Poems, Poets, Poetry: An Introduction and Anthology

Preface: About This Book Brief Contents Contents Chronological Contents About Poets and Poetry PART I. AN INTRODUCTION TO POETRY 1. The Poem as Life The Private Life William Blake, Infant Sorrow Louise Glück, The School Children E. E. Cummings, in Just- NEW Robert Hayden, Those Winter Sundays Walt Whitman, Hours Continuing Long Wallace Stevens, The Plain Sense of Things The Public Life Michael Harper, American History Charles Simic, Old Couple Robert Lowell, Skunk Hour Nature and Time Anonymous, The Cuckoo Song Dave Smith, The Spring Poem John Keats, The Human Seasons William Shakespeare, Sonnet 60 (Like as the waves make towards the pebbled shore) In Brief: The Poem as Life Reading Other Poems Sir Thomas Wyatt, They Flee from Me Ben Jonson, On My First Son John Milton, On the Late Massacre in Piedmont John Keats, When I Have Fears Emily Dickinson, A narrow Fellow in the grass Langston Hughes, Theme for English B Dylan Thomas, Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night Sylvia Plath, Daddy Rita Dove, Flash Cards Yusef Komunyakaa, Facing It Julia Alvarez, Homecoming 2. The Poem as Arranged Life The Private Life William Blake, Infant Joy William Blake, Infant Sorrow Louise Glück, The School Children E. E. Cummings, in Just- Robert Hayden, Those Winter Sundays Walt Whitman, Hours Continuing Long Wallace Stevens, The Plain Sense of Things The Public Life Michael S. Harper, American History Charles Simic, Old Couple Robert Lowell, Skunk Hour Nature and Time Anonymous, The Cuckoo Song Dave Smith, The Spring Poem John Keats, The Human Seasons William Shakespeare, Sonnet 60 (Like as the waves make towards the pebbled shore) In Brief: The Poem as Arranged Life Reading Other Poems Anonymous, Lord Randal William Shakespeare, Sonnet 29 (When in disgrace with fortune and men's eyes) Chidiock Tichborne, Tichborne's Elegy John Donne, A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning Robert Herrick, Upon Julia's Clothes George Herbert, Love (III) Walt Whitman, A Noiseless Patient Spider Thomas Hardy, The Convergence of the Twain Robert Frost, The Road Not Taken Margaret Atwood, Footnote to the Amnesty Report on Torture Marilyn Nelson, Live Jazz, Franklin Park Zoo 3. Poems as Pleasure Rhythm Rhyme Ben Jonson, On Gut Structure William Carlos Williams, Poem Gwendolyn Brooks, We Real Cool Images William Blake, London Argument Christopher Marlowe, The Passionate Shepherd to His Love Walter Ralegh, The Nymph's Reply to the Shepherd Poignancy William Wordsworth, A Slumber Did My Spirit Seal Wisdom A New Language Finding Yourself In Brief: Poems as Pleasure Reading Other Poems William Shakespeare, Sonnet 130 (My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun) Robert Herrick, To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time William Blake, The Sick Rose Gerard Manley Hopkins, Pied Beauty Thomas Hardy, The Darkling Thrush Robert Frost, After Apple-Picking Robert Frost, Unharvested D.H. Lawrence, Snake William Carlos Williams, The Dance Theodore Roethke, My Papa's Waltz Derek Walcott, The Season of Phantasmal Peace Elizabeth Alexander, Nineteen 4. Describing Poems Poetic Kinds Narrative versus Lyric; Narrative as Lyric Adrienne Rich, Necessities of Life Philip Larkin, Talking in Bed Classifying Lyric Poems Content genres Emily Dickinson, The Heart asks Pleasure--first-- Speech Acts Carl Sandburg, Grass Outer Form Line Width Rhythm Poem Length Combinatorial Form Names Inner Structural Form Sentences Robert Herrick, The Argument of His Book Person Agency Randall Jarrell, The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner Tenses William Wordsworth, A Slumber Did My Spirit Seal Images, or Sensuous Words Sylvia Plath, Metaphors Exploring a Poem John Keats, Upon First Looking into Chapman's Homer In Brief: Describing Poems Reading Other Poems William Shakespeare, Sonnet 129 (Th' expense of spirit in a waste of shame) George Herbert, Easter Wings Andrew Marvell, The Garden John Milton, When I Consider How My Light is Spent Anne Bradstreet, To My Dear and Loving Husband John Keats, Ode to a Nightingale Matthew Arnold, Dover