FACULTY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES

AMERICAN LITERATURE

2023
- FOR INTERNAL USE ONLY -
Contents

Unit 1 Introduction to Literature ............................. 3

Unit 2 The Road Not Taken -Robert Frost ........... 27

Unit 3 Elements of fiction .................................. 34

Unit4 The Tell-Tale Heart – Edgar Allen Poe ..... 51

Unit5 How to write a literary essay ....................... 59

Unit6 Periods of American Literature .......... 68

REFERENCES …………………………………………….
 ANALYSING
Unit 1: INTRODUCTION FICTION
TO LITERATURE: / LITERARY TERMS
Vocabulary » The author's choice of individual words ‐ which may be drawn from various registers such as colloquial,
literary, technical, slang, journalism, and may vary from simple and direct to complex and sophisticated.

Grammar » The relationships of the words in sentences, which might include such items as the use of adjectives for
description, of verbs to denote action, switching between tenses to move between present and past, or any use of
unusual combinations of words or phrases to create special effects.

Syntax » The arrangement and logical coherence of words in a sentence. The possibilities for re‐arrangement are often
used for emphasis or dramatic effect.

Figures of speech » The rhetorical devices often used to give decorative and imaginative expression to literature. For
example ‐ simile, metaphor, puns, irony.

Literary devices » The devices commonly used in literature to give added depth to a work. For example, imagery, point of
view, symbolism, allusions.

Tone » The author's attitude to the subject as revealed in the style and the manner of the writing. This might be for
instance serious, comic, or ironic.

Narrator» The person telling the story. This may be the author, assuming a full knowledge of characters and their feelings:
this is an omniscient narrator. It might alternatively be a fictional character invented by the author. There may also be
multiple narrators. You should always be prepared to make a clear distinction between Author, Narrator, and Character ‐
even though in some texts these may be (or appear to be) the same.

Narrative mode » This is usually either the first person singular ('I am going to tell you a story about...') or the third person
singular ('The duchess felt alarmed...').

Narrative » The story which is being told: that is, the history of the events, characters, or whatever matters the narrator
wishes to relate to the reader.

Characterisation » The means by which characters are depicted or created ‐ commonly by accounts of their physical
appearance, psychological characteristics, direct speech, and the opinions of the narrator or other characters about them.

Point of view » The literary strategy by which an author presents the events of a narrative from the perspective of a
particular person ‐ which may be the narrator or may be a fictional character. The point of view may be consistent, or it
may switch between narrator and character(s). It should not be confused with the mere opinion of a character or the
narrator.

Structure » The planned underlying framework or shape of a piece of work. The relationship between its parts in terms of
arrangement or construction.

Theme » The underlying topic or issue, often of a general or abstract nature, as distinct from the overt subject with which
the work deals. It should be possible to express theme in a single word or short phrase ‐ such as 'death', 'education', or
'coming of age'.

Genre » The literary category or type (for instance, short story, novella, or novel) to which the work belongs and with
whose conventions it might be compared. We become aware of genre through cultural experience and know for instance
that in detective stories murder mysteries are solved; in fairy stories beautiful girls marry the prince; and in some modern
short stories not much happens.
Cultural context » The historical and cultural context and the circumstances in which the work was produced, which might
have some bearing on its possible meanings. A text produced under conditions of strict censorship might conceal its
meanings beneath symbolism or allegory.

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 WHAT IS LITERATURE?

LITERATURE(n.) creative writing of recognized artistic value; the profession or art of a writer; "her place in literature is
secure"

1. The body of written works of a language, period, or culture.

2. Imaginative or creative writing, especially of recognized artistic value: “Literature must be an analysis of experience
and a synthesis of the findings into a unity” (Rebecca West).
3. The art or occupation of a literary writer.
4. The body of written work produced by scholars or researchers in a given field: medical literature.
5. Printed material: collected all the available literature on the subject.
6. Music. All the compositions of a certain kind or for a specific instrument or ensemble: the symphonic literature.

[Middle English, book learning, from Old French litterature, from Latin litterātūra, from litterātus, lettered.

Literary dictionary
literature, a body of written works related by subject‐matter (e.g. the literature of computing), by language or place of
origin (e.g. Russian literature), or by prevailing cultural standards of merit. In this last sense, ‘literature’ is taken to include
oral, dramatic, and broadcast compositions that may not have been published in written form but which have been (or
deserve to be) preserved. Since the 19th century, the broader sense of literature as a totality of written or printed works
has given way to more exclusive definitions based on criteria of imaginative, creative, or artistic value, usually related to a
work's absence of factual or practical reference. Even more restrictive has been the academic concentration upon poetry,
drama, and fiction. Until the mid‐20th century, many kinds of non‐fictional writing—in philosophy, history, biography,
criticism, topography, science, and politics—were counted as literature; implicit in this broader usage is a definition of
literature as that body of works which—for whatever reason—deserves to be preserved as part of the current
reproduction of meanings within a given culture (unlike yesterday's newspaper, which belongs in the disposable category
of ephemera). This sense seems more tenable than the later attempts to divide literature—as creative, imaginative,
fictional, or non‐practical—from factual writings or practically effective works of propaganda, rhetoric, or didactic writing.
The Russian Formalists attempt to define literariness in terms of linguistic deviations is important in the theory of poetry,
but has not addressed the more difficult problem of the non‐fictional prose forms.

Forms of literature
Poetry

A poem is commonly defined as a composition written in verse (although verse has been equally used for epic and
dramatic fiction). Poems rely heavily on imagery, precise word choice, and metaphor; they may take the form of measures
consisting of patterns of stresses (metric feet) or of patterns of different‐length syllables (as in classical prosody); and they
may or may not utilize rhyme. One cannot readily characterize poetry precisely. Typically though, poetry as a form of
literature makes some significant use of the formal properties of the words it uses — the properties attached to the
written or spoken form of the words, rather than to their meaning. Metre depends on syllables and on rhythms of speech;
rhyme and allitaration depend on words that have similar pronunciation. Some recent poets, such as e.e.cummings, made
extensive use of words' visual form.

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Poetry perhaps pre‐dates other forms of literature: early known examples include the Sumerian Epic of Gilbamesh (dated
from around 2700 B.C.), parts of the Bible, the surviving works of Homer (the Iliad and the Odyssey), and the Indian epics
Ramayana and Mahabharata. In cultures based primarily on oral traditions the formal characteristics of poetry often have
a mnemonic function, and important texts: legal, genealogical or moral, for example, may appear first in verse form.

Much poetry uses specific forms: the haiku, the limerick, or the sonnet, for example. A traditional haiku written in
Japanese must have something to do with nature, contain seventeen onji (syllables), distributed over three lines in groups
of five, seven, and five, and should also have a kigo, a specific word indicating a season. A limerick has five lines, with a
rhyme scheme of AABBA, and line lengths of 3,3,2,2,3 stressed syllables. It traditionally has a less reverent attitude
towards nature.

Language and tradition dictate some poetic norms: Persian poetry always rhymes, Greek poetry rarely rhymes, Italian or
French poetry often does, English and German can go either way (although modern non‐rhyming poetry often, perhaps
unfairly, has a more "serious" aura). Perhaps the most paradigmatic style of English poetry, blank verse, as exemplified in
works by Shakespeare and by Milton, consists of unrhymed iambic pentamenters. Some languages prefer longer lines;
some shorter ones. Some of these conventions result from the ease of fitting a specific language's vocabulary and
grammar into certain structures, rather than into others; for example, some languages contain more rhyming words than
others, or typically have longer words. Other structural conventions come about as the result of historical accidents,
where many speakers of a language associate good poetry with a verse form preferred by a particular skilled or popular
poet.

Works for theatre (see below) traditionally took verse form. This has now become rare outside opera and musicals,
although many would argue that the language of drama remains intrinsically poetic.

In recent years, digital poetry has arisen that takes advantage of the artistic, publishing, and synthetic qualities of digital
media.

Drama

A play or drama offers another classical literary form that has continued to evolve over the years. It generally comprises
chiefly dialogue between characters, and usually aims at dramatic / theatrical performance (see theatre) rather than at
reading. During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, opera developed as a combination of poetry, drama, and music.
Nearly all drama took verse form until comparatively recently. Shakespeare could be considered drama. Romeo and Juliet,
for example, is a classic romantic drama generally accepted as literature.

‐ ‐ Geek drama exemplifies the earliest form of drama of which we have substantial knowledge. Tragedy, as a dramatic
genre, developed as a performance associated with religious and civic festivals, typically enacting or developing upon well‐
known historical or mythological themes. Tragedies generally presented very serious Theme. ‐ ‐ With the advent of newer
technologies, scripts written for non‐stage media have been added to this form. War of the Worlds (radio) in 1938 saw the
advent of literature written for radio broadcast, and many works of Drama have been adapted for film or television.
Conversely, television, film, and radio literature have been adapted to printed or electronic media.

Essays

An essay consists of a discussion of a topic from an author's personal point of view, exemplified by works by Francis Bacon
or by Charles Lamb.

'Essay' in English derives from the French 'essai', meaning 'attempt'. Thus one can find open‐ended, provocative and/or
inconclusive essays. The term "essays" first applied to the self‐reflective musings of Michel de Montaigne, and even today
he has a reputation as the father of this literary form.

Genres related to the essay may include:

• the memoir, telling the story of an author's life from the author's personal point of view
• the epistle: usually a formal, didactic, or elegant letter.
• the blog, an informal short rant about a particular topic or topics, usually opinion

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 Prose fiction

Prose consists of writing that does not adhere to any particular formal structures (other than simple grammar); "non‐
poetic writing," writing, perhaps. The term sometimes appears pejoratively, but prosaic writing simply says something
without necessarily trying to say it in a beautiful way, or using beautiful words. Prose writing can of course take beautiful
form; but less by virtue of the formal features of words (rhymes, alliteration, metre) but rather by style, placement, or
inclusion of graphics. But one need not mark the distinction precisely, and perhaps cannot do so. Note the classifications:

• "prose poetry", which attempts to convey the aesthetic richness typical of poetry using only prose
• "free verse", or poetry not adhering to any of the structures of one or another formal poetic style

Narrative fiction (narrative prose) generally favours prose for the writing of novels, short stories, graphic novels, and the
like. Singular examples of these exist throughout history, but they did not develop into systematic and discrete literary
forms until relatively recent centuries. Length often serves to categorize works of prose fiction. Although limits remain
somewhat arbitrary, modern publishing conventions dictate the following:

• A Mini Saga is a short story of exactly 50 words

• A Flash fiction is generally defined as a piece of prose under a thousand words.
• A short story comprises prose writing of less than 10,000 to 20,000 words, but typically more than 500 words,
which may or may not have a narrative arc.
• A story containing between 20,000 and 50,000 words falls into the novella category.
• A work of fiction containing more than 50,000 words falls squarely into the realm of the novel.

A novel consists simply of a long story written in prose, yet the form developed comparatively recently. Icelandic prose
sagas dating from about the 11th century bridge the gap between traditional national verse epics and the modern
psychogical novel. In mainland Europe, the Spaniard Cervantes wrote perhaps the first influential novel:Don Quixote, the
first part of which was published in 1605 and the second in 1615. Earlier collections of tales, such as Boccaccio's
Decameron and Chaucer's The Carterbury Tales, have comparable forms and would classify as novels if written today.
Earlier works written in Asia resemble even more strongly the novel as we now think of it — for example, works such as
the Chinesese Romance of the Three Kingdoms and the Japanese Tale of Genji by Lady Murasaki. Compare to The Book of
One thousand and One Nights.

Early novels in Europe did not, at the time, count as significant literature, perhaps because "mere" prose writing seemed
easy and unimportant. It has become clear, however, that prose writing can provide aesthetic pleasure without adhering
to poetic forms. Additionally, the freedom authors gain in not having to concern themselves with verse structure
translates often into a more complex plot or into one richer in precise detail than one typically finds even in narrative
poetry. This freedom also allows an author to experiment with many different literary and presentation styles — including
poetry— in the scope of a single novel.

Other prose literature

Philosophy, history, journalism, and legal and scientific writings traditionally ranked as literature. They offer some of the
oldest prose writings in existence; novels and prose stories earned the names "fiction" to distinguish them from factual
writing or nonfiction, which writers historically have crafted in prose.

The "literary" nature of science writing has become less pronounced over the last two centuries, as advances and
specialization have made new scientific research inaccessible to most audiences; science now appears mostly in journals.
Scientific works of Euclid, Aristotle, Copernicus, and Newton still possess great value; but since the science in them has
largely become outdated, they no longer serve for scientific instruction, yet they remain too technical to sit well in most
programmes of literary study. Outside of "history of science" programmes students rarely read such works. Many books
"popularizing" science might still deserve the title "literature"; history will tell.

Philosophy, too, has become an increasingly academic discipline. More of its practitioners lament this situation than
occurs with the sciences; nonetheless most new philosophical work appears in academic journals. Major philosophers
through history ‐‐ Plato, Aristotle, August, Descartes, Nietzsche ‐‐ have become as canonical as any writers. Some recent
philosophy works are argued to merit the title "literature", such as some of the works by Simon Blackburn; but much of it
does not, and some areas, such as logic, have become extremely technical to a degree similar to that of mathematics.

