Literature: A Portable Anthology

Literature: A Portable Anthology offers you an affordable and diverse collection of classic and contemporary fiction, poetry, and drama, with a complete guide to reading and writing about literature.

[* 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 *Literature and Difficulty
2. The Role of Good Reading The Value of Rereading Close Reading The Myth of “Hidden Meaning” Questions for Close Reading: Fiction
Annotating WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS, “The Second Coming” (Annotated Poem) Questions for Close Reading: Poetry Note-Taking Questions for Close Reading: Drama Informal Writing Using Reference Materials 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 Julia’s Clothes” STUDENT ESSAY: Jessica Barnes, “Poetry in Motion: Herrick’s ‘Upon Julia’s Clothes’ ” Analysis ROBERT BROWNING, “My Last Duchess” STUDENT ESSAY: Adam Walker, “Possessed by the Need for Possession: Browning’s ‘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 *Understanding Artificial Intelligence What to Document and What Not to Document Documenting Sources: MLA Format In-Text Citations Preparing Your Works Cited List STUDENT ESSAY: Sample 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: Fiction Nathaniel Hawthorne, Young Goodman Brown Edgar Allan Poe, The Cask of Amontillado Ambrose Bierce, An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge Charlotte Perkins Gilman, The Yellow Wallpaper Kate Chopin, The Story of an Hour Anton Chekhov, The Lady with the Dog James Joyce, The Dead Franz Kafka, The Metamorphosis Virginia Woolf, Kew Gardens Zora Neale Hurston, Sweat Ernest Hemingway, Hills Like White Elephants William Faulkner, A Rose for Emily Shirley Jackson, The Lottery Ralph Ellison, Battle Royal Flannery O’Connor, A Good Man Is Hard to Find James Baldwin, Sonny’s Blues *Paule Marshall, Reena *Julio Cortázar, Continuity of Parks Joyce Carol Oates, Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been? *Ursula LeGuin, The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas Alice Walker, Everyday Use Jamaica Kincaid, Girl Raymond Carver, Cathedral Sandra Cisneros, My Name Louise Erdrich, The Red Convertible Tim O’Brien, The Things They Carried Margaret Atwood, Happy Endings *Leila Aboulela, The Museum ZZ Packer, Brownies Yiyun Li, A Thousand Years of Good Prayers Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, The Thing Around Your Neck *Simon Rich, I Love Girl Ted Chiang, The Great Silence *Carmen Maria Machado, The Husband Stitch *Anthony Veasna So, Three Women of Chuck’s Donuts *Jonathan Escoffery, Splashdown *Etgar Keret, Almost Everything *Jamil Jan Kochai, The Haunting of Hajji Hotak *Morgan Talty, The Name Means Thunder *Yvette Lisa Ndlovu, Home Became a Thing with Thorns
PART THREE: Poetry Anonymous, The Wife’s Lament *Rumi, Let’s love each other *Hwang Jini, Expectation Sir Thomas Wyatt, Whoso list to hunt Queen Elizabeth I, On Monsieur’s Departure Christopher Marlowe, The Passionate Shepherd to His Love Walter Raleigh, The Nymph’s Reply to the Shepherd William Shakespeare, Sonnet 18 (“Shall I compare thee to a summer’s 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 Ben Jonson, On My First Son John Donne, A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning John Donne, Death, be not proud George Herbert, The Collar Robert Herrick, To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time Andrew Marvell, To His Coy Mistress John Milton, When I consider how my light is spent Anne Bradstreet, Here Follows Some Verses upon the Burning of Our House 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 