Beach Robert Frost, Mending Wall Ezra Pound, The River Merchant's Wife: A Letter Mark Strand, Courtship Seamus Heaney, From the Frontier of Writing Jorie Graham, San Sepolcro Sherman Alexie, Evolution 5. The Play of Language Sound Units Word Roots Words Sentences Robert Frost, Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening Emily Dickinson, The Heart asks Pleasure--first-- Implication The Ordering of Language George Herbert, Prayer (I) William Shakespeare, Sonnet 66 (Tired with all these, for restful death I cry) Michael Drayton, Since there's no help In Brief: The Play of Language Reading Other Poems John Donne, Holy Sonnet 14 (Batter my heart, three-personed God; for You) John Keats, To Autumn Robert Browning, My Last Duchess Henry Reed, Naming of Parts William Butler Yeats, The Wild Swans at Coole Wallace Stevens, The Emperor of Ice-Cream H.D., Oread E.E. Cummings, r-p-o-p-h-e-s-s-a-g-r Elizabeth Bishop, One Art Joy Harjo, Song for Deer and Myself to Return On Lorna Dee Cervantes, Poema para los Californios Muertos 6. Constructing a Self Multiple Aspects William Shakespeare, Sonnet 30 (When to the sessions of sweet silent thought) Change of Discourse Space and Time Seamus Heaney, Mid-Term Break Testimony Motivations Typicality Tone as a Marker of Selfhood Gerard Manley Hopkins, Spring and Fall Imagination Emily Dickinson, I heard a Fly buzz--when I died-- Persona William Butler Yeats, Crazy Jane Talks with the Bishop In Brief: Constructing a Self Reading Other Poems John Dryden, Sylvia the Fair Walt Whitman, I Saw in Louisiana a Live-Oak Growing Emily Dickinson, I'm Nobody! Who are you? William Butler Yeats, An Irish Airman Foresees His Death Thomas Hardy, The Ruined Maid T. S. Eliot, The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock William Carlos Williams, To Elsie Countee Cullen, Heritage Anne Sexton, Her Kind Charles Wright, Self-Portrait Jane Kenyon, Otherwise Carl Phillips, Africa Says 7. Poetry and Social Identity Adrienne Rich, Mother-in-Law Adrienne Rich, Prospective Immigrants Please Note Langston Hughes, Genius Child Langston Hughes, Me and the Mule Langston Hughes, High to Low Seamus Heaney, Terminus In Brief: Poetry and Social Identity Reading Other Poems Robert Southwell, The Burning Babe Thomas Nashe, A Litany in Time of Plague Anne Bradstreet, A Letter to Her Husband Absent Upon Public Employment William Blake, The Little Black Boy Edward Lear, How Pleasant to Know Mr. Lear Gerard Manley Hopkins, Felix Randal Sylvia Plath, The Applicant David Mura, An Argument: On 1942 Rita Dove, Wingfoot Lake Sheila Ortiz Taylor, The Way Back 8. History and Regionality History William Wordsworth, A slumber did my spirit seal Robert Lowell, The March 1 Langston Hughes, World War II Wilfred Owen, Dulce et Decorum Est Regionality Sherman Alexie, On the Amtrak from Boston to New York City William Wordsworth, Composed upon Westminster Bridge, September 3, 1802 In Brief: History and Regionality Reading Other Poems Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Kubla Khan William Wordsworth, Lines Composed a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey John Keats, Ode on a Grecian Urn William Butler Yeats, Easter 1916 Wallace Stevens, Anecdote of the Jar Robert Lowell, For the Union Dead Robert Hayden, Night, Death, Mississippi W.S. Merwin, The Asians Dying Derek Walcott, The Gulf Simon J. Ortiz, Bend in the River Jorie Graham, What the End Is For Gary Soto, History Silvia Curbelo, Balsero Singing Dionisio Martinez, History as a Second Language 9. Attitudes, Values, Judgments William Shakespeare, Sonnet 76 (Why is my verse so barren of new pride?) Robert Lowell, Epilogue In Brief: Attitudes, Values, Judgments Reading Other Poems John Milton, Lycidas Ben Jonson, Still to Be Neat Richard Lovelace, To Lucasta, Going to the Wars Phillis Wheatley, On Being Brought from Africa to America Elizabeth Barrett Browning, How Do I Love Thee? Walt Whitman, When I Heard the Learn'd Astronomer William Butler Yeats, Meru Robert Frost, The Gift Outright Allen Ginsberg, Sunflower Sutra Louise Glück, Mock Orange Rita Dove, Parsley Heidy Steidlmayer, Knife-Sharpener’s