contents
preface
part one
vii
The Elements of Poetry
1. What Is Poetry?
3
Alfred, Lord Tennyson The Eagle 5
William Shakespeare Winter 6
Wilfred Owen Dulce et Decorum Est
7
• • •
William Shakespeare Spring 10
Emily Dickinson A bird came down the walk 11
Lawrence Ferlinghetti Constantly risking a~surdity 12
Robert Frost The Pasture 13
A. E. Housman Terence, this is stupid stuff 14
From the Book ofJob Hast thou given the horse strength
2. Reading the Poem
16
17
Thomas Hardy The ~an He Killed 19
A. E. Housman-Is my team plopghing 21
EXERCISE 23
~
• • •
Robert Frost Hyla Brook 24
Thomas Campion Think'~t thou to seduce me then 26
Emily Dickinson There's been a death in the opposit~ house
26
CONTENTS
xi
Mari Evans When in Rome 27
W. H. Auden 0 what is that sound 28
Sylvia Plath Mirror 30
Philip Larkin A Study of Reading Habits 30
Robert Herrick How Roses Came Red 31
3. Denotation and Connotation
32
Emily Dickinson There is no frigate like a book 33
William Shakespeare When my love swears that she is made of
truth 34
Robert Graves The Naked and the Nude 35
EXERCISES 37
* *
*
Edwin Arlington Robinson Richard Cory 39
Henry Reed Naming of Parts 40
Henry Reed Judging Distances 41
David Wagoner Being Herded Past the Prison's Honor Farm
Langston Hughes Cross 44
Siegfried Sassoon Base Details 44
Robert Louis Stevenson The Careful Angler 45
4. Imagery 46
Robert Browning
Robert Browning
* *
Meeting at Night 47
Parting at Morning 48
*
Richard Wilbur A Late Aubade 49
A. E. Housman On moonlit heath and lonesome bank
Emily Dickinson A narrow fellow in the grass 51
Adrienne Rich Livrng in Sin 52
Robert Hayden ,Those Winter Sundays 53
Gerard ManleY H"opkins Spring 54
John Keats 'To ~utumn 54
5. Figurative Language i: Metaphor,
Personification, Metonymy 56
'"
Frances Cornford the Guitarist Tunes Up
Robert Francis The Hound 57,
57
...".
','
xii
CONTENTS
..
50
43
Rome 27
is that sound 28
30
of Reading Habits 30
oses Came Red 31
Robert Frost Bereft 58
Emily Dickinson It sifts from leaden sieves 59
Archibald MacLeish Dr. Sigmund Freud Discovers the Sea Shell
Thomas Heywood Pack, clouds, away 62
Emily Dickinson A Hummingbird 63
EXERCISE 65
61
32
is no frigate like a book 33
en my love swears that she is made of
ed and the Nude
35
Richard Cory 39
Parts 40
tances 41
erded Past the Prison's Honor Farm
44
etails 44
The Careful Angler 45
g at Night 47
at Morning 48
Aubade 49
nlit heath and lonesome bank
w fellow in the grass 51
Sin 52
inter Sundays 53
Spring 54
54
e 1: Metaphor,
tonymy 56
'tarist Tunes Up
d 57
57
*
*
*
Robert Frost The Silken Tent 66
Sylvia Plath Metaphors 67
Philip Larkin Toads 68
John Donne A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning 69
Andrew Marvell To His Coy Mistress 70
Anonymous Weep you no more, sad fountains 72
A. E. Housman Loveliest of trees 73
Langston Hughes Dream Deferred 73
Walter Savage Landor Death stands above me 74
43
6. Figurative Language 2: Symbol, Allegory
75
Robert Frost The Road Not Taken 75
John Boyle O'Reilly A White Rose 77
Robert Browning My Star. 77
Archibald MacLeish You, Andrew Marvell 79
Robert Herrick To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time
George Herbert Redemption 84
EXERCISE 8S
82
* * *
50
,
.,
"-10,
A. E. Housman Reveille 8S
Robert Frost Fire and lce 86
William Blake The Sid Rose 86
Alfred, Lord Tennyson Ulysses 87
Alastair Reid Curi""ity 89
Alan Dugan Love Song: I and Thou 91
Richard Wilbur A «ole in the 'Floor 92
Jay Macpherson Sun and Moon, 93
Robert Browning Fame 94
EXERCISE 94
...
