Part One: THE ELEMENTS OF POETRY. 1. What Is Poetry? The Eagle by Alfred, Lord Tennyson. Winter by William Shakespeare. Dulce et Decorum Est by Wilfred Owen. Reviewing Chapter One. Understanding and Evaluating Poetry. Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? by William Shakespeare. The Whipping by Robert Hayden. The last Night that She lived by Emily Dickinson. Ballad of Birmingham by Dudley Randall. Kitchenette Building by Gwendolyn Brooks. The Red Wheelbarrow by William Carlos Williams. Constantly risking absurdity by Lawrence Ferlinghetti. Suicide's Note by Langston Hughes. Terence, this is stupid stuff by A. E. Housman. Ars Poetica by Archibald MacLeish. Suggestions for Writing. 2. Reading the Poem. The Man He Killed by Thomas Hardy. A Study of Reading Habits by Philip Larkin. Is my team plowing by A. E. Housman. Reviewing Chapter Two. Break of Day by John Donne. There's been a Death, in the Opposite House by Emily Dickinson. When in Rome by Mari Evans. Animals Are Passing from Our Lives by Philip Levine. Question by May Swenson. Mirror by Sylvia Plath. The Clod and the Pebble by William Blake. Ethics by Linda Pastan. Storm Warnings by Adrienne Rich. Suggestions for Writing. 3. Denotation and Connotation. There is no Frigate like a Book by Emily Dickinson. When my love swears that she is made of truth by William Shakespeare. Pathedy of Manners by Ellen Kay. Exercises. Reviewing Chapter Three. Naming of Parts by Henry Reed. Cross by Langston Hughes. The world is too much with us by William Wordsworth. Desert Places by Robert Frost. A Hymn to God the Father by John Donne. One Art by Elizabeth Bishop. 35/10 by Sharon Olds. Suggestions for Writing. 4. Imagery. Meeting at Night by Robert Browning. Parting at Morning by Robert Browning. Exercises. Reviewing Chapter Four. Spring by Gerard Manley Hopkins. The Widow's Lament in Springtime by William Carlos Williams. The Man with Night Sweats by Thom Gunn. I felt a Funeral, in my Brain by Emily Dickinson. Living in Sin by Adrienne Rich. The Forge by Seamus Heaney. After Apple-Picking by Robert Frost. Those Winter Sundays by Robert Hayden. An August Night by Seamus Heaney. The Snow Man by Wallace Stevens. To Autumn by John Keats. Suggestions for Writing. 5. Figurative Language 1: Simile, Metaphor, Personification, Apostrophe, Metonymy. Harlem (previously called Dream Deferred) by Langston Hughes. Bereft by Robert Frost. It sifts from Leaden Sieves by Emily Dickinson. The Author to Her Book by Anne Bradstreet. The Telephone by Maya Angelou. Bright Star by John Keats. Exercise. Reviewing Chapter Five. Mind by Richard Wilbur. I taste a liquor never brewed by Emily Dickinson. Metaphors by Sylvia Plath. Toads by Philip Larkin. Ghost of a Chance by Adrienne Rich. A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning by John Donne. To His Coy Mistress by Andrew Marvell. Introduction to Poetry by Billy Collins. Suggestions for Writing. 6. Figurative Language 2: Symbol, Allegory. The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost. A Noiseless Patient Spider by Walt Whitman. The Sick Rose by William Blake. Digging by Seamus Heaney. To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time by Robert Herrick. Peace by George Herbert. Exercise. Reviewing Chapter Six. The Writer by Richard Wilbur. Fire and Ice by Robert Frost. Up-Hill by Christina Rossetti. Harlem Hopscotch by Maya Angelou. I Saw in Louisiana a Live-Oak Growing by Walt Whitman. Because I could not stop for Death by Emily Dickinson. Hymn to God My God, in My Sickness by John Donne. Weighing the Dog by Billy Collins. Ulysses by Alfred, Lord Tennyson. Suggestions for Writing. 7. Figurative Language 3: Paradox, Overstatement, Understatement, Irony. Much Madness is divinest Sense by Emily Dickinson. The Sun Rising by John Donne. Incident by Countee Cullen. Barbie Doll by Marge Piercy. The Chimney Sweeper by William Blake. Ozymandias by Percy Bysshe Shelley. Exercise. Reviewing Chapter Seven. Lady Luncheon Club by Maya Angelou. Batter my heart, three-personed God by John Donne. Sorting Laundry by Elisavietta Ritchie. The History Teacher by Billy Collins. Mid-Term Break by Seamus Heaney. A Considerable Speck by Robert Frost. The Unknown Citizen by W. H. Auden. in the inner city by Lucille Clifton. My Last Duchess by Robert Browning. Suggestions for Writing. 8. Allusion. Out, Out-- by Robert Frost. She should have died hereafter From MACBETH by William Shakespeare. Reviewing Chapter Eight. in Just- by e. e. cummings. Yet Do I Marvel by Countee Cullen. On His Blindness by John Milton. Miniver Cheevy by Edwin Arlington Robinson. My son the Man by Sharon Olds. Siren Song by Margaret Atwood. Journey of the Magi by T. S. Eliot. Leda and the Swan by William Butler Yeats. Suggestions for Writing. 9. Meaning and Idea. Little Jack Horner by Anonymous. Loveliest of Trees by A. E. Housman. Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening by Robert Frost. Reviewing Chapter Nine. The Rhodora: On Being Asked Whence Is the Flower? by Ralph Waldo Emerson. Design by Robert Frost. I never saw a Moor by Emily Dickinson. Faith is a fine invention by Emily Dickinson. On the Sonnet by John Keats. Sonnet by Billy Collins. The Lamb by William Blake. The Tiger by William Blake. The Indifferent by John Donne. Love's Deity by John Donne. My Number by Billy Collins. I had heard it's a fight by Edwin Denby. Suggestions for Writing. 10. Tone. For a Lamb by Richard Eberhart. Apparently with no surprise by Emily Dickinson. Since there's no help by Michael Drayton. Picnic, Lightning by Billy Collins. Reviewing Chapter Ten. My mistress' eyes by William Shakespeare. Crossing the Bar by Alfred, Lord Tennyson. The Oxen by Thomas Hardy. One dignity delays for all by Emily Dickinson. 'Twas warm - at first - like Us by Emily Dickinson. The Apparition by John Donne. The Flea by John Donne. Dover Beach by Matthew Arnold. Church Going by Philip Larkin. Suggestions for Writing. 11. Musical Devices. The Turtle by Ogden Nash. That night when joy began by W. H. Auden. The Waking by Theodore Roethke. God's Grandeur by Gerard Manley Hopkins. Exercise. Reviewing Chapter Eleven. Blow, blow, thou winter wind by William Shakespeare. We Real Cool by Gwendolyn Brooks. Woman Work by Maya Angelou. Rite of Passage by Sharon Olds. As imperceptibly as Grief by Emily Dickinson. Music Lessons by Mary Oliver. Traveling through the dark by William Stafford. Thistles by Ted Hughes. Nothing Gold Can Stay by Robert Frost. Suggestions for Writing. 12. Rhythm and Meter. Virtue by George Herbert. Exercises. Reviewing Chapter Twelve. 'Introduction to Songs of Innocence by William Blake. Had I the Choice by Walt Whitman. The Aim Was Song by Robert Frost. Stanzas by George Gordon, Lord Byron. Old Ladies' Home by Sylvia Plath. Africa by Maya Angelou. To a Daughter Leaving Home by Linda Pastan. A Blessing by James Wright. Porphyria's Lover by Robert Browning. Break, break, break by Alfred, Lord Tennyson. Suggestions for Writing. 13. Sound and Meaning. Pease Porridge Hot by Anonymous. Eight O'Clock by A. E.. Housman. Sound and Sense by Alexander Pope. I heard a Fly buzz - when I died by Emily Dickinson. Exercise. Reviewing Chapter Thirteen. Anthem for Doomed Youth by Wilfred Owen. Landcrab by Margaret Atwood. Tree at My Window by Robert Frost. Aunt Jennifer's Tigers by Adrienne Rich. At the round earth's imagined corners by John Donne. Blackberry Eating by Galway Kinnell. The Health-Food Diner by Maya Angelou. The Dance by William Carlos Williams. Suggestions for Writing. 14. Pattern. The Pulley by George Herbert. On First Looking into Chapman's Homer by John Keats. That time of year by William Shakespeare. Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night by Dylan Thomas. Exercise. Reviewing Chapter Fourteen. From ROMEO AND JULIET by William Shakespeare. Death, be not proud by John Donne. The Sheaves by Edwin Arlington Robinson. The White City by Claude McKay. America by Claude McKay. We Wear the Mask by Paul Laurence Dunbar. Sonnenizio on a Line from Drayton by Kim Addonizio. Acquainted with the Night by Robert Frost. In Memory of the Unknown Poet, Robert Boardman Vaughn by Donald Justice. Villanelle for an Anniversary by Seamus Heaney. The House on the Hill by Edwin Arlington Robinson. These are the days when Birds come back by Emily Dickinson. Delight in Disorder by Robert Herrick. Still to Be Neat by Ben Jonson. Suggestions for Writing. 15. Evaluating Poetry 1: Sentimental, Rhetorical, Didactic Verse. God's Will for You and Me and Pied Beauty. A Poison Tree and The Most Vital Thing in Life. Lower New York: At Dawn and Composed upon Westminster Bridge. Pitcher and The Old-Fashioned Pitcher. Piano and The Days Gone By. The Engine and I like to see it lap the Miles. When I Have Fears and O Solitude! Suggestions for Writing. 16. Evaluating Poetry 2: Poetic Excellence. The Canonization by John Donne. Ode on a Grecian Urn by John Keats. There's a certain Slant of light by Emily Dickinson. Home Burial by Robert Frost. The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock by T. S. Eliot. Sunday Morning by Wallace Stevens. The Weary Blues by Langston Hughes. The Fish by Elizabeth Bishop. Diving into the Wreck by Adrienne Rich. Part Two: WRITING ABOUT POETRY. I. Why Write about Literature? II. For Whom Do You Write? III. Two Basic Approaches: 1. Explication. 2. Analysis. IV. Choosing a Topic. 1. Papers That Focus on a Single Poem. 2. Papers of Comparison and Contrast. 3. Papers on a Number of Poems by a Single Author. 4. Papers on a Number of Poems with Some Feature Other than Authorship in Common. V. Proving Your Point. VI. Writing the Paper. VII. Introducing Quotations