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A great deal of historical writing can still rank as literature, particularly the genre known as creative nonfiction. So can a
great deal of journalism, such as literary journalism. However these areas have become extremely large, and often have a
primarily utilitarian purpose: to record data or convey immediate information. As a result the writing in these fields often
lacks a literary quality, although it often and in its better moments has that quality. Major "literary" historians include
Herodotus, Thucydides and Procopius, all of whom count as canonical literary figures.

Law offers a less clear case. Some writings of Plato and Aristotle, or even the early parts of the Bible, might count as legal
literature. The law tables of Hammurabi of Babylon might count. Roman civil law as codified in the Corpus Juris Civilis
during the reign of Justinian I of the Byzantine Empire has a reputation as significant literature. The founding documents of
many countries, including the United States Constitution, can count as literature; however legal writing now rarely exhibits
literary merit.

Game Design Scripts ‐ In essence never seen by the player of a game and only by the developers and/or publishers, the
audience for these pieces is usually very small. Still, many game scripts contain immersive stories and detailed worlds
making them hidden literary gems.

Most of these fields, then, through specialization or proliferation, no longer generally constitute "literature" in the sense
under discussion. They may sometimes count as "literary literature"; more often they produce what one might call
"technical literature" or "professional literature".

Related Narrative Forms

• Graphic novels and comic books present stories told in a combination of sequential artwork, dialogue and text.
• Films, videos and broadcast soap operas have carved out a niche which often parallels the functionality of prose
fiction.
• Interactive Fiction, a term for a prose‐based genre of computer games, occupies a small literary niche.
• Eletronic literature is a developing literary genre meant to be read on a computer screen, often making use of
hypertext.

Genres of literature
A literary genre refers to the traditional divisions of literature of various kinds according to a particular criterion of writing.

Literary genre

A literary genre is a genre of literature, that is " a loose set of criteria for a category of literary composition", depending on
literary technics, tone, or content.

The most general genres in literature are (in chronological order) epic, tragedy,comedy, novel, and short stiry. They can all
be in the genresprose and poetry, which shows best how loosely genres are defined. Additionally, a genre like satire,
allegory or pastoral might appear in any of the above, not only as a subgenre (see below), but as a mixture of genres.
Finally, they are defined by the general cultural movements of the historical period in which they were composed.

Subgenres

Genres are often divided into subgenres.Literature, for instance, is divided into three basic kinds of literature, classic
genres of Ancient Greece, poetry,drama, and prose. Poetry may then be subdivided into epic, lyric, and dramatic.
Subdivisions of drama includes formost comedy and tragedy, while eg. comedy itself has subgenres, including farce,
comedy of manners, burlesque , satire, and so on. However, any of these terms would be called "genre", and its possible
more general terms implied.

To be even more flexible, hybrid forms of different terms have been used, like a prose poem or a tragicomedy. Science
Fiction has many recognized subgenres; a science fiction story may be rooted in real scientific expectations as they are
understood at the time of writing (see Hard science fiction). A more general term, coined by Robert A. Heinlein, is
"speculative fiction," an umbrella term covering all such genres that depict alternate realities. Even fiction that depicts
innovations ruled out by current scientific theory, such as stories about or based on faster‐ than light travel, are still
science fiction, because science is a main subject in the piece of art.

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Dramatic poetry, for instance, might include comedy, tragedy, melodrama, and mixtures like tragicomedy. This parsing
into subgenres can continue: "comedy" has its own genres, for example, including comedy of manners, sentimental
comedy, burlesque comedy, and satirical comedy.

Usually, the criteria used to divide up works into genres are not consistent, and may change constantly, and be subject of
argument, change and challenge by both authors and critics. However, even very loose terms like fiction ("literature
created from the imagination, not presented as fact, though it may be based on a true story or situation") are not applied
to any fictitious literature, which is almost restricted to the use for novel, short story, and novella, but not fables, and is
also usually a prose text.

A subgenre may join non‐contradicting criteria: Romance and mystery are marked out by their plots, and Western by its
setting, which means that a work can easily be a Western romance or Western mystery.

Genres may be easily be confused with literary techniques, but though only loosely defined, they are not the same,
examples are parody, Frame story, constrained writing, stream of consciousness.

Important terms for poetry

allegory (AL‐eh‐GOR‐ee): a narrative that serves as an extended metaphor. Allegories are written in the form of fables,
parables, poems, stories, and almost any other style or genre. The main purpose of an allegory is to tell a story that has
characters, a setting, as well as other types of symbols, that have both literal and figurative meanings. The difference
between an allegory and a symbol is that an allegory is a complete narrative that conveys abstract ideas to get a point
across, while a symbol is a representation of an idea or concept that can have a different meaning throughout a literary
work (A Handbook to Literature). One well‐known example of an allegory is Dante’s The Divine Comedy. In Inferno, Dante
is on a pilgrimage to try to understand his own life, but his character also represents every man who is in search of his
purpose in the world (Merriam Webster Encyclopedia of Literature). Although Virgil literally guides Dante on his journey
through the mystical inferno, he can also be seen as the reason and human wisdom that Dante has been looking for in his
life.

alliteration (a‐LIT‐uh‐RAY‐shuhn): a pattern of sound that includes the repetition of consonant sounds. The repetition can
be located at the beginning of successive words or inside the words. Poets often use alliteration to audibly represent the
action that is taking place. For instance, in the Inferno, Dante states: "I saw it there, but I saw nothing in it, except the
rising of the boiling bubbles" (261). The repetition of the "b" sounds represents the sounds of bubbling, or the bursting
action of the boiling pitch. In addition, in Sir Phillip Sidney's Astrophel and Stella, the poet states: "Biting my truant pen,
beating myself for spite" (Line 13). This repetition of the "t" sound represents the action of the poet; one can hear and
visualize his anguish as he bites the pen. Also in Astrophel and Stella, the poet states, "Oft turning others' leaves, to see if
thence would flow, / Some fresh and fruitful showers upon my sunburn'd brain" (7‐8). Again, the poet repeats the "fr"
sounds to emphasize the speaker's desire for inspiration in expressing his feelings. Poets may also use alliteration to call
attention to a phrase and fix it into the reader's mind; thus, it is useful for emphasis. Therefore, not only does alliteration
provide poetry or prose with a unique sound, it can place emphasis on specific phrases and represent the action that is
taking place

allusion (a‐LOO‐zhuhn): a reference in a literary work to a person, place, or thing in history or another work of literature.
Allusions are often indirect or brief references to well‐known characters or events. Specific examples of allusions can be
found throughout Dante’s Inferno. In a passage, Dante alludes to the Greek mythological figures, Phaethon and Icarus, to
express his fear as he descends from the air into the eighth circle of hell. He states:

I doubt if Phaethon feared more ‐ that time

he dropped the sun‐reins of his father's chariot
and burned the streak of sky we see today ‐

or if poor Icarus did ‐ feeling his sides

unfeathering as the wax began to melt,
his father shouting: "Wrong, your course is wrong" (Canto XVII: 106‐111).

Allusions are often used to summarize broad, complex ideas or emotions in one quick, powerful image. For example, to
communicate the idea of self‐sacrifice one may refer to Jesus, as part of Jesus' story portrays him dying on the cross in
order to save mankind (Matthew 27:45‐56). In addition, to express righteousness, one might allude to Noah who "had no

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faults and was the only good man of his time" (Genesis 6:9‐22). Furthermore, the idea of fatherhood or patriarchial love
can be well understood by alluding to Abraham, who was the ancestor of many nations (Genesis 17:3‐6). Finally, Cain is an
excellent example to convey banishment, rejection, or evil, for he was cast out of his homeland by God (Genesis 4:12).
Thus, allusions serve an important function in writing in that they allow the reader to understand a difficult concept by
relating to an already familiar story.

connotation (KAH‐nuh‐TAE‐shun): an association that comes along with a particular word. Connotations relate not to a
word's actual meaning, or denotation, but rather to the ideas or qualities that are implied by that word. A good example is
the word "gold." The denotation of gold is a malleable, ductile, yellow element. The connotations, however, are the ideas
associated with gold, such as greed, luxury, or avarice. Another example occurs in the Book of Genesis. Jacob says: “Dan
will be a serpent by the roadside, a viper along the path, that bites the horse’s heels so that its rider tumbles backward"
(Gen 49:17). In this passage, Dan is not literally going to become a snake. However, describing Dan as a "snake" and
"viper" forces the reader to associate him with the negative qualities that are commonly associated with reptiles, such as
slyness, danger, and evil. Dan becomes like a snake, sly and dangerous to the riders. Writers use connotation to make their
writing more vivid and interesting to read.

couplet (KUP‐let): a style of poetry defined as a complete thought written in two lines with rhyming ends. The most
popular of the couplets is the heroic couplet. The heroic couplet consists of two rhyming lines of iambic pentameter
usually having a pause in the middle of each line. One of William Shakespeare’s trademarks was to end a sonnet with a
couplet, as in the poem “Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer’s Day”:

So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,

So long as lives this, and this gives life to thee.
By using the couplet Shakespeare would often signal the end of a scene in his
plays as well. An example of a scene’s end signaled by a couplet is the end of
Act IV of Othello. The scene ends with Desdemona’s lines:
Good night. Good night. Heaven me such uses send.
Not to pick bad from bad, but by bad mend.

denotation (DEE‐no‐TAE‐shuhn): the exact meaning of a word, without the feelings or suggestions that the word may
imply. It is the opposite of “connotation” in that it is the “dictionary” meaning of a word, without attached feelings or
associations. Some examples of denotations are:
1. heart: an organ that circulates blood throughout the body. Here the word "heart" denotes the actual organ, while in
another context, the word "heart" may connote feelings of love or heartache.
2. sweater: a knitted garment for the upper body. The word "sweater" may denote pullover sweaters or cardigans, while
“sweater” may also connote feelings of warmness or security.
Denotation allows the reader to know the exact meaning of a word so that he or she will better understand the work of
literature.

elegy (EL‐e‐je): a type of literature defined as a song or poem, written in elegiac couplets, that expresses sorrow or
lamentation, usually for one who has died. This type of work stemmed out of a Greek work known as a "elegus," a song of
mourning or lamentation that is accompanied by the flute. Beginning in the 16th century, elegies took the form we know
today. Two famous elegies include Thomas Gray’s "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard" and Walt Whitman’s "When
Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d". Gray’s elegy is notable in that it mourned the loss of a way of life rather than the loss
of an individual. His work, which some consider to be almost political, showed extreme discontent for strife and tyranny
set upon England by Oliver Cromwell. This work also acted as an outlet for Gray’s dissatisfaction with those poets who
wrote in accordance with the thoughts and beliefs of the upper class. In his elegy, Gray mourned for his country and
mourned for its citizens. Whitman, inspired by the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, wrote his elegy in its classic form,
showing sorrow for the loss of an individual. See A Reader’s Companion to World Literature, and Dictionary of World
Literature.

epigram (ep‐e‐gram): a short poem or verse that seeks to ridicule a thought or event, usually with witticism or sarcasm.
These literary works were very popular during the Renaissance in Europe in the late 14th century and the Neoclassical
period, which began after the Restoration in 1660. They were most commonly found in classic Latin literature, European
and English literature. In Ancient Greek, an epigram originally meant a short inscription, but its meaning was later
broadened to include any very short poems. Poems that are meditative or satiric all fall into this category. These short
poems formulated from the light verse species, which concentrated on the tone of voice and the attitude of the lyric or
narrative speaker toward the subject. With a relaxed manner, lyricists would recite poems to their subjects that were
comical or whimsical. Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1771‐1834), an English poet, essayist and critic, constructed an epigram to

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show humor in Romanticism. His thoughts, “On a Volunteer Singer”, compares and contrasts the death of swans with that
of humans:

Swans sing before they die‐ ‘twere no bad thing

Should certain people die before they sing!
The ballad, “Lord Randall” illustrates a young man who set off to meet his one true
love and ends up becoming “sick at heart” with what he finds. The young man later
arrives home to his family about to die and to each family member he leaves
something sentimental. When asked what he leaves to his true love, he responds:
I leave her hell and fire…
This epigram tried to depict what happens to love gone sour. Epigrams have been
used throughout the centuries not only to criticize but also to promote
improvement.

figurative language (fig‐YOOR‐a‐tive LAN‐gwije): a type of language that varies from the norms of literal language, in
which words mean exactly what they say. Also known as the "ornaments of language," figurative language does not mean
exactly what it says, but instead forces the reader to make an imaginative leap in order to comprehend an author's point.
It usually involves a comparison between two things that may not, at first, seem to relate to one another. In a simile, for
example, an author may compare a person to an animal: "He ran like a hare down the street" is the figurative way to
describe the man running and "He ran very quickly down the street" is the literal way to describe him. Figurative language
facilitates understanding because it relates something unfamiliar to something familiar. Some popular examples of
figurative language include a simile and metaphor.

gothic (goth‐IK): a literary style popular during the end of the 18th century and the beginning of the 19th. This style usually
portrayed fantastic tales dealing with horror, despair, the grotesque and other "dark" subjects. Gothic literature was
named for the apparent influence of the dark gothic architecture of the period on the genre. Also, many of these Gothic
tales took places in such "gothic" surroundings, sometimes a dark and stormy castle as shown in Mary Wollstoncraft
Shelly's Frankenstein, or Bram Stoker's infamous Dracula. Other times, this story of darkness may occur in a more
everyday setting, such as the quaint house where the man goes mad from the "beating" of his guilt in Edgar Allan Poe's
"The Tell‐Tale Heart". In essence, these stories were romances, largely due to their love of the imaginary over the logical,
and were told from many different point of view. This literature gave birth to many other forms, such as suspense, ghost
stories, horror, mystery, and also Poe's detective stories. Gothic literature wasn't so different from other genres in form as
it was in content and its focus on the "weird" aspects of life. This movement began to slowly open may people's eyes to
the possible uses of the supernatural in literature.

hyperbole (hi‐per‐bo‐lee): an extravagant exaggeration. From the Greek for "overcasting," hyperbole is a figure of speech
that is a grossly exaggerated description or statement. In literature, such exaggeration is used for emphasis or vivid
descriptions. In drama, hyperbole is quite common, especially in heroic drama. Hyperbole is a fundamental part of both
burlesque writing and the “tall tales” from Western America. The conscious overstatements of these tales are forms of
hyperbole. Many other examples of hyperbole can be found in the romance fiction and comedy genres. Hyperbole is even
a part of our day‐to‐day speech: ‘You’ve grown like a bean sprout’ or ‘I’m older than the hills.’ Hyperbole is used to
increase the effect of a description, whether it is metaphoric or comic. In poetry, hyperbole can emphasize or dramatize a
person’s opinions or emotions. Skilled poets use hyperbole to describe intense emotions and mental states. Othello uses
hyperbole to describe his anger at the possibility of Iago lying about his wife’s infidelity in Act III, Scene III of Shakespeare’s
play Othello:

If thou dost slander her and torture me,

Never pray more; abandon all remorse;
On horror’s head accumulate;
Do deeds to make heaven weep, all earth amazed;
For nothing canst thou to damnation add
Greater than that.