Robert Frost Dust of'Show 94
William Blake Soft Snow 94
','
CONTENTS
xiii
7. figurative Language 3: Paradox,
Overstatement, Understatement,
Irony 95
Emily Dickinson My life closed twice 96
Robert Burns A Red, Red Rose 97
Robert Frost The Rose Family 98
Emily Dickinson What soft, cherubic creatures
William Blake The Chimney Sweeper 101
Percy Bysshe Shelley Ozymandias' 103
EXERCISE 104
* *
100
*
Richard Lovelace To Althea, from ~rison 104
John Donne Batter my heart, three~personed God
John Frederick Nims Love Poem 106
Countee Cullen Incident 107
Donald W. Baker Formal Application 108
W. H. Auden The Unknown Citizen 109
Robert Frost Departmental 110
M. Carl Holman Mr. Z 111
Robert Browning My Last Duchess 112
John Hall Wheelock Earth 114
8. Allusion
106
115
Robert Frost "Out, Out-" 116
William Shakespeare From Macbeth: She should have
died hereafter 118
* *
*
e. e. cummings in Just- 119
John Milton On His Blindness 119
Emily Dickinson'" God is a distant, stately lover 120
Alden Nowlan funt Jane 121
A. E. Housman' On the idle hill of summer 121
William Butler Yeats Leda and the Swan 122
Edwin Arlington Robinson Veteran Sirens 122
T. S. Eliot Jouri1,eY of the Magi 123
Anonymous In the Garden 125
,"
xiv
CONTENTS
.
ge .3: Paradox,
nderstatement,
closed twice 96
d Rose 97
Family 98
ft, cherubic creatures
ney Sweeper 101
mandias 103
9. Meaning and Idea
126
Anonymous Little Jack Horner 126
Sara Teasdale Barter 127
Robert Frost Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening
100
ea, from Prison 104
art, three-personed God
e Poem 106
107
Application 108
wn Citizen 109
106
128
• • •
Robert Browning Song 129
Percy Bysshe Shelley Dirge 130
William Cullen Bryant To a Waterfowl 130
Robert Frost Design 131
e. e. cumrrzings what if a much of a whicp of a .wind
e. e. cummings when serpents bargain for the nght
to squirm 133
Gerard Manley Hopkins The Caged Skylark 134
Philip Larkin AUbade 134
Archibald MacLeish Ars Poetica 136
132
I 110
III
Duchess
114
112
10. Tone 138
W. H. Davies The Villain 140
Emily Dickinson Apparently with no surprise
EXERCISES 142
" 116
Macbeth: She should have
19
ess 119
istant, stately lover 120
121
e hill of summer 121
and the Swan 122
Veteran Sirens 122
Magi 12.3
125
140
• • •
William Butler Yeats The Coming of Wisdom with
Time 143
Michael Drayton Since there's no help 143
A. E. Housman Farewell to barn and stack and tree 144
Tony Connor Elegy for-Alfred Hubbard 145
Robert Frost The Telephone 146
John Wakeman Love in Brooldyn 147
Emily Dickinson O?re dignity delays for all 148
Emily Di~kinson' 'T~as warm at first like us 149
Alfred, Lord Tennyson Crossing the Bar 149
Thomas Hardy The Oxen 150'
Anonymous Love 151
Alexander Pope Eng'r~ved on the Collar of a Dog Whi<;h
I Gave to His Royal Hi~hness 151
.'-' ..
