS FOR WRITING 422

CONSTRUCTING IDENTITY, EXPLORING GENDER 423

V Robert Browning, My Last Duchess 423QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 424

Richard Lovelace, Song: To Lucasta, Going to the Wars 424QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 424

Isaac Rosenberg, Break of Day in the Trenches 424QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 424

Edgar A. Guest, The Things That Make a Soldier Great 425QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 425

Wilfred Owen, Disabled 425QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 425

Paulette Jiles, Paper Matches 426QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 426

Marge Piercy, What's That Smell in the Kitchen? 426QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 426

Elizabeth, When I Was Fair and Young 427QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 427

Kay Smith, Annunciation 427

xxiv CONTENTS

Edna St. Vincent Millay, [Women have loved before as I love now] 428QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 428

Aphra Behn, To the Fair Clarinda, Who Made Love to Me, Imagined MoreThan Woman 429

Liz Rosenberg, The Silence of Women 429QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 429

Sharon Olds, The Elder Sister 430Elizabeth Bishop, Exchanging Hats 430


Judith Ortiz Cofer, The Changeling 430QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 430

Amy Lowell, The Lonely Wife 431QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 431

Elizabeth Spires, The Bodies 431QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 431

Marilyn Hacker, [Who would divorce her lover...] 432QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 432

Ha Jin, The Past 432QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 432

Diane Wakoski, The Ring of Irony 433QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 433

Edna St. Vincent Millay, [I, being born a woman and distressed] 433QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 434


Essays about Cultural Context 434

25 CRITICAL CONTEXTS: A POETRY CASEBOOK 437

PLANNING IDEAS 437

Sylvia Plath, Daddy 438QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 439

George Steiner, Dying Is an Art 439QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 440

Irving Howe, The Plath Celebration: A Partial Dissent 440QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 441

A. Alvarez, Sylvia Plath 441QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 442

Judith Kroll, Rituals of Exorcism: "Daddy" 443QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 443

Mary Lynn Broe, FROM Protean Poetic 443QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 444

Margaret Homans, FROM A Feminine Tradition 444QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 444

Pamela J. Annas, FROM A Disturbance in Mirrors 445

CONTENTS


Steven Gould Axelrod, Jealous Gods 446QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 446

GENERAL QUESTIONS ON THE LITERARY CRITICISM 447


Essays about Critical Context 448Troubleshooting 450Critical Context-Focused Writing Exercises 451

26 THE PROCESS OF CREATION 454

PLANNING IDEAS 455

John Keats[Bright Star! would I were steadfast as thou art!] 455QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 456

To Autumn 456Alexander Pope, Ode on Solitude 457Emily Dickinson, [Safe in their Alabaster Chambers—] 458



Essays about the Process of Creation 459Troubleshooting 460

Evaluating Poetry 461

PLANNING IDEAS 461

Irving Layton, Street Funeral 462QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 463


Galway Kinnell, Blackberry Eating 463QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 464

Emily Dickinson, [The Brain—is wider than the Sky—] 464QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 464

READING/WRITING IDEAS FOR EVALUATING POETRY 464

Evaluative Essays 464Troubleshooting 466Evaluation-Focused Writing Exercises 467A Sample Analysis 468

Andrew Marvell, To His Coy Mistress 468

Reading More Poetry 474

W. H. Auden, In Memory ofW. B. Yeats 474QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 474

Hart Crane, To Emily Dickinson 474

CONTENTS


H. D. (Hilda Doolittle), Helen 475John Donne

The Canonization 475QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 476

[Death be not proud, though some have called thee] 477QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 477

A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning 478QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 478

Paul Laurence Dunbar, Sympathy 479Robert Frost, The Road Not Taken 479Thomas Hardy, The Darkling Thrush 480


Gerard Manley HopkinsGod's Grandeur 480QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 480

The Windhover 481QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 481

Andrew Marvell, On a Drop of Dew 482John Milton, Lycidas 482Sylvia Plath, Lady Lazarus 483Ezra Pound, The Garden 484Wallace Stevens

The Emperor of Ice-Cream 484Sunday Morning 485

Walt Whitman, When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloomed 486William Wordsworth, Lines Composed a Few Miles above Tintem