In this passage, Othello is telling Iago that if he is lying then Othello will have no pity and Iago will have no hope for
salvation. Adding horrors with still more horrors, Othello is describing his potential rage. Othello even declares that the
Earth will be confounded with horror at Othello’s actions in such a state of madness.

lyric (LEER‐ick): a lyric is a song‐like poem written mainly to express the feelings of emotions or thought from a particular
person, thus separating it from narrative poems. These poems are generally short, averaging roughly twelve to thirty lines,
and rarely go beyond sixty lines. These poems express vivid imagination as well as emotion and all flow fairly concisely.
Because of this aspect, as well as their steady rhythm, they were often used in song. In fact, most people still see a "lyric"

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as anything that is sung along to a musical instrument. It is believed that the lyric began in its earliest stage in Ancient
Egypt around 2600 BC in the forms of elegies, odes, or hymns generated out of religious ceremonies. Some of the more
note‐worthy authors who have used the lyric include William Blake, William Wordsworth, John Keats, and William
Shakespeare‐who helped popularize the sonnet, another type of lyric. The importance of understanding the lyric can best
be shown through its remarkable ability to express with such imagination the innermost emotions of the soul.

metaphor (met‐AH‐for) [from the Gk. carrying one place to another]: a type of figurative language in which a statement is
made that says that one thing is something else but, literally, it is not. In connecting one object, event, or place, to
another, a metaphor can uncover new and intriguing qualities of the original thing that we may not normally notice or
even consider important. Metaphoric language is used in order to realize a new and different meaning. As an effect, a
metaphor functions primarily to increase stylistic colorfulness and variety. Metaphor is a great contributor to poetry when
the reader understands a likeness between two essentially different things. In his Poetics, Aristotle claims that for one to
master the use of metaphor is “…a sign of genius, since a good metaphor implies an intuitive perception of the similarity in
dissimilars” (The Poet's Dictionary). A metaphor may be found in a simple comparison or largely as the image of an entire
poem. For example, Emily Dickinson’s poem “My Life had stood – a Loaded Gun” makes use of a series of comparisons
between the speaker and a gun. Dickinson opens the work with the following: “My Life had stood – a Loaded Gun ‐ / In
corners – till a Day / The Owner passed – identified ‐ / And carried me away”. Of course, the narrator is not really a
gun. The metaphor carries with it all the qualities of a “Loaded Gun”. The speaker in the poem is making a series of
comparisons between themselves and the qualities of a gun. The narrator had been waiting a long time before their love
found them. The narrator loves her fellow so desperately that she feels as a protective gun that would kill anyone wishing
to harm him. To this effect, Dickinson writes, "To foe of His – I’m deadly foe –." Dickinson’s poem ends up being one
extended comparison through the use of metaphor between herself and a gun with “…but the power to kill”.

metonymy (me‐TAH‐nah‐me): a figure of speech which substitutes one term with another that is being associated with
the that term. A name transfer takes place to demonstrate an association of a whole to a part or how two things are
associated in some way. This allows a reader to recognize similarities or common features among terms. It may provide a
more common meaning to a word. However, it may be a parallel shift that provides basically the same meaning; it is just
said another way. For example, in the book of Genesis 3:19, it refers to Adam by saying that “by the sweat of your brow,
you will eat your food.” Sweat represents the hard labor that Adam will have to endure to produce the food that will
sustain his life. The sweat on his brow is a vivid picture of how hard he is working to attain a goal. Another example is in
Genesis 27:28 when Isaac tells Jacob that “God will give you...an abundance of grain and new wine.” This grain and wine
represents the wealth that Jacob will attain by stealing the birth right. These riches are like money that is for consumption
or material possessions to trade for other goods needed for survival. Furthermore, in the play Othello, Act I Scene I
features metonymy when Iago refers to Othello as “ the devil” that “will make a grandsire of you.” This phrase represents
a person that is seen as deceitful or evil. An understanding of metonymy aids a reader to see how an author interchanges
words to further describe a term’s meaning.

narrative poem (nar‐RAH‐tiv po‐EM): a poem that tells a story. A narrative poem can come in many forms and styles, both
complex and simple, short or long, as long as it tells a story. A few examples of a narrative poem are epics, ballads, and
metrical romances. In western literature, narrative poetry dates back to the Babylonian epic of Gilgamesh and Homer's
epics the Iliad and the Odyssey. In England and Scotland, storytelling poems have long been popular; in the late Middle
Ages, ballads‐or storytelling songs‐circulated widely. The art of narrative poetry is difficult in that it requires the author to
possess the skills of a writer of fiction, the ability to draw characters and settings briefly, to engage attention, and to shape
a plot, while calling for all the skills of a poet besides.

personification {PER‐son‐E‐fih‐ka‐shEn): A figure of speech where animals, ideas or inorganic objects are given human
characteristics. One example of this is James Stephens’s poem "The Wind" in which wind preforms several actions. In the
poem Stephens writes, “The wind stood up and gave a shout. He whistled on his two fingers.” Of course the wind did not
actually "stand up," but this image of the wind creates a vivid picture of the wind's wild actions. Another example of
personification in this poem is “Kicked the withered leaves about….And thumped the branches with his hand.” Here, the
wind is kicking leaves about, just like a person would and using hands to thump branches like a person would also. By
giving human characteristics to things that do not have them, it makes these objects and their actions easier to visualize
for a reader. By giving the wind human characteristics, Stephens makes this poem more interesting and achieves a much
more vivid image of the way wind whips around a room. Personification is most often used in poetry, coming to popularity
during the 18th century.

rhyme (rime): repetition of an identical or similarly accented sound or sounds in a work. Lyricists may find multiple ways to
rhyme within a verse. End rhymes have words that rhyme at the end of a verse‐line. Internal rhymes have words that
rhyme within it. Algernon C. Swinburne (1837‐1909), a rebel and English poet, used internal rhymes in many of his
Victorian poems such as “sister, my sister, O fleet sweet swallow.” There are cross rhymes in which the rhyme occurs at

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the end of one line and in the middle of the next; and random rhymes, in which the rhymes seem to occur accidentally in
no specific combination, often mixed with unrhymed lines. These sort of rhymes try to bring a creative edge to verses that
usually have perfect rhymes in a sequential order. Historically, rhyme came into poetry late, showing in the Western world
around AD 200 in the Church Latin of North Africa. Its popularity grew in Medieval Latin poetry. The frequently used
spelling in English, r*h*y*m*e , comes from a false identification of the Greek word “rhythmos.” Its true origin comes
from Provencal, which is a relation to Provence, a region of France. The traditional Scottish ballad, “Edward,” uses end
rhymes to describe what he has done with his sword and property:

And what wul ye doe wi’ your towirs and your ha’
That were sae fair to see, O?
Ile let thame stand tul they doun fa’
Rhyme gives poems flow and rhythm, helping the lyricist tell a story and convey a mood.

rhyme scheme (rime skeem): the pattern of rhyme used in a poem, generally indicated by matching lowercase letters to
show which lines rhyme. The letter "a" notes the first line, and all other lines rhyming with the first line. The first line that
does not rhyme with the first, or "a" line, and all others that rhyme with this line, is noted by the letter "b", and so on. The
rhyme scheme may follow a fixed pattern (as in a sonnet) or may be arranged freely according to the poet's requirements.
The use of a scheme, or pattern, came about before poems were written down; when they were passed along in song or
oral poetry. Since many of these poems were long, telling of great heroes, battles, and other important cultural events,
the rhyme scheme helped with memorization. A rhyme scheme also helps give a verse movement, providing a break
before changing thoughts. The four‐line stanza, or quatrain, is usually written with the first line rhyming with the third line,
and the second line rhyming with the fourth line, abab. The English sonnet generally has three quatrains and a couplet,
such as abab, cdcd, efef, gg. The Italian sonnet has two quatrains and a sestet, or six‐line stanza, such as abba, abba, cde,
cde. Rhyme schemes were adapted to meet the artistic and expressive needs of the poet. Henry Howard Surrey is credited
with introducing the sonnet form to England. This form differed from the Italian form because he found that there were
fewer rhyming words in English than there were in Italian.

Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?

Thou art more lovely and more temperate.
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May.
And summer's lease hath all too short a date.
Excerpt from Shakespeare's "Sonnet XVIII", rhyme scheme: a b a b.

simile (sim‐EH‐lee): a simile is a type of figurative language, language that does not mean exactly what it says, that makes
a comparison between two otherwise unalike objects or ideas by connecting them with the words "like" or "as." The
reader can see a similar connection with the verbs resemble, compare and liken. Similes allow an author to emphasize a
certain characteristic of an object by comparing that object to an unrelated object that is an example of that characteristic.
An example of a simile can be seen in the poem “Robin Hood and Allin a Dale”:

With that came in a wealthy knight,

Which was both grave and old,
And after him a finikin lass,
Did shine like glistening gold.

In this poem, the lass did not literally glisten like gold, but by comparing the lass to the gold the author emphasizes her
beauty, radiance and purity, all things associated with gold. Similarly, in N. Scott Momaday’s simple poem, “Simile.” he
says that the two characters in the poem are like deer who walk in a single line with their heads high with their ears
forward and their eyes watchful. By comparing the walkers to the nervous deer, Momaday emphasizes their care and
caution.

short story (short store‐ey): a prose narrative that is brief in nature. The short story also has many of the same
characteristics of a novel including characters, setting and plot. However, due to length constraints, these characteristics
and devices generally may not be as fully developed or as complex as those developed for a full‐length novel. There are
many authors well known for the short story including Edgar Allan Poe, Sherwood Anderson and Ernest Hemingway.
According to the book Literary Terms by Karl Becksonand Arthur Ganz, “American writers since Poe, who first theorized on
the structure and purpose of the short story, have paid considerable attention to the form” (257). The written “protocol”
regarding what comprises a short versus a long story is vague. However, a general standard might be that the short story
could be read in one sitting. NTC’s Dictionary of Literary Terms quotes Edgar Allan Poe’s description as being ‘a short prose
narrative, requiring from a half‐hour to one or two hours in its perusal’ (201). Please refer to Literary Terms by Karl
Beckson and Arthur Ganz and NTC’s Dictionary of Literary Terms by Kathleen Morner and Ralph Rausch for further
information.

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slant rhyme (slänt rime) is also known as near rhyme, half rhyme, off rhyme, imperfect rhyme, oblique rhyme, or
pararhyme. A distinctive system or pattern of metrical structure and verse composition in which two words have only their
final consonant sounds and no preceding vowel or consonant sounds in common. Instead of perfect or identical sounds or
rhyme, it is the repetition of near or similar sounds or the pairing of accented and unaccented sounds that if both were
accented would be perfect rhymes (stopped and wept, parable and shell). Alliteration, assonance, and consonance are
accepted as slant rhyme due to their usage of sound combinations (spilled and spoiled, chitter and chatter). By not
allowing the reader to predict or expect what is coming slant rhyme allows the poet to express things in different or
certain ways. Slant rhyme was most common in the Irish, Welsh and Icelandic verse and prose long before Henry Vaughn
used it in English. Not until William Butler Yeats and Gerald Manley Hopkins began to use slant rhyme did it become
regularly used in English.Wilfred Owen was one of the first poets to realize the impact of rhyming consonants in a
consistent pattern. A World War I soldier he sought a powerful means to convey the harshness of war. Killed in action, his
most famous work was written in the year prior to his death.

Now men will go content with what we spoiled

Or, discontent, boil bloody, and be spilled,
They will be swift with the swiftness of the tigress.
None will break ranks, though nations trek from progress.
Courage was mine, and I had mystery,
Wisdom was mine, and I had mastery:
To miss the march of this retreating world
Into vain citadels that are not walled.

sonnet (sonn‐IT): a sonnet is a distinctive poetic style that uses system or pattern of metrical structure and verse
composition usually consisting of fourteen lines, arranged in a set rhyme scheme or pattern. There are two main styles of
sonnet, the Italian sonnet and the English sonnet. The Italian or Petrarchan sonnet, named after Petrarch (1304‐1374) a
fourteenth century writer and the best known poet to use this form, was developed by the Italian poet Guittone of Arezzo
(1230‐1294) in the thirteenth century. Usually written in iambic pentameter, it consists first of an octave, or eight lines,
which asks a question or states a problem or proposition and follows the rhyme scheme a‐b‐b‐a, a‐b‐b‐a. The sestet, or
last six lines, offers an answer, or a resolution to the proposed problem, and follows the rhyme scheme c‐d‐e‐c‐d‐e.