CONTENTS
xv
11. Musical Devices
152
Ogden Nash The Turtle 153
W. H. Auden That night when joy began 155
Gerard Manley Hopkins God's Grandeur 157
EXERCISE 158
*
* *
A. E. Housman With rue my heart is laden 158
Gwendolyn Brooks We Real Cool 159
Barton Sutter Shoe Shop 160
John Updike Winter Ocean 161
John Crowe Ransom Parting, without a Sequel 162
Winthrop Mackworth Praed Song 163
William Stafford Traveling Throug4 the Dark 164
Robert Frost Nothing Gold Can Stay 165
Joshua Sylvester Autumnus 165
12. Rhythm and Meter
George Herbert Virtue
EXERCISES 177
*
*
166
168
*
Rudyard Kipling Seal Lullaby 178
William Blake "Introduction" to Songs of Innocence 178
William Whitehead The" Je Ne Sais Quoi" 179
e. e, cummings if everything happens that can't be done 180
A. E. Housman Oh who is that young sinner 182
William Butler Yeats Down by the Salley Gardens 183
Walt Whitman, Had I the Choice 184
Robert Frost The Aim Was Song 184
Samuel Taylor Coleridge Metrical Feet 185
13. Sound and M~aning
186
Anonymous Peas'e porridge hot 186
William Shakespettre Song: Hark, hark! 187
Carl Sandburg Splinter 188
Robert Herrick Upon Julia's Voice 189
Robert Frost The Span of Life 192
EXERCISE 194
*
*
*
Alexander Pope
.. .
Sound' and Sense' 195
"
xvi
CONTENTS
.'.
.
152
153
t when joy began 155
God's Grandeur 157
e my heart is laden 158
eal Cool 159
160
n 161
'ng, without a Sequel 162
Song 163
g Through the Dark 164
Id Can Stay 165
us 165
68
Emily Dickinson I like to see it lap the miles 196
Ted Hughes Wind 197
Gerard Manley Hopkins Heaven-Haven 198
Wilfred Owen Anthem for Doomed Youth 198
Robert Browning Boot and Saddle 199
Thomas Westwood Night of Spring 200
A. E. Housman Eight O'Clock 201
James Joyce All day I hear 201
William Carlos Williams The Dance 202
Ben Jonson To Fool, or Knave 202
14. Pattern 203
e. e. cummings the greedy the people 204
Anonymous There was a young lady of Niger 206
John Keats On First Looking into Chapman's Homer
William Shakespeare That time of year 208
EXERCISES 209
* *
aby 178
'on" to Songs of Innocence 178
Je Ne Sais Quoi" 179
. g happens that can't be done 180
IS that young sinner
182
n by the Salley Gardens 183
Choice 184
s Song 184
etrical Feet 185
hot 186
. Hark, hark! 187
88
's Voice 189
Life 192
Sense
*
Anonymous A Handful of Limericks 210
Dylan Thomas Poem in October 211
Matsuo Basha / Moritake Two Japanese Haiku 213
A, E. Housman When I was one-and-twenty 214
John Crowe Ransom Piazza Piece 214
William Shakespeare From Romeo and Juliet: If I profane
with my unworthiest hand 215
Carole Dies The Magician Suspends the Children 216
Anonymous Edward 217
Maxine Kumin 4.00-Meter Freestyle 220'
William Burford A Christmas Tree 221
15. Bad Poetry and pood
186
195
207
EXERCISE
* *
*
222
226
"­
Say not the struggle nought availeth 227
The Man Who Think; He Can 228
God's Will for You and Me 228 '
Pied Beauty 229
Pitcher 229
~.
The Old-Fashioned Pitehe~ 229
To My ScJn 230
"
.
CONTENTS'
xvii
On the Beach at Fontana 230
A Poison Tree 231
The Most Vital Thing in Life 231
On a Dead Child 232
Bells for John Whiteside's Daughter 232
Some keep the Sabbath going to church 233
My Church 233
Boy-Man 234
America for Me 235
Little Boy Blue 236
The Toys 236
16. Good Poetry and Great
*
*
238
*
John Keats Ode to a Nightingale 240
Robert Frost The Death of the Hired Man 243
T. S. Eliot The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock
EXERCISES 252
part two
247
Poems for Further' Reading
Leonard Adame Black and White 256
Samuel Allen To Satch 256
Kingsley Amis The Last War 257
Matthew Arnold Dover Beach 258
Margaret Atwpod Landcrab 259
W. H. Auden Musee des Beaux Arts 260
W. H. Auden "0 where are you going?" 260
D. C. Berry On Reading Poems to a Senior Class at South High
Earle Birney Twen~-Third Flight 262
Elizabeth Bishop' One Art 262
William Blake 'Fhe Lamb 263
William Blake The Tiger .264
William Blake The Garden of Love 264
Sterling Brown Southern Cop 265
Janet Burroway -The Scientist 265
Constance Carrier· Lisa 266
Leonard Cohen Gift 267
•
<
.',
." .
