The newest, smallest, and most economical member of the Kennedy/Gioia family, Backpack Literature is a brief
paperback version of the discipline's most popular introduction to literature anthology.
Like its bigger, bestselling predecessors, Backpack Literature features the authors' collective poetic voice which
brings personal warmth and a human perspective to the discussion of literature, adding to students' interest in
the readings.
Table of Contents
FICTION.
1. Reading a Story.
Fable, Parable, and Tale.
W. Somerset Maugham, The Appointment in Samarra.
Aesop, The Fox and the Grapes .
Chuang Tzu, Independence.
Jakob and Wilhelm Grimm, Godfather Death.
Plot.
The Short Story.
John Updike, A & P.
Writing Critically.
What's The Plot?
Writing Assignment.
Further Suggestions For Writing.
2. Point of View.
William Faulkner, A Rose for Emily.
Edgar Allan Poe, The Tell-Tale Heart.
Writing Critically.
How Point of View Shapes a Story.
Further Suggestions for Writing.
3. Character.
Katherine Anne Porter, The Jilting of Granny Weatherall.
Alice Walker, Everyday Use.
Raymond Carver, Cathedral .
Writing Critically.
How Character Creates Action.
Writing Assignment.
Further Suggestions for Writing.
4. Setting.
Kate Chopin, The Storm.
T. Coraghessan Boyle, Greasy Lake.
Amy Tan, A Pair of Tickets.
Writing Critically.
How Time and Place Set a Story.
Writing Assignment.
Further Suggestions for Writing.
5. Tone and Style.
Ernest Hemingway, A Clean, Well-Lighted Place.
William Faulkner, Barn Burning.
Irony.
Ha Jin, Saboteur.
Writing Critically.
Be Style Conscious.
Writing Assignment.
Further Suggestions for Writing.
6. Theme.
Chinua Achebe, Dead Men's Path.
Luke 15: 11-32, The Parable of the Prodigal Son.
Charlotte Perkins Gilman, The Yellow Wallpaper .
Writing Critically.
Stating the Theme.
Writing Assignment.
Further Suggestions for Writing.
7. Symbol.
John Steinbeck, The Chrysanthemums.
Shirley Jackson, The Lottery.
Ursula K. Le Guin, The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas.
Writing Critically.
Recognizing Symbols.
Writing Assignment.
Further Suggestions For Writing.
8. Stories for Further Reading.
Margaret Atwood, Happy Endings.
Kate Chopin, The Story of an Hour.
Sandra Cisneros, House on Mango Street.
Nathaniel Hawthorne, Young Goodman Brown.
Zora Neale Hurston, Sweat.
James Joyce, Araby.
Franz Kafka, Before the Law.
Jamaica Kincaid, Girl.
Joyce Carol Oates, Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?
Tim O'Brien, The Things They Carried.
Flannery O'Connor, A Good Man Is Hard to Find.
POETRY.
9. Reading a Poem.
William Butler Yeats, The Lake Isle of Innisfree.
Lyric Poetry.
D. H. Lawrence, Piano.
Adrienne Rich, Aunt Jennifer's Tigers.
Narrative Poetry.
Anonymous, Sir Patrick Spence.
Robert Frost, "Out, Out�".
Dramatic Poetry.
Robert Browning, My Last Duchess.
Writing Critically.
Can a Poem be Paraphrased?
William Stafford, Ask Me.
William Stafford, A Paraphrase of "Ask Me".
Writing Assignment.
10. Listening to a Voice.
Tone.
Theodore Roethke, My Papa's Waltz.
Countee Cullen, For a Lady I Know.
Anne Bradstreet, The Author to Her Book.
Walt Whitman, To a Locomotive in Winter.
Emily Dickinson, I like to see it lap the Miles.
Benjamin Alire Sáenz, To the Desert.
The Person in the Poem.
Natasha Trethewey, White Lies.
Edwin Arlington Robinson, Luke Havergal.
Ted Hughes, Hawk Roosting.
William Wordsworth, I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud.
Dorothy Wordsworth, Journal Entry.
Langston Hughes, Theme for English B.
Anne Stevenson, Sous-Entendu.