When I consider how my light is spent

Ere half my days, in this dark world and wide,
And that one talent which is death to hide
Lodged with me useless, though my soul more bent
To serve therewith my Maker, and present
My true account, lest he returning chide;
"Doth God exact day‐labor, light denied?"
I fondly ask; but Patience to prevent
That murmur, soon replies, "God doth not need
Either man's work or his own gifts; who best
Bear his mild yoke, they serve him best. His state
Is kingly. Thousands at his bidding speed
And post o'er land and ocean without rest:
They also serve who only stand and wait."

John Milton, "When I Consider How My Light Is Spent" ‐ The sonnet was first brought to England by Thomas Wyatt and
Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, in the sixteenth century, where the second sonnet form arose. The English or
Shakespearean sonnet was named after William Shakespeare (1564‐1616) who most believed to the best writer to use the
form. Adapting the Italian form to the English, the octave and sestet were replaced by three quatrains, each having its own
independent rhyme scheme typically rhyming every other line, and ending with a rhyme couplet. Instead of the Italianic
break between the octave and the sestet, the break comes between the twelfth and thirteenth lines. The ending couplet is
often the main thought change of the poem, and has an epigramatic ending. It follows the rhyme scheme a‐b‐a‐b, c‐d‐c‐d,
e‐f‐e‐f, g‐g.

Shakespeare, Sonnet XVIII.

Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? a

Thou art more lovely and more temperate: b
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May, a
And summer’s lease hath all to short a date: b
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines, c
And often is his gold complexion dimm’d: d
And every fair from fair sometime declines, c

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By chance, or nature’s changing course, untrimm’d. d
By thy eternal summer shall not fade e
Nor lose possession of that fair thou owest; f
Nor shall Death brag thou wandered in his shade, e
When in eternal lines to time thou growest: f
So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see, g
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee. g

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 Elements of Poetry

Elements of Sound

Rhythm is all around us. It is in the beating of our hearts; it is in the music we listen to; it is in the
tapping of a pencil as we sit pondering things. Rhythm has the effect of making emotions palpable. For
this reason, rhythm is employed in dance, music, and poetry. So what exactly is rhythm? It is the
repetition of accents and beats. Rhythm in poetry is established by stressed and unstressed syllables and
the length of lines.

Rhyme is the matching end sounds of words. For words to rhyme, their vowel sounds and ending
consonants must sound the same or must be very close (as in near rhyme). From a young age, we are
led to believe that all poetry must rhyme. But breaking the chains of a rhyme scheme sometimes results
in a great work of poetry.

Sound Devices

Aside from the basic sound structure of poems, poets include several sound devices in their poetry to
deepen the meaning of the work. Following are some of the most important sound devices in poetry.

Alliteration comes from the Latin and means “letters next to each other.” Alliteration is achieved when
successive words or stressed syllables begin with the same letter or consonant sound. This stylistic
device is commonly used in poetry and prose and adds a certain quality of richness to rhyming lines.
See if you can find the alliterative phrases in the following passage taken from Beowulf.

Now Beowulf bode in the burg of the Scyldings,

leader beloved, and long he ruled
in fame with all folk, since his father had gone
away from the world, till awoke an heir,
haughty Healfdene, who held through life,
sage and sturdy, the Scyldings glad.

Two sound devices that are similar to alliteration are consonance and assonance.

Consonance is the repetition of consonant sounds anywhere in a line or stanza. See the following
quotation from Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book. Notice which sound is repeated and the overall
effect it has on the passage.

“They will not move till I order them. Stay you sssso!” Kaa hissed, and the city was silent once more. .
..

So this is the manling,” said Kaa. “Very soft is his skin, and he is not so unlike the Bandar-log.”

The s sound is repeated throughout the lines. The effect is to make the snake’s words sound like the
hissing of a real snake.

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Assonance is the repetition of vowel sounds in lines and stanzas without rhyme. Assonance has a
soothing effect. Consider the first four lines of Shakespeare’s Twelfth Sonnet. Look for the
nonrhyming long i sound in each line.

When I do count the clock that tells the time

And see the brave day sunk in hideous night;

When I behold the violet past prime,

And sable curls all silver’d o’er with white;

Poe uses alliteration, consonance, and assonance to heighten the sense of madness in his poem “The
Bells.” Read the next few stanzas and see if you can find examples of all three of these sound devices.
Reading it aloud will help you hear the sounds. Remember, they are easy to confuse. What is important
is that you recognize that Poe is playing with sound for a specific effect.

Hear the loud alarum bells-

Brazen bells!
What a tale of terror, now, their turbulency tells!
In the startled ear of night
How they scream out their affright!
Too much horrified to speak,
They can only shriek, shriek,
Out of tune,
In a clamorous appealing to the mercy of the fire,
In a mad expostulation with the deaf and frantic fire,
Leaping higher, higher, higher,
With a desperate desire,
And a resolute endeavor,
Now–now to sit or never,
By the side of the pale-faced moon.
Oh, the bells, bells, bells!
What a tale their terror tells.

Of Despair!
How they clang, and clash, and roar!
What a horror they outpour
On the bosom of the palpitating air!
Yet the ear it fully knows,
By the twanging,
And the clanging,
How the danger ebbs and flows:
Yet the ear distinctly tells,
In the jangling,
And the wrangling,
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How the danger sinks and swells,
By the sinking or the swelling in the anger of the bells-
Of the bells-
Of the bells, bells, bells, bells,
Bells, bells, bells-
In the clamor and the clangor of the bells!

Below are a few lines and how they may be labeled as assonance, consonance and alliteration.

Alliteration, Consonance, and Assonance

Device Example Explanation

Alliteration “What a tale of terror, now, Notice how the t sound is the initial
their turbulency tells!” sound of tale, terror,
turbulency, and tells.

Consonance “Hear the loud alarum bells-“ Here the l sound is in the initial and
secondary sounds of the words loud,
alarum, and bells.

Assonance “In the jangling, Here the long a sound is in the

And the wrangling, rhyming
How the danger sinks and words jangling and wrangling, but
swells,” lines contain assonance when paired
with the word danger.
“The Bells” is an example of alliteration almost gone awry but, remember with Poe, there is always a
method to his madness! He uses all the sound devices to build a sense of impending death and insanity.

Another sound device is onomatopoeia. This is a word or group of words that imitate the object being
described. Words like buzz and hiss are obvious examples. Less obvious though no less effective ones
can be found in the following lines taken from Lord Alfred Tennyson’s “Come Down, O Maid:”

The moan of doves in immemorial elms,

And murmuring of innumerable bees.

While these lines contain consonance, the consonance serves as onomatopoeia. We can almost hear the
murmur of the bees in this last line.

Finally, poets often use repetition to convey emotion in their poems. Repetition might also be used to
change the meaning of a word or idea. Read Robert Frost’s “Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening”
and take note of his use of repetition.

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Those woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.
My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.

He gives his harness bells a shake

To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound’s the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.
The woods are lovely, dark and deep.
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.

When Frost repeats the last line, he intends the reader to see beyond the literal meaning of needing to
go a distance before going to sleep. The repetition forces the reader to look to a figurative as opposed
to a literal meaning of the word sleep.

Graphic Elements

Poets often play with grammatical structure, word position, line length, and punctuation to manipulate
language. E. E. Cummings is a poet who is well known for his manipulation of words, letters, and page
space. Poets must make decisions about which words to capitalize (or not) and when to end a line.
Capitalization imparts significance and urgency while a lowercase letter may indicate subordination.
Missing spaces in between words indicate a rush. Repetition of letters may indicate a stutter. As poetry
is concerned with conveying an emotional message in few words, these decisions are crucial. Decisions
about line length can help a turn an ordinary poem into a picture poem. “The Altar” by George Herbert
is a perfect example of this.

A broken A L T A R, Lord, thy servant reares,

Made of a heart, and cemented with teares:
Whose parts are as thy hand did frame;
No workmans tool hath touch’d the same.
A H E A R T alone
Is such a stone,
As nothing but
Thy pow’r doth cut.
Wherefore each part
Of my hard heart
Meets in this frame,
To praise thy Name;
That, if I chance to hold my peace,
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These stones to praise thee may not cease.
O let thy blessed S A C R I F I C E be mine,
And sanctifie this A L T A R to be thine.

Notice the words that are printed in all capital letters. Also, notice how his spacing and line length
create the picture poem. The subject of the poem is an altar that mimics the shape of the poem. He also
divides the lines meaningfully. Notice that “a HEART alone” is on a line all by itself, further
emphasizing the feeling of aloneness the poet wishes to convey.

We will conclude our poetry lesson with a brief discussion of poetic devices. See the following chart
for device names, their definitions, and brief examples of how they are used in actual poems.

Poetic Devices>

Poetic device What it is How it looks

Apostrophe A person or From Lord Byron’s “ Childe Harold’s

personified Pilgrimage”
object is “Roll on thou dark and deep blue ocean.”
addressed as
if it is
present.

Conceit An extended In John Donne’s “The Flea,” the poet

metaphor compares a flea bite to the act of
lovemaking, thus urging his lover to give in
to his advances.

Hyperbole An obvious From Mark Twain’s “Celebrated Jumpin’

exaggeration Frog of Calaveras County”
that serves to “If he even seen a straddle-bug start to go
emphasize a anywheres, he would bet you how long it
point or add would take him to get wherever he was
humor to a going to, and if you took him up, he would
poem foller that straddle-bug to Mexico but what
he would find out where he was bound for
and how long he was on the road.”

Metaphor Comparing From William Cullen Bryant’s “A Forest

two unlike Hymn”
things by “The groves were God’s first temple.”
calling one
thing another;

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 a staple of all
poetry

Metonymy Referring to Using “the White House” to mean the

something or president and his advisors
someone by
naming one
of its
attributes or
correlatives

Personification Giving From John Donne’s “Death be not Proud”

human “Death be not proud, though some have
characteristics called thee
to an Mighty and dreadfull, for, thou art not so,
inanimate For, those, whom thou think’st, thou dost
object overthrow,
Die not, poore death, nor yet canst thou kill
me.”

Pun A play on From Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet after

words with Mercutio has been stabbed
similar No, ’tis not so deep as a well, nor so wide
meanings; as a
Shakespeare
is a master at church-door; but ’tis enough,’twill serve:
puns ask for

me to-morrow, and you shall find me a

grave man. I

am peppered, I warrant, for this world.

Simile Comparing From Robert Burns’s “A Red, Red Rose”

two “My love is like a red, red rose
seemingly That’s newly sprung in June:
unlike things My love is like the melody
using “like” That’s sweetly played in tune.”
or “as”; the
simile is less
powerful than
the metaphor

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Synecdoche A part of a Saying “the crown” when referring to the
thing that king
replaces the
whole

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 POETRY
William Carlos Williams (1883 – 1963)

William Carlos Williams was born in Rutherford, New Jersey, in 1883. He

began writing poetry while a student at Horace Mann High School, at which
time he made the decision to become both a writer and a doctor. He received
his M.D. from the University of Pennsylvania, where he met and befriended
Ezra Pound. Pound became a great influence in Williams' writing, and in 1913
arranged for the London publication of Williams's second collection, The
Tempers. Returning to Rutherford, where he sustained his medical practice
throughout his life, Williams began publishing in small magazines and
embarked on a prolific career as a poet, novelist, essayist, and playwright.
Following Pound, he was one of the principal poets of the Imagist movement,
though as time went on, he began to increasingly disagree with the values put
forth in the work of Pound and especially Eliot, who he felt were too attached
to European culture and traditions. Continuing to experiment with new
techniques of meter and lineation, Williams sought to invent an entirely
fresh—and singularly American—poetic, whose subject matter was centered
on the everyday circumstances of life and the lives of common people. His

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influence as a poet spread slowly during the twenties and thirties,
overshadowed, he felt, by the immense popularity of Eliot's "The Waste Land";
however, his work received increasing attention in the 1950s and 1960s as
younger poets, including Allen Ginsberg and the Beats, were impressed by the
accessibility of his language and his openness as a mentor. His major works
include Kora in Hell (1920), Spring and All (1923), Pictures from Brueghel and
Other Poems (1962), the five-volume epic Paterson (1963, 1992), and
Imaginations (1970). Williams's health began to decline after a heart attack in
1948 and a series of strokes, but he continued writing up until his death in New
Jersey in 1963.

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Williams is a pioneer in poetry, he is among one of the first imagists to open the door
into a whole new realm of poetry. The poem "This Is Just To Say" is among the most
prominent imagist poems in recorded history.

This is just to say

by William Carlos Williams

I have eaten

the plums

that were in

the icebox

and which

you were probably

saving
for breakfast

Forgive me

they were delicious

so sweet

and so cold

Study questions
1. What are the images used in this poem? Are they special?