xviii
CONTENTS
261
230
's Daughter 232
oing lO church 233
d Great 238
ightingale 240
of the Hired Man 243
ong of J. Alfred Prufrock
247
for Further Reading
d White 256
256
War 257
each 258
ab 259
Beaux Arts 260
are you going?" 260
Poems to a Senior Class at South H' h
. d Flight 262
Ig
262
b 263
264
n of Love 264
Cop 265
tist 265
66
,f'
I
~
261
Samuel Taylor Coleridge Kubla Khan 267
Walter de la Mare The Listeners 269
James Dickey The Bee 270
Emily Dickinson Because I could not stop for death 271
Emily Dickinson I taste a liquor never brewed 272
John Donne Song: Go and catch a falling star 272
John Donne The Flea 273
John Donne The Good-Morrow 274
John Donne The Sun Rising 275
Keith Douglas Vergissmeinnicht 275
Paul Laurence Dunbar The Debt 276
Ray Durem Award 277
Russell Edson The Mouse Dinners 277
Robert Frost Acquainted with the Night 278
Robert Frost Mending Wall 278
Thomas Hardy Channel Firing 280
Thomas Hardy The Darkling Thrush 281
Anthony Hecht "More Light! More Light!" 282
A. E. Housman Bredon Hill 283
A. E. Housman To an Athlete Dying Young 284
Ted Hughes Pike 285
Randall Jarrell The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner 286
Ellen Kay Pathedy of Manners 286
John Keats La Belle Dame sans Merci 287
John Keats Ode on a Grecian Urn 289
A. M. Klein For the Sisters of the Hotel Dieu 290
Robert Lowell Mr. Edwards and the Spider 290
George MacBeth Bedtime Story 292
Marianne Moore .Nevertheless 293
Howard Nemerov Grace To Be Said at the Supermarket 294
Mary Oliver The Truro Bear 295
P. K. Page The Landlady 295
Ezra Pound Sestina: Altaforte 296
Dudley Randall After the Killing 298
Edwin Arlington Roblnson The Mill 298
Edwin Arlington Robjlzson Mr..Flood's Party 299
Theodore Roethke I "Knew a Woman 300
Theodore Roethke The Waking '301
Christina Rosselli Song: When I am dead, my dearest 302
Carl Sandburg Fog '302
Anne Sexton Pain for a D~lUghter 302
°_° ..
CONTENTS
xix
William Shakespeare Fear no more 304
William Shakespeare Let me not to the marriage of true minds
William Shakespeare My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun
Wole Soyinka Telephone Conversation 305
Wallace Stevens The Snow Man 306
May Swenson Lion 307
Jonathan Swift A Description of the Morning 308
Dylan Thomas Do not go gentle into that good night 308
Dylan Thomas Fern Hill 309
Edward Thomas The Owl 310
Derek Walcott The Virgins 311
Robert Penn Warren Boy Wandering in Simms' Valley 311
Walt Whitman A noiseless patient spider 312
Walt Whitman There was a child went forth 313
Walt Whitman When I heard the learn'd astronomer 314
Richard Wilbur The Mill 314
William Carlos Williams The Red Wheelbarrow 315
William Wordsworth The Solitary Reaper 316
William Wordsworth The world is too much with us 316
William Butler Yeats Sailing to Byzantium 317
William Butler Yeats The Second Coming 318
William Butler Yeats The Wild Swans at Coole 319
GLOSSARY OF POETIC TERMS
320
INDEX OF AUTHORS, TITLES, AND FIRST LINES
334
..
xx
CON:rENTS
.
304
305