Song New 10. Poets on Poetry Poetry as Imagination Art’s Fiction, Truth’s Claims Poetry as Song Poetry as Words Poetry as an Evolving Structure Poetry as a Destructive Force The Idea of Lyric Why Poetry at All? Emily Dickinson, This is my letter to the World Poetry Over Time The Poet’s Audience Poetry and Style PART II. WRITING ABOUT POETRY 11. Writing about Poems Basic Principles A Brief Example Robert Herrick, Divination by a Daffodil A Longer Example: William Wordsworth, I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud Getting it Down on Paper Begin with a Question Present Your Case Draw Your Conclusions Keeping Your Readers in Mind A Note on Writing about Unrhymed Poems Organizing Your Paper A Note on Well-Ordered Paragraphs Checking Your Work 12. Studying Groups of Poems Walt Whitman: Poems on Lincoln Walt Whitman, Hush'd Be the Camps To-Day Walt Whitman, O Captain! My Captain! Walt Whitman, When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd Walt Whitman, This dust was once a man Emily Dickinson: Poems on Time Emily Dickinson, I like to see it lap the Miles— Emily Dickinson, Because I could not stop for Death— Emily Dickinson, The Heart asks Pleasure—first— Emily Dickinson, I felt a Cleaving in my Mind Emily Dickinson, The first Day's Night had come— Emily Dickinson, After great pain, a formal feeling comes Emily Dickinson, There's a certain Slant of light Emily Dickinson, Pain-expands the Time Writing Your Paper PART III. ANTHOLOGY Sherman Alexie, Reservation Love Song Paula Gunn Allen, Zen Americana New Julia Alvarez, from 33 A. R. Ammons, The City Limits A. R. Ammons, Easter Morning Anonymous, Sir Patrick Spens Anonymous, Western Wind Matthew Arnold, Shakespeare Matthew Arnold, To Marguerite John Ashbery, Paradoxes and Oxymorons John Ashbery, Street Musicians New Margaret Atwood, Habitation Margaret Atwood, This is a Photograph of Me Margaret Atwood, Up W. H. Auden, As I Walked Out One Evening W.H. Auden, Musée des Beaux Arts John Berryman, from Dream Songs 4 (Filling her compact & delicious body) 45 (He stared at ruin. Ruin stared straight back) 384 (The marker slants, flowerless, day's almost done) New Frank Bidart, An American in Hollywood New Frank Bidart, If See No End In Is Frank Bidart, To My Father Elizabeth Bishop, At the Fishhouses Elizabeth Bishop, Poem Elizabeth Bishop, Sestina William Blake, Ah! Sun-flower William Blake, The Garden of Love William Blake, The Lamb New William Blake, The Mental Traveller William Blake, The Tyger Richard Blanco, Letters for Mamá Michael Blumenthal, A Marriage New Michael Blumenthal, Early Childhood Education Anne Bradstreet, Before the Birth of One of Her Children Lucy Brock-Broido, Carrowmore Lucy Brock-Broido, Domestic Mysticism New Lucy Brock-Broido, Self-Deliverance by Lion Emily Bronte, No Coward Soul Is Mine Emily Bronte, Remembrance Gwendolyn Brooks, The Bean Eaters New Gwendolyn Brooks, Beverly Hills, Chicago Elizabeth Barrett Browning, A Musical Instrument Robert Browning, Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came Robert Burns, O, Wert Thou in the Cauld Blast Robert Burns, A Red, Red Rose George Gordon, Lord Byron, When We Two Parted Lorna Dee Cervantes, Freeway 280 Marilyn Chin, Autumn Leaves New Victoria Chang, $4.99 All You Can Eat Sunday Brunch John Clare, Badger John Clare, First Love John Clare, I Am New Lucille Clifton, the lost baby poem New Henry Cole, Car Wash Henri Cole, 40 Days and 40 Nights Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Dejection: An Ode Samuel Taylor Coleridge, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner New Eduardo C. Corral, Monologue of a Vulture’s Shadow William Cowper, The Castaway William Cowper, Epitaph on a Hare Hart Crane, The Broken Tower Hart Crane, To Brooklyn Bridge New Robert Creeley, When I think Countee Cullen, Incident E.E. Cummings, may I feel he said he New E.E. Cummings, next to of course god america i Emily Dickinson, The Brain--is wider than the Sky-- Emily Dickinson, I like a look of Agony Emily Dickinson, Much Madness is divinest Sense-- Emily Dickinson, Safe in their Alabaster Chambers (1859) Emily Dickinson, Safe in their