2. Who do you think the narrator is speaking to?

3. Describe the plums. What can they represent?

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Analysis of “This is Just to Say” by William Carlos Williams by Jessica Gleason

Imagist Poetry

To better understand "This Is Just To Say" as well as all of Williams' work, a

definition of imagist poetry is in order. Imagist poetry can be difficult to define
because there are many perceptions of what exactly it is. Imagist poetry is a seeming
contradiction. It is concise and simple in the visual aspect as well as the literal
meaning, but it is also quite complex in its "actual" meaning. Imagist poetry paints a
concrete picture for the reader while expressing a deeper meaning.

This particular poem uses clean and succinct language to create a picture. At
first glance this poem comes off almost as if it were a note left on the table next to the
empty plum container awaiting discovery.

At first glance this poem seems like nothing more than a simple note, but after
it is read the reader starts to notice the poetic feel of the words. The reader gets
dragged in by the simplicity and swallowed by the complexities.

The language in this poem is very crisp, clear and to the point. There isn't a
word over three syllables in the poems entirety and the poem itself is only 28 words.
This poem is by right and by form simplistic in nature.

The Intended Meaning or Meanings

There is no tangible answer as to what this poem is pertaining to, many

observations can be made and many questions can be raised. Is the poem about a love
affair? Does the poem have nothing to do with love? Is forgiveness really what the
speaker seeks? Is the speaker sincere in apologizing? Is the speaker self-righteous?
Polite? Pleased? Good-humored?

One take would be that this was a note left for a lover, not necessarily a love or
significant other, but a lover. It was left in a taunting manner, this can be derived from
that fact that the speaker detailed the plums in a way that made them seem erotic and
tantalizing. The speaker also makes it known that he/she knew that the plums weren't
for eating, but that he/she ate them anyway. It is funny in a twisted sort of way.

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 This poem can be universal in that most people know what it is like to be
taunted by a lover, or at the very least have something they desired or were saving
taken away for the amusement of another. The fact that this poem is so universal adds
to its general appeal, it makes it personal to the reader.

Though the poem does generate many unanswered questions. What is the
relationship between the sender and the receiver? Who are they? Was the culprit
forgiven? Since Williams never answered these questions they are left to the
wondering mind of the reader, perhaps in an effort to taunt them the same way as the
poem's speaker.

Sneaky Poetry

This poem sneaks up on the reader; he/she looks and is inquisitive because at a
glance this doesn't seem like much of a poem at all. Then, all of a sudden the readers'
mind is shooting off in all directions trying to interpret what exactly the situation
surrounding the image is and all that is left is an image of tantalizing plums to taunt
you. This poem turns into a love affair gone awry and all of this stems from the simple
image of plums. Thus is the beauty of imagist poetry.

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Page 26
 UNIT 2: THE ROAD NOT TAKEN
Robert Frost (1874-1963)

Robert Lee Frost was born in San Francisco on March 26, 1874 to
Isabelle Moodie, a Scottish schoolteacher, and William Prescott Frost, Jr., a
journalist, local politician and ancestor of Devonshire Frost who had sailed to
New Hampshire in 1634.

Frost's family lived in California until his father had died when he was
just eleven. He moved with his mother and sister to Lawrence, Massachusetts
to live with his paternal grandfather.

In 1892, Frost graduated from high school and attended Dartmouth

College and was a member of the Theta Delta Chi fraternity. While attending
college, Frost's first poem, "My Butterfly: An Elegy", was published in the New
York Independent, which earned him $15, and had five poems published
privately in 1894.

In 1895, Frost married a former schoolmate, Elinor White; they had six
children. Frost then became a teacher and continued publishing his poems in
magazines to support his family. From 1897 to 1899, Frost attended Harvard,

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but failed to receive a degree. The couple moved to Derry, New Hampshire,
where Frost worked as a cobbler, farmer and teacher at Pinkerton Academy
and a state normal school in Plymouth.

As the couple grew tired of farm life, they needed a change. Robert
wanted to move to Vancouver and Elinor England, so England it was. In 1912
the couple sold their farm and moved to the Gloucestershire village of Dymock,
where Robert became a full-time poet. The next year, A Boy's Will was
published. The book received international fame and contains many of Frost's
best-known poems: Mending Wall, The Death of the Hired Man, Home Burial,
After Apple-Picking and The Wood-Pile. While in England, Frost made notable
contacts with fellow poets as Ezra Pound (who gave Frost his first favorable
review by an American), T.E. Hulme and Edward Thomas.

Frost returned to America in 1915 and bought a farm in Franconia, New

Hampshire to farther his career in writing, teaching and lecturing. From 1916
to 1938, Frost worked as an English professor at Amherst College. He
encouraged his students to bring the sound of man to their writings. Also in
1916, Frost was made a member of the National Institute of Arts and Letters
and published his third collection of verse, Mountain Interval.

In 1920, Frost purchased a farm in South Shaftsbur, Vermont. Robert's

wife died in 1938, followed by four of his children. He suffered from long
boughts of depression and continual self-doubt. After the death of his wife, he
employed Kay Morrison, who he became strongly attracted to. One of his
finest love poems, A Witness Tree, was composed for her.

During the inauguration of President John F. Kennedy, Frost recited one

of his poems, The Gift Outright. Robert also represented the United States on
several other official missions. He became known for his poems that interplay

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voices, such as The Death of the Hired Man, and received numerous literary
and academic honors.

Robert Lee Frost died on January 29, 1963 and is buried in the Old
Bennington Cemetery in Bennington, Vermont.

Nothing Gold Can Stay

By Robert Frost

Nature's first green is gold,

Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay.

Study Questions

1. What are the images used in the poem? What happens to them? What can you infer
from that?

2. Explain the allusion of “Eden”.

Essay question

Compare and contrast Frost’s idea in “Nothing Gold Can Stay” and Williams’s in
“Poem”. How is life considered in the two poem? Who do you agree with and why?

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Robert Frost’s “The Road Not Taken” has been one of the most analyzed, quoted,
anthologized poems in American poetry. A wide-spread interpretation claims that the
speaker in the poem is promoting individualism and non-conformity.

The Road not Taken

by Robert Frost

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,

And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth.
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same.
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,

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I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

Study Questions

1. What does the traveler feel when he comes to the fork in the road? Explain the
antithesis.

2. Why does the traveler “sigh” in the last stanza? Have you ever heard the same
feeling?

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 Emily Dickinson (1830 – 1886)

Emily Dickinson is, in a sense, a link between her era and the literary
sensitivities of the turn of the century. A radical individualist, she was born and
spent her life in Amherst, Massachusetts, a small Calvinist village. She never
married, and she led an unconventional life that was outwardly uneventful but was
full of inner intensity. She loved nature and found deep inspiration in the birds,
animals, plants, and changing seasons of the New England countryside.
Dickinson’s terse, frequently imagistic style is modern and innovative. She
never uses two words when one will do, and combines concrete things with abstract
ideas in an almost proverbial, compressed style. Her best poems have no fat; many
mock current sentimentality, and some are even heretical. She sometimes shows a
terrifying existential awareness. She explores the dark and hidden part of the mind,
dramatizing death and the grave. Yet she also celebrated simple objects – a flower,
a bee. Her poetry exhibits great intelligence and often evokes the agonizing paradox

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 of the limits of the human consciousness trapped in time. She had an excellent
sense of humor, and her range of subjects and treatment is amazingly wide.
I’m Nobody 1. Who are they in line 4? The admiring
By Emily Dickinson bog in line 8? Do you refer solitude to
I’m nobody! Who are you? public life? Give your reason(s).
Are you nobody, too? 2. One of the tenets of a group of
Then there’s a pair of us - don’t tell! American poets called Imagist was to
They’d banish us, you know. search the sharp, clear word or phrase that
might do the work of a sentence. Emily
How dreary to be somebody! Dickinson has sometimes been called the
How public like a frog first of the Imagist. How does she recall
To tell your name the livelong day the line “How public like a frog”?
To an admiring bog!

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UNIT 3: ELEMENTS OF FICTION
1. CHARACTER
There are two meanings for the word character:
1) The person in a work of fiction.
2) The characteristics of a person.

Persons in a work of fiction - Antagonist and Protagonist

One character is clearly central to a story with all major events having some
connection to this character;

She/he is the PROTAGONIST.

The character in opposition to the main character is called the ANTAGONIST.

The Characteristics of a Person

In order for a story to seem real to the reader, its characters must seem real.
Characterization is the information the author gives the reader about the characters
themselves. The author may reveal a character in several ways:
a) his/her physical appearance
b) what he/she says, thinks, feels and dreams
c) what he/she does or does not do
d) what others say about him/her and how others react to him/her

Characters are convincing if they are: consistent, motivated and life-like (resemble
real people)

Characters are...
1. Individual - round, many sided and complex personalities.
2. Developing - dynamic, many sided personalities that change (for better or
worse) by the end of the story.
3. Static – Stereotypes; they have one or two characteristics that never change and
are often over-emphasized.

2. THEME
What exactly is this elusive thing called theme?

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The theme of a fable is its moral. The theme of a parable is its teaching. The theme
of a piece of fiction is its view about life and how people behave.

In fiction, the theme is not intended to teach or preach. In fact, it is not presented
directly at all. You extract it from the characters, action and setting that make up the
story. In other words, you must figure out the theme yourself.

The writer's task is to communicate on a common ground with the reader. Although
the particulars of your experience may be different from the details of the story, the
general underlying truths behind the story may be just the connection that both you
and the writer are seeking.

Here are some ways to uncover the theme in a story:

✓ Check out the title. Sometimes it tells you a lot about the theme.
✓ Notice repeating patterns and symbols. Sometimes these lead you to the
theme.
✓ What allusions are made throughout the story?
✓ What are the details and particulars in the story? What greater meaning may
they have?

Remember that theme, plot and structure are inseparable, all helping to inform and
reflect back on each other. Also, be aware that a theme we determine from a story
never completely explains the story. It is simply one of the elements that make up
the whole.

3. PLOT

A plot is a causal sequence of events, the "why" for the things that happen in the
story. The plot draws the reader into the characters’ lives and helps the reader
understand the choices that the characters make.

A plot's structure is the way in which the story elements are arranged. Writers vary
structure depending on the needs of the story. For example, in a mystery, the author
will withhold plot exposition until later in the story.

What Goes into a Plot?

Narrative tradition calls for developing stories with particular pieces - plot elements
- in place.
1. Exposition is the information needed to understand a story.
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 2. Complication is the catalyst that begins the major conflict.
3. Climax is the turning point in the story that occurs when characters try to
resolve the
complication.
4. Resolution is the set of events that bring the story to a close.

It's not always a straight line from the beginning to the end of story. Sometimes,
there is a shifting of time and this is the way we learn what happened and why; it
keeps us interested in the story. However, good stories always have all the plot
elements in them.

4. POINT OF VIEW

Remember, someone is always between the reader and the action of the story. That
someone is telling the story from his or her own point of view. This angle of vision,
the point of view from which the people, events and details of a story are viewed, is
important to consider when reading a story.

Types of Point of View:

Objective Point of View

With the objective point of view, the writer tells what happens without stating more
than can be inferred from the story's action and dialogue. The narrator never
discloses anything about what the characters think or feel, remaining a detached
observer.

Third Person Point of View

Here the narrator does not participate in the action of the story as one of the
characters, but lets us know exactly how the characters feel. We learn about the
characters through this outside voice.

First Person Point of View

In the first person point of view, the narrator does participate in the action of the
story. When reading stories in the first person, we need to realize that what the
narrator is recounting might not be the objective truth. We should question the
trustworthiness of the accounting.

Omniscient and Limited Omniscient Points of View

A narrator who knows everything about all the characters is all knowing, or
omniscient.
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A narrator whose knowledge is limited to one character, either major or minor, has
a limited omniscient point of view.

5. SETTING

Writers describe the world they know. Sights, sounds, colors and textures are all
vividly painted in words as an artist paints images on canvas. A writer imagines a
story to be happening in a place that is rooted in his or her mind. The location of a
story's actions, along with the time in which it occurs, is the setting.

Setting is created by language. How many or how few details we learn is up to the
author. Many authors leave a lot of these details up to the reader's imagination.

Some or all of these aspects of setting should be considered when examining a story:
a) place - geographical location. Where is the action of the story taking place?
b) time - When is the story taking place? (historical period, time of day, year, etc.)
c) weather conditions - Is it rainy, sunny, stormy, etc?
d) social conditions - What is the daily life of the characters like? Does the story
contain local colour (writing that focuses on the speech, dress, mannerisms,
customs, etc. of a particular place)?
e) mood or atmosphere - What feeling is created at the beginning of the story? Is it
bright and cheerful or dark and frightening?

6. CONFLICT

Conflict is the essence of fiction. It creates plot. The conflicts we encounter can
usually be identified as one of four kinds.

Human versus Human

Conflict that pits one person against another. Human versus Nature
This involves a run-in with the forces of nature. On the one hand, it expresses the
insignificance of a single human life in the cosmic scheme of things. On the other
hand, it tests the limits of a person’s strength and will to live.

Human versus Society

The values and customs by which everyone else lives are being challenged. The
character may come to an untimely end as a result of his or her own convictions. The
character may, on the other hand, bring others around to a sympathetic point of view,
or it may be decided that society was right after all.

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Human versus Self
Internal conflict. Not all conflict involves other people. Sometimes people are their
own worst enemies. An internal conflict is a good test of a character’s values. Does
he/she give in to temptation or rise above it? Does he/she demand the most from
him/herself or settle for something less? Does he/she even bother to struggle? The
internal conflicts of a character and how they are resolved are good clues to the
character’s inner strength.