Francisco X. Alarcón, The X in My Name.
William Carlos Williams, The Red Wheelbarrow.
Irony.
Robert Creeley, Oh No.
W. H. Auden, The Unknown Citizen.
Sharon Olds, Rites of Passage.
Sarah N. Cleghorn, The Golf Links.
Wilfred Owen, Dulce et Decorum Est .
Rhina Espaillat, Bilingual / Bilingüe.
Thomas Hardy, The Workbox.
Writing Critically.
Paying Attention to the Obvious.
Writing Assignment.
Further Suggestions for Writing.
11. Words.
Literal Meaning: What a Poem Says First.
William Carlos Williams, This Is Just to Say.
Robert Graves, Down, Wanton, Down!
John Donne, Batter my heart, three-personed God, for You.
The Value of a Dictionary.
J. V. Cunningham, Friend, on this scaffold Thomas More lies dead.
Carl Sandburg, Grass.
Word Choice and Word Order.
Robert Herrick, Upon Julia's Clothes.
Kay Ryan, Blandeur.
Thomas Hardy, The Ruined Maid.
Richard Eberhart, The Fury of Aerial Bombardment.
Wendy Cope, Lonely Hearts.
For Review and Further Study.
E. E. Cummings, anyone lived in a pretty how town.
Anonymous, Carnation Milk.
Lewis Carroll, Jabberwocky.
Writing Critically.
How Much Difference Does a Word Make?
Writing Assignment.
Further Suggestions for Writing.
12. Saying and Suggesting.
John Masefield, Cargoes.
William Blake, London.
Wallace Stevens, Disillusionment of Ten O'Clock.
Timothy Steele, Epitaph.
Robert Frost, Fire and Ice.
Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Tears, Idle Tears.
Emily Dickinson, Wild Nights -- Wild Nights! .
Writing Critically.
The Ways a Poem Suggests.
Writing Assignment.
Further Suggestions for Writing.
13. Imagery.
Ezra Pound, In a Station of the Metro.
Taniguchi Buson, The piercing chill I feel.
T. S. Eliot, The winter evening settles down.
Theodore Roethke, Root Cellar.
Elizabeth Bishop, The Fish.
Charles Simic, Fork.
Gerard Manley Hopkins, Pied Beauty.
About Haiku.
Arakida Moritake, The falling flower.
Matsuo Basho, Heat-lightning streak.
Matsuo Basho, In the old stone pool.
Taniguchi Buson, On the one-ton temple bell.
Taniguchi Buson, I go .
Kobayashi Issa, only one guy.
Kobayashi Issa, Cricket .
Etheridge Knight, Lee Gurga, Penny Harter, Jennifer Brutschy, A Selection of Haiku.
For Review and Further Study.
John Keats, Bright star! would I were steadfast as thou art.
T. E. Hulme, Image.
Robert Bly, Driving to Town Late to Mail a Letter.
Stevie Smith, Not Waving but Drowning.
Writing Critically.
Analyzing Images.
Writing Assignment.
Further Suggestions for Writing.
14. Figures of Speech.
Why Speak Figuratively?
Alfred, Lord Tennyson, The Eagle.
William Shakespeare, Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
Howard Moss, Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer's Day?
Metaphor and Simile.
Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Flower in the Crannied Wall.
William Blake, To see a world in a grain of sand.
Sylvia Plath, Metaphors.
N. Scott Momaday, Simile.
Other Figures.
James Stephens, The Wind.
Margaret Atwood, You fit into me.
John Ashbery, The Cathedral Is.
For Review and Further Study.
Denise Levertov, Leaving Forever.
Jane Kenyon, The Suitor.
Robert Frost, The Secret Sits.
R. Ammons, Coward.
Writing Critically.
How Metaphors Enlarge a Poem's Meaning.
Writing Assignment.
Further Suggestions for Writing.
15. Sound.
Sound as Meaning.
Alexander Pope, True Ease in Writing comes from Art, not Chance.
William Butler Yeats, Who Goes with Fergus?
John Updike, Recital.
Alliteration and Assonance.
A. E. Housman, Eight O'Clock.
Robert Herrick, Upon Julia's Voice.