Abbey... 487

W. B. Yeats, Easter 1916 488

Teaching Drama 490

Drama: Reading, Responding, Writing 492

Susan Glaspell, Trifles 492PLANNING IDEAS 492COMMENTARY 493QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 493SUGGESTIONS FOR WRITING 494

David Ives, Sure Thing 495PLANNING IDEAS 495COMMENTARY 495

CONTENTS


Understanding the Text 498

Lillian Hellman, The Little Foxes 498PLANNING IDEAS 498COMMENTARY 498QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 501SUGGESTION FOR WRITING 502

Bernard Shaw, Pygmalion 502PLANNING IDEAS 502COMMENTARY 504QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 508SUGGESTIONS FOR WRITING 509

Henrik Ibsen, Hedda Gabler 509PLANNING IDEAS 509COMMENTARY 510QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 512SUGGESTIONS FOR WRITING 513

William Shakespeare, Hamlet 514

PLANNING IDEAS 514COMMENTARY 515QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 518SUGGESTIONS FOR WRITING 520

READING/WRITING IDEAS FOR UNDERSTANDING THE TEXT 520

Essays 520


27 THE AUTHOR'S WORK AS CONTEXT: ANTON CHEKHOV 524The Bear 525

PLANNING IDEAS 525COMMENTARY 525


On the Injurious Effects of Tobacco 527PLANNING IDEAS 527COMMENTARY 527QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 529

The Cherry Orchard 530PLANNING IDEAS 530COMMENTARY 530QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 534SUGGESTIONS FOR WRITING 535

Passages from Letters 536

xxviii CONTENTS



Essays on the Author's Work as Context 536Troubleshooting 537Author's Work as Context-Focused Writing Exercises 537

28 LITERARY CONTEXT: TRAGEDY AND COMEDY 540

Sophocles, Oedipus the King 540PLANNING IDEAS 540COMMENTARY 541QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 543SUGGESTIONS FOR WRITING 544

Oscar Wilde, The Importance of Being Earnest 545PLANNING IDEAS 545COMMENTARY 546QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 549SUGGESTIONS FOR WRITING 550

READING/WRITING IDEAS FOR CHAPTER 28 551Essays about Literary Context 551

29 CULTURE AS CONTEXT: SOCIAL AND HISTORICAL SETTING 553Lorraine Hansberry, A Raisin in the Sun 554

PLANNING IDEAS 554COMMENTARY 555QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 559


Arthur Miller, Death of a Salesman 561PLANNING IDEAS 561COMMENTARY 562QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 565SUGGESTIONS FOR WRITING 566COMPARATIVE QUESTIONS ON A RAISIN IN THE SUN ANDDEATH OF A SALESMAN 567

READING/WRITING IDEAS FOR CHAPTER 29 567Essays about Cultural Context 567Troubleshooting 568Cultural Context-Focused Writing Exercises 568

30 CRITICAL CONTEXTS: A DRAMA CASEBOOK 571PLANNING IDEAS 571

Sophocles, Antigone 573QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 574Richard C. Jebb, FROM The Antigone of Sophocles 576Maurice Bowra, FROM Sophoclean Tragedy 576Bernard Knox, Introduction to Sophocles: The Three

Theban Plays 576QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 576

CONTENTS

George Steiner, FROM Antigones 577QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 578

Martha C. Nussbaum, FROM The Fragility of Goodness 579QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 579

Rebecca W. Bushnell, FROM Prophesying Tragedy 580QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 580

Mary Whitlock Blundell, FROM Helping Friends and HarmingEnemies 580QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 581

READING/WRITING IDEAS FOR CHAPTER 30 581Essays about Critical Context 581Troubleshooting 582Critical Context-Focused Writing Exercises 583

Evaluating Drama 587

Tennessee Williams, A Streetcar Named Desire 587PLANNING IDEAS 587COMMENTARY 589QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 591

William Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night's Dream 593PLANNING IDEAS 593COMMENTARY 593QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 594SUGGESTIONS FOR WRITING 594

READING/WRITING IDEAS FOR EVALUATING DRAMA 595Evaluative Essays 595Troubleshooting; Evaluation-Focused Writing Exercises 596

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