Often, more than one kind of conflict is taking place at the same time. In every case,
however, the existence of conflict enhances the reader’s understanding of a character
and creates the suspense and interest that make you want to continue reading.

7. TONE

In literature, tone is the emotional colouring or the emotional meaning of the work
and provides an extremely important contribution to the full meaning. In spoken
language, it is indicated by the inflection of the speaker's voice. The emotional
meaning of a statement may vary widely according to the tone of voice with which
it is uttered; the tone may be ecstatic, incredulous, despairing, resigned, etc.

In poetry, we cannot really understand a poem unless we have accurately sensed

whether the attitude it manifests is playful or solemn, mocking or reverent, calm or
excited. In spoken language, the speaker's voice can guide us to the tone. But, the
correct determination of tone in literature is a much more delicate matter. Elements
of tone include diction, or word choice; syntax, the grammatical arrangement of
words in a text for effect; imagery, or vivid appeals to the senses; details, facts that
are included or omitted. According to Harry Shaw (Dictionary of Literary Terms),
tone can be determined by three points:
1. An author's attitude or focus point toward his/her subject. In this concern, the tone
can be realistic, somber, depressing, romantic, adventurous, etc.
2. The devices used to create the mood and atmosphere of a literary work. In this
sense, the tone consists of alliteration, assonance, consonance, diction, imagery,
metre, theme, symbolism, irony, etc.
3. The musical quality in language. Here, the tone depends upon the sounds of
words, their arrangement and their sequence.

Page 38
 Kate Chopin
(1850–1904)

“A beautiful woman, whose portrait fails to convey a tithe of the charm of her
expressively lovely face, has been an honored contributor to Vogue… Mrs. Chopin
is daring in her choice of themes, but exquisitely refined in the treatment of them,
and her literary style is a model of terse and finished diction.”

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 Kate Chopin (1850 - 1904), born Katherine O'Flaherty in St. Louis, Missouri
on February 8, 1850, is considered one of the first feminist authors of the 20th
century. She is often credited for introducing the modern feminist literary movement.
Chopin was following a rather conventional path as a housewife until an unfortunate
tragedy-- the untimely death of her husband-- altered the course of her life.
She became a talented and prolific short story writer, influenced primarily by
the French short story author, Guy de Maupassant. She is best known for her
novel The Awakening (1899), a hauntingly prescient tale of a woman unfulfilled by
the mundane yet highly celebrated "feminine role," and her painful realization that
the constraints of her gender blocked her ability to seek a more fulfilling life.
Chopin's settings for many of her stories is in north central Louisiana, many
in Natchitoches. She published two significant short story collections; Bayou
Folk in 1894, and then A Night in Acadie in 1897. Most of her fiction is set in
Louisiana and most of her best-known work focuses on the lives of sensitive,
intelligent women.

Chopin’s novels were mostly forgotten after her death in 1904, but several of
her short stories appeared in an anthology within five years after her death, others
were reprinted over the years, and slowly people again came to read her. In the 1930s
a Chopin biography appeared which spoke well of her short fiction but
dismissed The Awakening as unfortunate. However, by the 1950s scholars and
others recognized that the novel is an insightful and moving work of fiction. Such
readers set in motion a Kate Chopin revival, one of the more remarkable literary
revivals in the United States.

➢ Some argue that modern feminism was borne on her pages, and one needs to
look no further than her 1894 short story The Story of an Hour to support the
claim.
*** Does the psychological ambivalence dramatized in "The Story of an
Hour" ring true or uncomfortably real when we consider honestly our own feelings?

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 The Story of An Hour (1984)
Knowing that Mrs. Mallard was afflicted
with a heart trouble, great care was taken to break
to her as gently as possible the news of her
husband's death.
It was her sister Josephine who told her, in
broken sentences; veiled hints that revealed in
half concealing. Her husband's friend Richards
was there, too, near her. It was he who had been
in the newspaper office when intelligence of the
railroad disaster was received, with Brently
Mallard's name leading the list of "killed." He
had only taken the time to assure himself of its
truth by a second telegram, and had hastened to
forestall any less careful, less tender friend in bearing the sad message.
She did not hear the story as many women have heard the same, with a
paralyzed inability to accept its significance. She wept at once, with sudden, wild
abandonment, in her sister's arms. When the storm of grief had spent itself she went
away to her room alone. She would have no one follow her.
There stood, facing the open window, a comfortable, roomy armchair. Into this
she sank, pressed down by a physical exhaustion that haunted her body and seemed
to reach into her soul.
She could see in the open square before her house the tops of trees that were all
aquiver with the new spring life. The delicious breath of rain was in the air. In the
street below a peddler was crying his wares. The notes of a distant song which some
one was singing reached her faintly, and countless sparrows were twittering in the
eaves.
There were patches of blue sky showing here and there through the clouds that
had met and piled one above the other in the west facing her window.
She sat with her head thrown back upon the cushion of the chair, quite
motionless, except when a sob came up into her throat and shook her, as a child who
has cried itself to sleep continues to sob in its dreams.

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 She was young, with a fair, calm face, whose lines bespoke repression and even
a certain strength. But now there was a dull stare in her eyes, whose gaze was fixed
away off yonder on one of those patches of blue sky. It was not a glance of reflection,
but rather indicated a suspension of intelligent thought.
There was something coming to her and she was waiting for it, fearfully. What
was it? She did not know; it was too subtle and elusive to name. But she felt it,
creeping out of the sky, reaching toward her through the sounds, the scents, the color
that filled the air.
Now her bosom rose and fell tumultuously. She was beginning to recognize this
thing that was approaching to possess her, and she was striving to beat it back with
her will--as powerless as her two white slender hands would have been. When she
abandoned herself a little whispered word escaped her slightly parted lips. She said
it over and over under the breath: "free, free, free!" The vacant stare and the look of
terror that had followed it went from her eyes. They stayed keen and bright. Her
pulses beat fast, and the coursing blood warmed and relaxed every inch of her body.
She did not stop to ask if it were or were not a monstrous joy that held her. A
clear and exalted perception enabled her to dismiss the suggestion as trivial. She
knew that she would weep again when she saw the kind, tender hands folded in
death; the face that had never looked save with love upon her, fixed and gray and
dead. But she saw beyond that bitter moment a long procession of years to come that
would belong to her absolutely. And she opened and spread her arms out to them in
welcome.
There would be no one to live for during those coming years; she would live
for herself. There would be no powerful will bending hers in that blind persistence
with which men and women believe they have a right to impose a private will upon
a fellow-creature. A kind intention or a cruel intention made the act seem no less a
crime as she looked upon it in that brief moment of illumination.
And yet she had loved him--sometimes. Often she had not. What did it matter!
What could love, the unsolved mystery, count for in the face of this possession of
self-assertion which she suddenly recognized as the strongest impulse of her being!
"Free! Body and soul free!" she kept whispering.
Josephine was kneeling before the closed door with her lips to the keyhold,
imploring for admission. "Louise, open the door! I beg; open the door--you will
make yourself ill. What are you doing, Louise? For heaven's sake open the door."
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 "Go away. I am not making myself ill." No; she was drinking in a very elixir of
life through that open window.
Her fancy was running riot along those days ahead of her. Spring days, and
summer days, and all sorts of days that would be her own. She breathed a quick
prayer that life might be long. It was only yesterday she had thought with a shudder
that life might be long.
She arose at length and opened the door to her sister's importunities. There was
a feverish triumph in her eyes, and she carried herself unwittingly like a goddess of
Victory. She clasped her sister's waist, and together they descended the stairs.
Richards stood waiting for them at the bottom.
Someone was opening the front door with a latchkey. It was Brently Mallard
who entered, a little travel-stained, composedly carrying his grip-sack and umbrella.
He had been far from the scene of the accident, and did not even know there had
been one. He stood amazed at Josephine's piercing cry; at Richards' quick motion to
screen him from the view of his wife.
When the doctors came they said she had died of heart disease--of the joy that
kills.
 Questions for discussion:
1. Discuss the context of the story, “In the nineteenth century in Louisiana, where
most of Chopin’s stories are set, women’s rights were limited. Most married women
were considered to the property of their husband.”
2. The story of an hour reveals a number of themes. Give your opinions about these
themes:
(a) Chopin presents life as a series of unexpected events, which may be taken
both positively and negatively.
(b) Chopin suggests the role of women in the family and society should be
changed. However, she also accepts the fact that there are limits to these changes.
(c) Human striving for freedom is futile. Only in nature can freedom exist.
3. With The story of an hour Kate Chopin explores the inherent conflict between the
traditional requirement that a wife forms her life around her husband’s and a woman
needs for discrete personhood. Give your argument about Mrs. Mallard’s problem,
the conflict that prevents her from having a happy marriage and a life of her own.
Page 43
 William Sydney Porter
(Pen Name: O. Henry)
(1862–1910)

“It ain’t the roads we take; it’s what inside of us that makes us turn out the way we
do.” (O. Henry)
“Life is made up of sobs, sniffles, and smiles, with sniffles predominating.”
- Four Million (1906), The Gift of The Magi -

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 O. Henry (1862 - 1910) was an American short story author whose real name
was William Sydney Porter. The many twists and turns of his own life, including his
travels in Latin America and time spent in prison, clearly inspired his stories'
unexpected twist endings and clever wordplay.
Like many other writers, O. Henry's early career aspirations were unfocused and
he wandered across different activities and professions before he finally found his
calling as a short story writer. He started working in his uncle's drugstore in 1879 and
became a licensed pharmacist by the age of 19.
O. Henry moved to Texas in March of 1882 hoping to get rid of a persistent
cough that he had developed. Over the next several years, Porter -- as he was still
known -- took a number of different jobs, from pharmacy to drafting, journalism, and
banking.
Here's where the twists and turns really started. Banking, in particular, was not
to be O. Henry's calling; he was quite careless with his bookkeeping, fired by the bank
and charged with embezzlement in 1894. His father-in-law posted bail for him, but he
fled the day before the trial in 1896, first to New Orleans, then to Honduras, where
there was no extradition treaty. He befriended a notorious train robber there, Al
Jennings, who later wrote a book about their friendship. O. Henry sent his wife and
daughter back to Texas, after which he holed up in a hotel to write his first collection
of short stories, Cabbages and Kings published in 1904. He learned his wife was dying
of tuberculosis and could not join him in Honduras, so he returned to Austin and turned
himself in to the court. His father-in-law again posted his bail so he could remain with
his wife until her death in 1897. He was sentenced and served in Federal prison in Ohio
for five years from 1989-1902. During his jail time, he returned to practicing pharmacy
and had a room in the hospital, never having to live in a cell.
O. Henry's prolific writing period began in 1902 in New York City, where he wrote
381 short stories. He wrote one story a week for The New York World Sunday
Magazine for over a year. His noble works include The Cop and the Anthem; The Gift
of The Magi; The Last Leaf; The Trimmed Lamp; Cabbages and Kings; One Thousand
Dollars; After Twenty years, etc.

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 The Gift of the Magi (1905)
One dollar and eighty-seven cents. That was
all. And sixty cents of it was in pennies.
Pennies saved one and two at a time by
bulldozing the grocer and the vegetable man
and the butcher until one's cheeks burned
with the silent imputation of parsimony that
such close dealing implied. Three times
Della counted it. One dollar and eighty-
seven cents. And the next day would be
Christmas.

There was clearly nothing to do but flop

down on the shabby little couch and howl. So
Della did it. Which instigates the moral
reflection that life is made up of sobs,
sniffles, and smiles, with sniffles
predominating.

While the mistress of the home is gradually

subsiding from the first stage to the second,
take a look at the home. A furnished flat at
$8 per week. It did not exactly beggar
description, but it certainly had that word on
the lookout for the mendicancy squad.

In the vestibule below was a letter-box into which no letter would go, and an electric
button from which no mortal finger could coax a ring. Also appertaining thereunto was
a card bearing the name "Mr. James Dillingham Young."

The "Dillingham" had been flung to the breeze during a former period of prosperity
when its possessor was being paid $30 per week. Now, when the income was shrunk
to $20, though, they were thinking seriously of contracting to a modest and unassuming
D. But whenever Mr. James Dillingham Young came home and reached his flat above
he was called "Jim" and greatly hugged by Mrs. James Dillingham Young, already
introduced to you as Della. Which is all very good.

Della finished her cry and attended to her cheeks with the powder rag. She stood by
the window and looked out dully at a gray cat walking a gray fence in a gray backyard.
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Tomorrow would be Christmas Day, and she had only $1.87 with which to buy Jim a
present. She had been saving every penny she could for months, with this result.
Twenty dollars a week doesn't go far. Expenses had been greater than she had
calculated. They always are. Only $1.87 to buy a present for Jim. Her Jim. Many a
happy hour she had spent planning for something nice for him. Something fine and
rare and sterling--something just a little bit near to being worthy of the honor of being
owned by Jim.

There was a pier-glass between the windows of the room. Perhaps you have seen a
pier-glass in an $8 flat. A very thin and very agile person may, by observing his
reflection in a rapid sequence of longitudinal strips, obtain a fairly accurate conception
of his looks. Della, being slender, had mastered the art.

Suddenly she whirled from the window and stood before the glass. her eyes were
shining brilliantly, but her face had lost its color within twenty seconds. Rapidly she
pulled down her hair and let it fall to its full length.