Alfred, Lord Tennyson, The splendor falls on castle walls.
Rime.
William Cole, On my boat on Lake Cayuga.
Hilaire Belloc, The Hippopotamus.
Gerard Manley Hopkins, God's Grandeur.
Reading and Hearing Poems Aloud.
Michael Stillman, In Memoriam John Coltrane.
William Shakespeare, Full fathom five thy father lies.
Writing Critically.
Is it Possible to Write about Sound?
Writing Assignment.
Further Suggestions for Writing.
16. Rhythm.
Stresses and Pauses.
Gwendolyn Brooks, We Real Cool.
Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Break, Break, Break.
Meter.
Max Beerbohm, On the imprint of the first English edition of The Works of Max Beerbohm.
Edna St. Vincent Millay, Counting-out Rhyme.
A. E. Housman, When I was one-and-twenty.
Walt Whitman, Beat! Beat! Drums!
David Mason, Song of the Powers.
Writing Critically.
Freeze-Framing the Sound.
Writing Assignment.
Further Suggestions for Writing.
17. Closed Form.
Formal Patterns.
John Keats, This living hand, now warm and capable.
Robert Graves, Counting the Beats.
Ballads.
Anonymous, Bonny Barbara Allan.
Dudley Randall, Ballad of Birmingham.
The Sonnet.
William Shakespeare, Let me not to the marriage of true minds.
Edna St. Vincent Millay, What lips my lips have kissed, and where, and why.
Robert Frost, Acquainted with the Night.
Claude McKay, America.
Kim Addonizio, First Poem for You.
R. S. Gwynn, Scenes from the Playroom.
Other Forms.
Dylan Thomas, Do not go gentle into that good night.
Robert Bridges, Triolet.
Elizabeth Bishop, Sestina.
Writing Critically.
Turning Points.
Writing Assignment.
Further Suggestions for Writing.
18. Open Form.
Denise Levertov, Ancient Stairway.
E. E. Cummings, Buffalo Bill 's.
W. S. Merwin, For the Anniversary of My Death.
Stephen Crane, The Heart.
Walt Whitman, Cavalry Crossing a Ford.
Ezra Pound, The Garret.
Wallace Stevens, Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird.
Seeing the Logic of Open Form Verse.
E. E. Cummings, in Just-.
Lorine Niedecker, Popcorn-can cover .
Yusef Komunyakaa, Facing It.
Langston Hughes, I, Too .
Carole Satyamurti, I Shall Paint My Nails Red.
Writing Critically.
Lining Up for Free Verse.
Writing Assignment.
Further Suggestions for Writing.
19. Symbol.
T. S. Eliot, The Boston Evening Transcript.
Emily Dickinson, The Lightning is a yellow Fork.
Thomas Hardy, Neutral Tones.
Matthew 13:24-30, The Parable of the Good Seed.
George Herbert, The World.
Robert Frost, The Road Not Taken.
Wallace Stevens, Anecdote of the Jar.
For Review and Further Study.
Robinson Jeffers, The Beaks of Eagles.
Sara Teasdale, The Flight.
Writing Critically.
How to Read a Symbol.
Writing Assignment.
Further Suggestions for Writing.
20. Myth and Narrative.
Robert Frost, Nothing Gold Can Stay.
Thomas Hardy, The Oxen.
William Wordsworth, The World Is Too Much with Us.
H. D., Helen.
Archetype.
Louise Bogan, Medusa.
Myth and Popular Culture.
Anne Sexton, Cinderella.
Sylvia Plath, Lady Lazarus.
Writing Critically.
Demystifying Myth.
Writing Assignment.
Further Suggestions for Writing.
21. Poems for Further Reading.
Sherman Alexie, Indian Boy Love Song (#1).
Anonymous, Lord Randall.
Matthew Arnold, Dover Beach.
W. H. Auden, Musée des Beaux Arts.
Elizabeth Bishop, One Art.
William Blake, The Tyger.
Gwendolyn Brooks, the preacher: ruminates behind the sermon.
Elizabeth Barrett Browning, How Do I Love Thee? Let Me Count the Ways.
Judith Ortiz Cofer, Quinceañera.
Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Kubla Khan.
Billy Collins, Care and Feeding.
E. E. Cummings, somewhere i have never travelled,gladly beyond.
Emily Dickinson, The Soul selects her own Society.
Emily Dickinson, I heard a Fly buzz -- when I died.
Emily Dickinson, Because I could not stop for Death .
John Donne, Death be not proud.
Rita Dove, Summit Beach, 1921.
T. S. Eliot, The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock.
Robert Frost, Mending Wall.
Robert Frost, Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening.
Allen Ginsberg, A Supermarket in California.
Dana Gioia, California Hills in August.
Thomas Hardy, The Convergence of the Twain.
Robert Hayden, Those Winter Sundays.
Seamus Heaney, Digging.
George Herbert, Easter Wings.
Robert Herrick, To the Virgins to Make Much of Time.
Gerard Manley Hopkins, Spring and Fall.
Gerard Manley Hopkins, The Windhover.
A. E. Housman, To an Athlete Dying Young.
Langston Hughes, The Negro Speaks of Rivers.
Langston Hughes, Harlem [Dream Deferred] .
Randall Jarrell, The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner.
Robinson Jeffers, To the Stone-cutters.
Ben Jonson, On My First Son.
John Keats, Ode on a Grecian Urn.
John Keats, On First Looking into Chapman's Homer.
Philip Larkin, Home is so Sad.
Shirley Geok-lin Lim, Learning to love America.
Robert Lowell, Skunk Hour.
Andrew Marvell, To His Coy Mistress.
John Milton, When I consider how my light is spent.
Marianne Moore, Poetry.
Marilyn Nelson, A Strange Beautiful Woman.
Lorine Niedecker, Sorrow Moves in Wide Waves.
Sharon Olds, The One Girl at the Boys' Party.
Wilfred Owen, Anthem for Doomed Youth.
Linda Pastan, Ethics.
Octavio Paz, Con los Ojos Cerrados.
Octavio Paz, Translated by Eliot Weinberger, With eyes closed .
Sylvia Plath, Daddy.
Henry Reed, Naming of Parts.
Adrienne Rich, Living in Sin.
Edwin Arlington Robinson, Miniver Cheevy.
Theodore Roethke, Elegy for Jane.
William Shakespeare, That time of year thou mayst in me behold.
William Shakespeare, My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun.
Percy Bysshe Shelley, Ozymandias.
Cathy Song, Stamp Collecting.
William Stafford, The Farm on the Great Plains.
Wallace Stevens, The Emperor of Ice-Cream.
Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Ulysses.
Dylan Thomas, Fern Hill.
John Updike, Ex-Basketball Player.
Amy Uyematsu, The Ten Million Flames of Los Angeles.
Derek Walcott, The Virgins.
Walt Whitman, I Hear America Singing .
Richard Wilbur, The Writer.
William Carlos Williams, Spring and All.
William Wordsworth, Composed upon Westminster Bridge.
James Wright, Autumn Begins in Martins Ferry, Ohio.
William Butler Yeats, Sailing to Byzantium.
William Butler Yeats, When You Are Old.
DRAMA.
22. Reading a Play.
A Play in Its Elements.
Susan Glaspell, Trifles .
Tragedy and Comedy.
Jane Martin, Beauty.
Writing Critically.
Conflict Resolution.
Writing Assignment.
Further Suggestions for Writing.
23. The Theater of Sophocles.
The Theater of Sophocles.
Staging.
The Civic Role of Greek Drama.
Aristotle's Concept of Tragedy.
The Origins of Oedipus the King.
Sophocles, Oedipus the King (Translated by Robert Fagles).
Writing Critically.
Some Things Change. Some Things Don't.
Writing Assignment.
Further Suggestions for Writing.
24. The Theater of Shakespeare.
The Theater of Shakespeare .
A Note on Othello.
William Shakespeare, Othello, the Moor of Venice.
Writing Critically.
Breaking the Language Barrier.
Writing Assignment.
Further Suggestions for Writing.
25. The Modern Theater.
Realism and Naturalism.
Henrik Ibsen, A Doll's House (Translated by James McFarlane).