William Wordsworth, Lines Composed a Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey Kobayashi Issa, (“All the time I pray to Buddha”) Kobayashi Issa, (“Don’t worry, spiders,”) Kobayashi Issa, (“Goes out, comes back — ”) George Gordon, Lord Byron, Prometheus Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Kubla Khan John Keats, When I have fears that I may cease to be John Keats, Ode to a Nightingale Percy Bysshe Shelley, Ode to the West Wind Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Ulysses Robert Browning, My Last Duchess Edgar Allan Poe, Annabel Lee Elizabeth Barrett Browning, How do I love thee? Let me count the ways Matthew Arnold, Dover Beach Lewis Carroll, Jabberwocky Emily Dickinson, I heard a Fly buzz — when I died *Emily Dickinson, could I but ride indefinite — Emily Dickinson, Because I could not stop for Death *Frances Ellen Watkins Harper, Learning to Read *Gerard Manley Hopkins, Pied Beauty *José Marti, Two Homelands Walt Whitman, From Song of Myself William Butler Yeats, The Lake Isle of Innisfree William Butler Yeats, The Second Coming Edwin Arlington Robinson, Richard Cory Paul Laurence Dunbar, We Wear the Mask *Angelina Weld Grimké, El Beso Robert Frost, After Apple-Picking Robert Frost, The Road Not Taken Robert Frost, Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening Ezra Pound, In a Station of the Metro Ezra Pound, The River-Merchant’s Wife: A Letter T. S. Eliot, The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock Wallace Stevens, Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird Rainer Maria Rilke, Archaic Torso of Apollo Marianne Moore, Poetry Wilfred Owen, Dulce et Decorum Est Langston Hughes, The Negro Speaks of Rivers Langston Hughes, The Weary Blues Langston Hughes, Theme for English B Langston Hughes, Harlem Claude McKay, America E. E. Cummings, in Just- E. E. Cummings, “next to of course god america i Edna St. Vincent Millay, What lips my lips have kissed William Carlos Williams, The Red Wheelbarrow William Carlos Williams, This Is Just to Say Pablo Neruda, Body of a Woman Countee Cullen, Incident W. H. Auden, Funeral Blues (Stop all the clocks) *Julia de Burgos, To Julia de Burgos Federico García Lorca, Dawn Gwendolyn Brooks, the mother Gwendolyn Brooks, We Real Cool Czeslaw Milosz, Dedication Elizabeth Bishop, The Fish Elizabeth Bishop, One Art Theodore Roethke, My Papa’s Waltz Dylan Thomas, Do not go gentle into that good night Allen Ginsberg, A Supermarket in California *Robert Hayden, Those Winter Sundays Audre Lorde, Coal Sylvia Plath, Daddy William Stafford, Traveling through the Dark Mahmoud Darwish, Identity Card Seamus Heaney, Digging Seamus Heaney, Mid-Term Break Denise Levertov, The Ache of Marriage Dudley Randall, Ballad of Birmingham Adrienne Rich, Diving into the Wreck *Adrienne Rich, Power Muriel Rukeyser, Waiting for Icarus Gary Soto, Moving Away Lucille Clifton, homage to my hips Lucille Clifton, at the cemetery, walnut grove plantation, south carolina, 1989 Galway Kinnell, After Making Love We Hear Footsteps Joy Harjo, Fear Poem, or I Give You Back Louise Erdrich, Indian Boarding School: The Runaways Louise Glück, Mock Orange *Edward Hirsch, Fast Break *Etheridge Knight, Feeling Fucked Up Li-Young Lee, Eating Alone Sharon Olds, I Go Back to May 1937 Yusef Komunyakaa, Facing It Linda Pastan, love poem *Toi Derricotte, The Minks Rita Dove, Fifth Grade Autobiography *Charles Simic, My mother was a braid of black smoke Robert Pinsky, Shirt Billy Collins, Forgetfulness Victor Hernández Cruz, Problems with Hurricanes Philip Levine, What Work Is Tony Hoagland, History of Desire Bernadette Mayer, Sonnet (You jerk you didn’t call me up) Judith Ortiz Cofer, The Latin Deli: An Ars Poetica Richard Garcia, Why I Left the Church *Carter Revard, In Oklahoma *Eavan Boland, That the Science of Cartography Is Limited Marilyn Chin, How I Got That Name Mark Doty, A Display of Mackerel Allison Joseph, On Being Told I Don’t Speak Like a Black Person Jane Kenyon, Happiness *Jack Agüeros, Sonnet: The History of Puerto Rico Mary Ruefle, Rain Effect *Martín Espada, My Name is Espada Natasha Trethewey, History Lesson Jorie Graham, Prayer Taylor Mali, What Teachers Make Honorée Fanonne Jeffers, Unidentified Female Student, Former Slave Suji Kwock Kim, Occupation Kim Addonizio, First Kiss *Nick Carbó, Robo *Mary Oliver, Wild Geese Marilyn Nelson, Emmett Till’s name still catches in my throat, Brian Turner, What Every Soldier Should Know Terrance Hayes, Talk *Terrance Hayes, American Sonnet to My Past and Future Assassin *Wislawa Szymborska, Photograph from September 11 C. K. Williams, On the Métro Aracelis Girmay, Ode to the Watermelon Naomi Shihab Nye, Gate A-4 *Lemn Sissay, Some Things I Like W. S. Merwin, One of the Butterflies Amit Majmudar, Arms and the Man *Kay Ryan, Crib *Solmaz Sharif, Reaching Guantánamo *Evie Shockley, Tonight I Saw Eduardo Corral, In Colorado My Father Scoured and Stacked Dishes *Raphael Campo, Primary Care Katy Didden, “Embrace Them All” Ilya Kaminsky, We Lived Happily during the War Tarfia Faizullah, En Route to Bangladesh, Another Crisis of Faith *Gregory Pardlo, Wishing Well Claudia Rankine, (“You are in the dark, in the car . . .”) Danez Smith, alternate names for black boys Ocean Vuong, Aubade with Burning City Fatimah Asghar, Pluto Shits on the Universe *Rick Barot, Cascades 501 Ross Gay, A Small Needful Fact Ada Limón, How to Triumph Like a Girl *Alberto Ríos, The Border: A Double Sonnet Jericho Brown, Bullet Points Mahogany L. Browne, Black Girl Magic Carolyn Forché, The Boatman Matthew Olzmann, Letter Beginning with Two Lines by Czeslaw Milosz *No’u Revilla, Smoke Screen Kaveh Akbar, Portrait of the Alcoholic with Relapse Fantasy Oliver de La Paz, Autism Screening Questionnaire — Speech and Language Delay Jenny Johnson, Tail Layli Long Soldier, 38 Maggie Smith, Good Bones Javier Zamora, El Salvador *Raymond Antrobus, Miami Airport Noah Baldino, Passing *Chen Chen, I Invite My Parents to a Dinner Party Kathy Fish, Collective Nouns for Humans in the Wild *David Tomas Martinez, Found Fragment on Ambition Aimee Nezhukumatathil, Self-Portrait as Scallop Jacob Saenz, Blue Line Incident Tracy Smith, Declaration [erasure of the Declaration of Independence] *Reginald Dwayne Betts, Ghazal *Fatma Krouma, Other Banks *Sawako Nakayasu, Girl Soup *José Olivarez, Ars Poetica *Carl Phillips, Something to Believe In *Kayleb Rae Candrilli, My Future Husband-Wife and I Make a Blood Pact to Become the Fathers We Always Needed *Victoria Chang, My Mother’s Lungs *Natalie Diaz, Manhattan is a Lenape Word *Alex Dimitrov, Love *Grace Schulman, Because *John Keene, Words *Jason Koo, The Rest is Silence *Diane Seuss, The sonnet, like poverty, teaches you what you can do *Adrienne Su, My Life in Peaches *Richie Hofmann, Things That Are Rare *John Lee Clark, Slateku *Paisley Rekdal, Have Knowledge
PART FOUR: Drama *Sophocles, Oedipus the King (Translated by David Kovacs) *William Shakespeare, As You Like It Henrik Ibsen, A Doll House (Translated by R. Farquharson Sharp) Susan Glaspell, Trifles *Alice Childress, Trouble in Mind *Luis Valdez, Zoot Suit August Wilson, Fences Lynn Nottage, Sweat *James Ijames, Fat Ham
Glossary of Critical and Literary Terms Index of Authors, Titles, and First Lines