Now, there were two possessions of the James Dillingham Youngs in which they both
took a mighty pride. One was Jim's gold watch that had been his father's and his
grandfather's. The other was Della's hair. Had the queen of Sheba lived in the flat across
the airshaft, Della would have let her hair hang out the window some day to dry just
to depreciate Her Majesty's jewels and gifts. Had King Solomon been the janitor, with
all his treasures piled up in the basement, Jim would have pulled out his watch every
time he passed, just to see him pluck at his beard from envy.

So now Della's beautiful hair fell about her rippling and shining like a cascade of brown
waters. It reached below her knee and made itself almost a garment for her. And then
she did it up again nervously and quickly. Once she faltered for a minute and stood
still while a tear or two splashed on the worn red carpet.

On went her old brown jacket; on went her old brown hat. With a whirl of skirts and
with the brilliant sparkle still in her eyes, she fluttered out the door and down the stairs
to the street.

Where she stopped the sign read: "Mne. Sofronie. Hair Goods of All Kinds." One flight
up Della ran, and collected herself, panting. Madame, large, too white, chilly, hardly
looked the "Sofronie."

"Will you buy my hair?" asked Della.

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"I buy hair," said Madame. "Take yer hat off and let's have a sight at the looks of it."

Down rippled the brown cascade.

"Twenty dollars," said Madame, lifting the mass with a practised hand.
"Give it to me quick," said Della.
Oh, and the next two hours tripped by on rosy wings. Forget the hashed metaphor. She
was ransacking the stores for Jim's present.

She found it at last. It surely had been made for Jim and no one else. There was no
other like it in any of the stores, and she had turned all of them inside out. It was a
platinum fob chain simple and chaste in design, properly proclaiming its value by
substance alone and not by meretricious ornamentation--as all good things should do.
It was even worthy of The Watch. As soon as she saw it she knew that it must be Jim's.
It was like him. Quietness and value--the description applied to both. Twenty-one
dollars they took from her for it, and she hurried home with the 87 cents. With that
chain on his watch Jim might be properly anxious about the time in any company.
Grand as the watch was, he sometimes looked at it on the sly on account of the old
leather strap that he used in place of a chain.

When Della reached home her intoxication gave way a little to prudence and reason.
She got out her curling irons and lighted the gas and went to work repairing the ravages
made by generosity added to love. Which is always a tremendous task, dear friends--a
mammoth task.

Within forty minutes her head was covered with tiny, close-lying curls that made her
look wonderfully like a truant schoolboy. She looked at her reflection in the mirror
long, carefully, and critically.

"If Jim doesn't kill me," she said to herself, "before he takes a second look at me, he'll
say I look like a Coney Island chorus girl. But what could I do--oh! what could I do
with a dollar and eighty- seven cents?"

At 7 o'clock the coffee was made and the frying-pan was on the back of the stove hot
and ready to cook the chops. Jim was never late. Della doubled the fob chain in her
hand and sat on the corner of the table near the door that he always entered. Then she
heard his step on the stair away down on the first flight, and she turned white for just
a moment. She had a habit for saying little silent prayer about the simplest everyday
things, and now she whispered: "Please God, make him think I am still pretty."

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The door opened and Jim stepped in and closed it. He looked thin and very serious.
Poor fellow, he was only twenty-two--and to be burdened with a family! He needed a
new overcoat and he was without gloves. Jim stopped inside the door, as immovable
as a setter at the scent of quail. His eyes were fixed upon Della, and there was an
expression in them that she could not read, and it terrified her. It was not anger, nor
surprise, nor disapproval, nor horror, nor any of the sentiments that she had been
prepared for. He simply stared at her fixedly with that peculiar expression on his face.
Della wriggled off the table and went for him.

"Jim, darling," she cried, "don't look at me that way. I had my hair cut off and sold
because I couldn't have lived through Christmas without giving you a present. It'll grow
out again--you won't mind, will you? I just had to do it. My hair grows awfully fast.
Say `Merry Christmas!' Jim, and let's be happy. You don't know what a nice-- what a
beautiful, nice gift I've got for you."

"You've cut off your hair?" asked Jim, laboriously, as if he had not arrived at that patent
fact yet even after the hardest mental labor.

"Cut it off and sold it," said Della. "Don't you like me just as well, anyhow? I'm me
without my hair, ain't I?"
Jim looked about the room curiously.

"You say your hair is gone?" he said, with an air almost of idiocy.

"You needn't look for it," said Della. "It's sold, I tell you--sold and gone, too. It's
Christmas Eve, boy. Be good to me, for it went for you. Maybe the hairs of my head
were numbered," she went on with sudden serious sweetness, "but nobody could ever
count my love for you. Shall I put the chops on, Jim?"

Out of his trance Jim seemed quickly to wake. He enfolded his Della. For ten seconds
let us regard with discreet scrutiny some inconsequential object in the other direction.
Eight dollars a week or a million a year--what is the difference? A mathematician or a
wit would give you the wrong answer. The magi brought valuable gifts, but that was
not among them. This dark assertion will be illuminated later on.

Jim drew a package from his overcoat pocket and threw it upon the table.

"Don't make any mistake, Dell," he said, "about me. I don't think there's anything in
the way of a haircut or a shave or a shampoo that could make me like my girl any less.
But if you'll unwrap that package you may see why you had me going a while at first."
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White fingers and nimble tore at the string and paper. And then an ecstatic scream of
joy; and then, alas! a quick feminine change to hysterical tears and wails, necessitating
the immediate employment of all the comforting powers of the lord of the flat.

For there lay The Combs--the set of combs, side and back, that Della had worshipped
long in a Broadway window. Beautiful combs, pure tortoise shell, with jewelled rims-
-just the shade to wear in the beautiful vanished hair. They were expensive combs, she
knew, and her heart had simply craved and yearned over them without the least hope
of possession. And now, they were hers, but the tresses that should have adorned the
coveted adornments were gone.

But she hugged them to her bosom, and at length she was able to look up with dim
eyes and a smile and say: "My hair grows so fast, Jim!"

And them Della leaped up like a little singed cat and cried, "Oh, oh!"
Jim had not yet seen his beautiful present. She held it out to him eagerly upon her open
palm. The dull precious metal seemed to flash with a reflection of her bright and ardent
spirit.

"Isn't it a dandy, Jim? I hunted all over town to find it. You'll have to look at the time
a hundred times a day now. Give me your watch. I want to see how it looks on it."

Instead of obeying, Jim tumbled down on the couch and put his hands under the back
of his head and smiled.

"Dell," said he, "let's put our Christmas presents away and keep 'em a while. They're
too nice to use just at present. I sold the watch to get the money to buy your combs.
And now suppose you put the chops on."

The magi, as you know, were wise men--wonderfully wise men--who brought gifts to
the Babe in the manger. They invented the art of giving Christmas presents. Being
wise, their gifts were no doubt wise ones, possibly bearing the privilege of exchange
in case of duplication. And here I have lamely related to you the uneventful chronicle
of two foolish children in a flat who most unwisely sacrificed for each other the greatest
treasures of their house. But in a last word to the wise of these days let it be said that
of all who give gifts these two were the wisest. O all who give and receive gifts, such
as they are wisest. Everywhere they are wisest. They are the Magi.

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UNIT 4. THESHORT
TELL-TALE
STORIES HEART
Edgar Allan Poe (1809 – 1849)

He was one of the greatest horror writers in history. His stories tingled
our spines, sent shudders through our bodies, made our hair stand on end, and
gave us goosebumps. His writings, and even his life, were considered maniacal.
For many, he was simply a madman. But for most, he is Edgar Allan Poe.

Edgar Allan Poe was born in Boston, Massachusetts, to parents who

were itinerant actors. His father David Poe Jr. died probably in 1810. Elizabeth
Hopkins Poe died in 1811, leaving three children. Edgar was taken into the
home of a Richmond merchant John Allan. The remaining children were cared
for by others. Poe's brother William died young and sister Rosalie become later
insane. At the age of five Poe could recite passages of English poetry. Later one
of his teachers in Richmond said: "While the other boys wrote mere
mechanical verses, Poe wrote genuine poetry; the boy was a born poet."

Poe was brought up partly in England (1815-20), where he attended

Manor School at Stoke Newington. Later it become the setting for his story
'William Wilson'. Never legally adopted, Poe took Allan's name for his middle

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name. Poe attended the University of Virginia (1826-27), but was expelled for
not paying his gambling debts. This led to quarrel with Allan, who refused to
pay the debts. Allan later disowned him. In 1826 Poe became engaged to
Elmira Royster, but her parents broke off the engagement. During his stay
at the university, Poe composed some tales, but little is known of his
apprentice works. In 1827 Poe joined the U.S. Army as a common soldier under
assumed name, Edgar A. Perry. He was sent to Sullivan's Island, South Carolina,
which provided settings for 'The Gold Bug' (1843) and 'The Balloon Hoax'
(1844). Tamerlane and Other Poems (1827), which Poe published at his own
expense, sold poorly. It has become one of the rarest volumes in American
literary history. In 1830 Poe entered West Point. He was dishonorably
discharged next year, for intentional neglect of his duties - apparently as a
result of his own determination to be released.

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 The Tell-Tale Heart

by Edgar Allan Poe

TRUE! nervous, very, very dreadfully nervous I had been and am; but why
WILL you say that I am mad? The disease had sharpened my senses, not destroyed,
not dulled them. Above all was the sense of hearing acute. I heard all things in the
heaven and in the earth. I heard many things in hell. How then am I mad? Hearken!
and observe how healthily, how calmly, I can tell you the whole story.

It is impossible to say how first the idea entered my brain, but, once conceived,
it haunted me day and night. Object there was none. Passion there was none. I loved
the old man. He had never wronged me. He had never given me insult. For his gold I
had no desire. I think it was his eye! Yes, it was this! One of his eyes resembled that
of a vulture -- a pale blue eye with a film over it. Whenever it fell upon me my blood
ran cold, and so by degrees, very gradually, I made up my mind to take the life of the
old man, and thus rid myself of the eye for ever.

Now this is the point. You fancy me mad. Madmen know nothing. But you
should have seen me. You should have seen how wisely I proceeded -- with what
caution -- with what foresight, with what dissimulation, I went to work! I was never
kinder to the old man than during the whole week before I killed him. And every night
about midnight I turned the latch of his door and opened it oh, so gently! And then,
when I had made an opening sufficient for my head, I put in a dark lantern all closed,
closed so that no light shone out, and then I thrust in my head. Oh, you would have
laughed to see how cunningly I thrust it in! I moved it slowly, very, very slowly, so
that I might not disturb the old man's sleep. It took me an hour to place my whole head
within the opening so far that I could see him as he lay upon his bed. Ha! would a
madman have been so wise as this? And then when my head was well in the room I
undid the lantern cautiously -- oh, so cautiously -- cautiously (for the hinges creaked),
I undid it just so much that a single thin ray fell upon the vulture eye. And this I did
for seven long nights, every night just at midnight, but I found the eye always closed,
and so it was impossible to do the work, for it was not the old man who vexed me but
his Evil Eye. And every morning, when the day broke, I went boldly into the chamber

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and spoke courageously to him, calling him by name in a hearty tone, and inquiring
how he had passed the night. So you see he would have been a very profound old
man, indeed , to suspect that every night, just at twelve, I looked in upon him while he
slept.

Upon the eighth night I was

more than usually cautious in opening
the door. A watch's minute hand moves
more quickly than did mine. Never
before that night had I felt the extent of
my own powers, of my sagacity. I could
scarcely contain my feelings of
triumph. To think that there I was
opening the door little by little, and he
not even to dream of my secret deeds or
thoughts. I fairly chuckled at the idea,
and perhaps he heard me, for he moved
on the bed suddenly as if startled. Now
you may think that I drew back -- but
no. His room was as black as pitch with the thick darkness (for the shutters were close
fastened through fear of robbers), and so I knew that he could not see the opening of
the door, and I kept pushing it on steadily, steadily.

I had my head in, and was about to open the lantern, when my thumb slipped
upon the tin fastening , and the old man sprang up in the bed, crying out, "Who's
there?"

I kept quite still and said nothing. For a whole hour I did not move a muscle,
and in the meantime I did not hear him lie down. He was still sitting up in the bed,
listening; just as I have done night after night hearkening to the death watches in the
wall.

Presently, I heard a slight groan, and I knew it was the groan of mortal terror. It
was not a groan of pain or of grief -- oh, no! It was the low stifled sound that arises

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from the bottom of the soul when overcharged with awe. I knew the sound well. Many
a night, just at midnight, when all the world slept, it has welled up from my own
bosom, deepening, with its dreadful echo, the terrors that distracted me. I say I knew it
well. I knew what the old man felt, and pitied him although I chuckled at heart. I knew
that he had been lying awake ever since the first slight noise when he had turned in the
bed. His fears had been ever since growing upon him. He had been trying to fancy
them causeless, but could not. He had been saying to himself, "It is nothing but the
wind in the chimney, it is only a mouse crossing the floor," or, "It is merely a cricket
which has made a single chirp." Yes he has been trying to comfort himself with these
suppositions ; but he had found all in vain. ALL IN VAIN, because Death in
approaching him had stalked with his black shadow before him and enveloped the
victim. And it was the mournful influence of the unperceived shadow that caused him
to feel, although he neither saw nor heard, to feel the presence of my head within the
room.

When I had waited a long time very patiently without hearing him lie down, I
resolved to open a little -- a very, very little crevice in the lantern. So I opened it --
you cannot imagine how stealthily, stealthily -- until at length a single dim ray like the
thread of the spider shot out from the crevice and fell upon the vulture eye.