Alabaster Chambers (1861) Emily Dickinson, The Soul selects her own Society— Emily Dickinson, There's a certain Slant of light Emily Dickinson, Wild Nights--Wild Nights! New John Donne, Breake of day John Donne, Death, be not proud John Donne, The Sun Rising New Timothy Donnelly, Reading of Medieval Life, I Wonder Who I Am Rita Dove, Adolescence--II Rita Dove, Dusting Paul Laurence Dunbar, Harriet Beecher Stowe Paul Laurence Dunbar, Robert Gould Shaw Paul Laurence Dunbar, We Wear the Mask New Roberto Durán, Protest T. S. Eliot, Preludes Thomas Sayers Ellis, View of the Library of Congress from Paul Laurence Dunbar High School Ralph Waldo Emerson, Concord Hymn Louise Erdrich, The Strange People New Rhina Espaillat, Translation New Gustavo Pérez Firmat, Turning the Times Tables New Mark Ford, The Long Man Robert Frost, Birches Robert Frost, Design Allen Ginsberg, America Louise Glück, All Hallows Louise Glück, The Balcony New Louise Glück, Midsummer New Albert Goldbarth, The Novel That Asks to Erase Itself New Albert Goldbarth, Unforeseeables Jorie Graham, Of Forced Sightes and Trusty Ferefulness Jorie Graham, Soul Says New Jorie Graham, The Strangers Thomas Gray, Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard Thom Gunn, The Man with Night Sweats Thom Gunn, My Sad Captains H.D., Helen Thomas Hardy, Afterwards Michael S. Harper, Nightmare Begins Responsibility Michael S. Harper, We Assume: On the Death of Our Son, Reuben Masai Harper Robert Hayden, Frederick Douglass Robert Hayden, Mourning Poem for the Queen of Sunday New Terrance Hayes, WOOFER (When I Consider the African-American) New Terrance Hayes, A Small Novel Seamus Heaney, Bogland Seamus Heaney, Punishment George Herbert, The Collar George Herbert, Redemption Robert Herrick, Corinna's Going A-Maying Gerard Manley Hopkins, God's Grandeur Gerard Manley Hopkins, No worst, there is none. Pitched past pitch of grief New John Hollander, By Nature A.E. Housman, Loveliest of Trees, the Cherry Now A.E. Housman, With Rue My Heart Is Laden New Langston Hughes, Dream Variation Langston Hughes, Harlem Langston Hughes, I, Too Langston Hughes, The Weary Blues Ben Jonson, Come, My Celia New Laura Kasischke, Miss Consolation for Emotional Damages John Keats, In drear nighted December John Keats, La Belle Dame Sans Merci John Keats, On Sitting Down to Read King Lear Once Again John Keats, This Living Hand New Jane Kenyon, Back New Jane Kenyon, Otherwise Jane Kenyon, Surprise Etheridge Knight, A Poem for Myself (Or Blues for a Mississippi Black Boy) Kenneth Koch, Variations on a Theme by William Carlos Williams Yusef Komunyakaa, Boat People Yusef Komunyakaa, My Father's Loveletters New Yusef Komunyakaa, The Towers Stanley Kunitz, The Portrait Philip Larkin, High Windows Philip Larkin, Reasons for Attendance Philip Larkin, This Be the Verse D.H. Lawrence, The English Are So Nice! New Inada Lawson, XI. Japs New Li-Young Lee, Mother Deluxe Denise Levertov, The Ache of Marriage Harold Littlebird, White-Washing the Walls Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Aftermath Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, The Jewish Cemetery at Newport Audre Lorde, Hanging Fire Robert Lowell, Sailing Home from Rapallo Archibald MacLeish, Ars Poetica New Victor Martínez, The Ledger New Andrew Marvell, The Definition of Love Andrew Marvell, The Mower’s Song Andrew Marvell, The Mower to the Glowworms Andrew Marvell, To His Coy Mistress New Shara McCallum, The Incident Herman Melville, The Berg Herman Melville, Monody New James Merrill, The Christmas Tree W.S. Merwin, For a Coming Extinction W.S. Merwin, For the Anniversary of My Death John Milton, L'Allegro John Milton, Methought I Saw My Late Espousèd Saint John Milton, On Shakespeare New Marianne Moore, A Grave New Marianne Moore, England Marianne Moore, Poetry Marianne Moore, The Steeple-Jack Pat Mora, La Migra New Pat Mora, Rituals New Thylias Moss, One for All Newborns New Harryette Mullen, Omnivore Frank O'Hara, Ave Maria Frank O'Hara, Why I Am Not a Painter Wilfred Owen, Anthem for Doomed Youth Wilfred Owen, Disabled New Grace Paley, from Detour New Carl Phillips, Blue Carl Phillips, The Kill Carl Phillips, Passing Sylvia Plath, Edge Sylvia Plath, Lady Lazarus Sylvia Plath, Morning Song Edgar Allan Poe, Annabel Lee Alexander Pope, from An Essay on Man (Epistle 1) Ezra Pound, In a Station of the Metro New D.A. Powell, [autumn set us heavily to task: unrooted the dahlias] New D.A. Powell, [cherry elixir: the first medication. so mary poppins] Sir Walter Ralegh, The Lie New Srikanth Reddy, Fourth Circle Adrienne Rich, Diving into the Wreck New Adrienne Rich, I Am in Danger—Sir-- Adrienne Rich, The Middle-Aged Alberto Ríos, Teodoro Luna's Two Kisses Edwin Arlington Robinson, Richard Cory Theodore Roethke, Elegy for Jane Theodore Roethke, The Waking New Aleida Rodríquez, Lexicon of Exile New Noelle Brynn Saito, Turkey People William Shakespeare, Fear No More the Heat o' the Sun William Shakespeare, Full Fathom Five William Shakespeare, Sonnet 18 (Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?) William Shakespeare, Sonnet 116 (Let me not to the marriage of true minds) Percy Bysshe Shelley, Ode to the West Wind Percy Bysshe Shelley, Ozymandias Sir Philip Sidney, from Astrophel and Stella 1 (Loving in Truth) 31 (With how sad steps) Charles Simic, Charon's Cosmology Charles Simic, Fork New Charles Simic, A Suitcase Strapped with a Rope Christopher Smart, From Jubilate Agno Christopher Smart, On a Bed of Guernsey Lilies Dave Smith, On a Field Trip at Fredericksburg New Ron Smith, The Teachers Pass the Popcorn Stevie Smith, Not Waving But Drowning New Tracy K. Smith, El Mar New Tracy K. Smith, Credulity Gary Snyder, Axe Handles Gary Snyder, How Poetry Comes to Me New Edmund Spenser, A Hymne in Honour of Love Edmund Spenser, Sonnet 75 (One day I wrote her name upon the strand) Wallace Stevens, The Idea of Order at Key West Wallace Stevens, The Planet on the Table Wallace Stevens, The Snow Man Wallace Stevens, Sunday Morning Wallace Stevens, Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird Mark Strand, Keeping Things Whole New Adrienne Su, The English Canon New May Swenson, Untitled New May Swenson, I Look at My Hand New May Swenson, How Everything Happens Alfred, Lord Tennyson, from In Memoriam A.H.H. 7 (Dark house) 99 (Risest thou thus) 106 (Ring out, wild bells) 12 (Sad Hesper o'er the buried sun) Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Tears, Idle Tears Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Ulysses Dylan Thomas, Fern Hill Dylan Thomas, In My Craft or Sullen Art New Natasha Trethewey, What is Evidence Henry Vaughan, They Are All Gone into the World of Light! Derek Walcott, Blues Derek Walcott, God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen New Derek Walcott, Perhaps it exists…. Rosanna Warren, In Creve Coeur, Missouri New Joshua Weiner, The Yonder Tree New James Welch, Getting Things Straight James Welch, Harlem, Montana: Just Off the Reservation New Phillis Wheatley, To S.M. a young African Painter, on seeing his Works Walt Whitman, A Hand-Mirror Walt Whitman, from Song of Myself 1. (I celebrate myself) 6 (A child said, What is the grass?) 52 (The spotted hawk) Walt Whitman, Vigil Strange I Kept on the Field One Night Richard Wilbur, Cottage Street, 1953 Richard Wilbur, The Writer William Carlos Williams, Landscape with the Fall of Icarus William Carlos Williams, The Raper from Passenack William Carlos Williams, Spring and All William Carlos Williams, This Is Just to Say William Wordsworth, My Heart Leaps Up William Wordsworth, Ode: Intimations of Immortality William Wordsworth, The Solitary Reaper James Wright, A Blessing James Wright, Small Frogs Killed on the Highway Sir Thomas Wyatt, Forget Not Yet New John Yau, Autobiography in Red and Yello William Butler Yeats, Among School Children New William Butler Yeats, A Dialogue Between Self and Soul William Butler Yeats, Down by the Salley Gardens William Butler Yeats, The Lake Isle of Innisfree William Butler Yeats, Leda and the Swan William Butler Yeats, Sailing to Byzantium William Butler Yeats, The Second Coming Appendices On Prosody On Grammar On Speech Acts On Rhetorical Devices On Lyric Subgenres Index of Authors, Titles, and First Lines Index of Terms [Endpapers]