It was open, wide, wide open, and I grew furious as I gazed upon it. I saw it
with perfect distinctness -- all a dull blue with a hideous veil over it that chilled the
very marrow in my bones, but I could see nothing else of the old man's face or person,
for I had directed the ray as if by instinct precisely upon the damned spot.

And now have I not told you that what you mistake for madness is but over-
acuteness of the senses? now, I say, there came to my ears a low, dull, quick sound,
such as a watch makes when enveloped in cotton. I knew that sound well too. It was
the beating of the old man's heart. It increased my fury as the beating of a drum
stimulates the soldier into courage.

But even yet I refrained and kept still. I scarcely breathed. I held the lantern
motionless. I tried how steadily I could maintain the ray upon the eye. Meantime the
hellish tattoo of the heart increased. It grew quicker and quicker, and louder and

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louder, every instant. The old man's terror must have been extreme! It grew louder, I
say, louder every moment! -- do you mark me well? I have told you that I am nervous:
so I am. And now at the dead hour of the night, amid the dreadful silence of that old
house, so strange a noise as this excited me to uncontrollable terror. Yet, for some
minutes longer I refrained and stood still. But the beating grew louder, louder! I
thought the heart must burst. And now a new anxiety seized me -- the sound would be
heard by a neighbour! The old man's hour had come! With a loud yell, I threw open
the lantern and leaped into the room. He shrieked once -- once only. In an instant I
dragged him to the floor, and pulled the heavy bed over him. I then smiled gaily, to
find the deed so far done. But for many minutes the heart beat on with a muffled
sound. This, however, did not vex me; it would not be heard through the wall. At
length it ceased. The old man was dead. I removed the bed and examined the corpse.
Yes, he was stone, stone dead. I placed my hand upon the heart and held it there many
minutes. There was no pulsation. He was stone dead. His eye would trouble me no
more.

If still you think me mad, you will think so no longer when I describe the wise
precautions I took for the concealment of the body. The night waned, and I worked
hastily, but in silence. First of all I dismembered the corpse. I cut off the head and the
arms and the legs.

I took up three planks from the flooring of the chamber, and deposited all
between the scantlings. I then replaced the boards so cleverly so cunningly, that no
human eye -- not even his -- could have detected anything wrong. There was nothing
to wash out -- no stain of any kind -- no blood-spot whatever. I had been too wary for
that.

When I had made an end of these labours, it was four o'clock -- still dark as
midnight. As the bell sounded the hour, there came a knocking at the street door. I
went down to open it with a light heart, -- for what had I now to fear? There entered
three men, who introduced themselves, with perfect suavity, as officers of the police.
A shriek had been heard by a neighbour during the night; suspicion of foul play had

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been aroused; information had been lodged at the police office, and they (the officers)
had been deputed to search the premises.

I smiled, -- for what had I to fear? I bade the gentlemen welcome. The shriek, I
said, was my own in a dream. The old man, I mentioned, was absent in the country. I
took my visitors all over the house. I bade them search -- search well. I led them, at
length, to his chamber. I showed them his treasures, secure, undisturbed. In the
enthusiasm of my confidence, I brought chairs into the room, and desired them here to
rest from their fatigues, while I myself, in the wild audacity of my perfect triumph,
placed my own seat upon the very spot beneath which reposed the corpse of the
victim.

The officers were satisfied. My MANNER had convinced them. I was

singularly at ease. They sat and while I
answered cheerily, they chatted of
familiar things. But, ere long, I felt
myself getting pale and wished them
gone. My head ached, and I fancied a
ringing in my ears; but still they sat, and
still chatted. The ringing became more
distinct : I talked more freely to get rid of
the feeling: but it continued and gained
definitiveness -- until, at length, I found
that the noise was NOT within my ears.

No doubt I now grew VERY pale;

but I talked more fluently, and with a
heightened voice. Yet the sound increased -- and what could I do? It was A LOW,
DULL, QUICK SOUND -- MUCH SUCH A SOUND AS A WATCH MAKES
WHEN ENVELOPED IN COTTON. I gasped for breath, and yet the officers heard it
not. I talked more quickly, more vehemently but the noise steadily increased. I arose
and argued about trifles, in a high key and with violent gesticulations; but the noise
steadily increased. Why WOULD they not be gone? I paced the floor to and fro with

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heavy strides, as if excited to fury by the observations of the men, but the noise
steadily increased. O God! what COULD I do? I foamed -- I raved -- I swore! I swung
the chair upon which I had been sitting, and grated it upon the boards, but the noise
arose over all and continually increased. It grew louder -- louder -- louder! And still
the men chatted pleasantly , and smiled. Was it possible they heard not? Almighty
God! -- no, no? They heard! -- they suspected! -- they KNEW! -- they were making a
mockery of my horror! -- this I thought, and this I think. But anything was better than
this agony! Anything was more tolerable than this derision! I could bear those
hypocritical smiles no longer! I felt that I must scream or die! -- and now -- again --
hark! louder! louder! louder! LOUDER! --

"Villains!" I shrieked, "dissemble no more! I admit the deed! -- tear up the

planks! -- here, here! -- it is the beating of his hideous heart!"

Study Questions

1. Summarize the plot of this story.

2. Analyze the character of the narrator. What kind of person is he?

3. Find example of irony in the story.

4. Explain the title and its relationship to the themes of the story.

Essay question

Analyze Poe’s style in terms of how it contributes to the “fear” effect of the story.

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 UNIT 5: HOW TO WRITE A LITERARY ANALYSIS ESSAY
The purpose of a literary analysis essay is to carefully examine and sometimes evaluate a work of
literature or an aspect of a work of literature. As with any analysis, this requires you to break the
subject down into its component parts. Examining the different elements of a piece of literature is not
an end in itself but rather a process to help you better appreciate and understand the work of
literature as a whole. For instance, an analysis of a poem might deal with the different types of
images in a poem or with the relationship between the form and content of the work. If you were to
analyze (discuss and explain) a play, you might analyze the relationship between a subplot and the
main plot, or you might analyze the character flaw of the tragic hero by tracing how it is revealed
through the acts of the play. Analyzing a short story might include identifying a particular theme (like
the difficulty of making the transition from adolescence to adulthood) and showing how the writer
suggests that theme through the point of view from which the story is told; or you might also explain
how the main character‟s attitude toward women is revealed through his dialogue and/or actions.

REMEMBER: Writing is the sharpened, focused expression of thought and study. As you develop
your writing skills, you will also improve your perceptions and increase your critical abilities. Writing
ultimately boils down to the development of an idea. Your objective in writing a literary analysis essay
is to convince the person reading your essay that you have supported the idea you are developing.
Unlike ordinary conversation and classroom discussion, writing must stick with great
determination to the specific point of development. This kind of writing demands tight
organization and control. Therefore, your essay must have a central idea (thesis), it must have
several paragraphs that grow systematically out of the central idea, and everything in it must be
directly related to the central idea and must contribute to the reader’s understanding of that
central idea. These three principles are listed again below:

1. Your essay must cover the topic you are writing about.
2. Your essay must have a central idea (stated in your thesis) that
governs its development.
3. Your essay must be organized so that every part contributes
something to the reader’s understanding of the central idea.

THE ELEMENTS OF A SOLID ESSAY

The Thesis Statement

The thesis statement tells your reader what to expect: it is a restricted, precisely worded declarative
sentence that states the purpose of your essay -- the point you are trying to make. Without a
carefully conceived thesis, an essay has no chance of success. The following are thesis
statements which would work for a 500-750 word literary analysis essay:

Gwendolyn Brooks‟s 1960 poem “The Ballad of Rudolph Reed” demonstrates how the
poet uses the conventional poetic form of the ballad to treat the unconventional poetic
subject of racial intolerance.

The fate of the main characters in Antigone illustrates the danger of excessive pride.

The imagery in Dylan Thomas‟s poem “Fern Hill” reveals the ambiguity of humans‟
relationship with nature.

Typically, the thesis statement falls at the end of your introductory paragraph.

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The Introduction

The introduction to your literary analysis essay should try to capture your reader‟s
interest. To bring immediate focus to your subject, you may want to use a quotation, a
provocative question, a brief anecdote, a startling statement, or a combination of these.
You may also want to include background information relevant to your thesis and
necessary for the reader to understand the position you are taking. In addition, you
need to include the title of the work of literature and name of the author. The
following are satisfactory introductory paragraphs which include appropriate thesis
statements:

A. What would one expect to be the personality of a man who has his wife
sent away to a convent (or perhaps has had her murdered) because she took too
much pleasure in the sunset and in a compliment paid to her by another man? It
is just such a man—a Renaissance duke—who Robert Browning portrays in his
poem “My Last Duchess.” A character analysis of the Duke reveals that through
his internal dialogue, his interpretation of earlier incidents, and his actions, his
traits—arrogance, jealousy, and greediness—emerge.

B. The first paragraph of Alberto Alvaro Rios‟s short story “The Secret Lion”
presents a twelve-year-old boy‟s view of growing up—everything changes. As
the narrator informs the reader, when the magician pulls a tablecloth out from
under a pile of dishes, children are amazed at the “stay-the-same part,” while
adults focus only on the tablecloth itself (42). Adults have the benefit of
experience and know the trick will work as long as the technique is correct.
When people “grow up,” they gain this experience and knowledge but lose their
innocence and sense of wonder. In other words, the price paid for growing up is
a permanent sense of loss. This tradeoff is central to “The Secret Lion.” The key
symbols in the story reinforce its main theme: change is inevitable and always
accompanied by a sense of loss.

C. The setting of John Updike‟s story “A & P” is crucial to the reader‟s

understanding of Sammy‟s decision to quit his job. Even though Sammy knows
that his quitting will make life more difficult for him, he instinctively insists upon
rejecting what the A & P represents in the story. When he rings up a “No Sale”
and “saunter[s]” out of the store, Sammy leaves behind not only a job but the
rigid state of mind associated with the A & P. Although Sammy is the central
character in the story, Updike seems to invest as much effort in describing the
setting as he does Sammy. The title, after all, is not “Youthful Rebellion” or
“Sammy Quits” but “A & P.” The setting is the antagonist of the story and plays a
role that is as important as Sammy‟s.

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The Body of the Essay and the Importance of Topic Sentences
The term regularly used for the development of the central idea of a literary analysis
essay is the body. In this section you present the paragraphs (at least 3 paragraphs
for a 500-750 word essay) that support your thesis statement. Good literary analysis
essays contain an explanation of your ideas and evidence from the text (short story,
poem, play) that supports those ideas. Textual evidence consists of summary,
paraphrase, specific details, and direct quotations.
Each paragraph should contain a topic sentence (usually the first sentence of the
paragraph) which states one of the topics associated with your thesis, combined with
some assertion about how the topic will support the central idea. The purpose of the
topic sentence is twofold:

1. To relate the details of the paragraph to your thesis

statement.
2. To tie the details of the paragraph together.

The substance of each of your developmental paragraphs (the body of your essay)
will be the explanations, summaries, paraphrases, specific details, and direct quotations
you need to support and develop the more general statement you have made in your
topic sentence. The following is the first developmental paragraph after one of the
introductory paragraphs (C) above:

TOPIC SENTENCE Sammy's descriptions of the A & P present a

EXPLANATIONS AND
TEXTUAL EVIDENCE
setting that is ugly, monotonous, and rigidly
regulated. The chain store is a common fixture
in modern society, so the reader can identify
with the uniformity Sammy describes. The
fluorescent light is as blandly cool as the
"checkerboard green-and-cream rubber tile
floor" (486). The "usual traffic in the store
moves in one direction (except for the swim
suited girls, who move against it), and
everything is neatly organized and categorized
in tidy aisles. The dehumanizing routine of this
environment is suggested by Sammy's offhand
references to the typical shoppers as "sheep,"
"house slaves," and "pigs” (486). These regular
customers seem to walk through the store in a
stupor; as Sammy indicates, not even dynamite
could move them out of their routine (485).

This paragraph is a strong one because it is developed through the use of quotations,
summary, details, and explanation to support the topic sentence. Notice how it relates
back to the thesis statement.

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The Conclusion
Your literary analysis essay should have a concluding paragraph that gives your essay
a sense of completeness and lets your readers know that they have come to the end of
your paper. Your concluding paragraph might restate the thesis in different words,
summarize the main points you have made, or make a relevant comment about the
literary work you are analyzing, but from a different perspective. Do not introduce a
new topic in your conclusion. Below is the concluding paragraph from the essay
already quoted above (A) about Browning's poem "My Last Duchess":

If the Duke has any redeeming qualities, they fail to appear in the poem.
Browning's emphasis on the Duke's traits of arrogance, jealousy, and materialism
make it apparent that anyone who might have known the Duke personally would
have based his opinion of him on these three personality "flaws." Ultimately, the
reader‟s opinion of the Duke is not a favorable one, and it is clear that Browning
intended that the reader feel this way.

The Title of Your Essay

It is essential that you give your essay a title that is descriptive of the approach you are
taking in your paper. Just as you did in your introductory paragraph, try to get the
reader's attention. Using only the title of the literary work you are examining is
unsatisfactory. The titles that follow are appropriate for the papers (A, B, C) discussed
above:

Robert Browning's Duke: A Portrayal of a Sinister Man

The A & P as a State of Mind
Theme in "The Secret Lion": The Struggle of Adolescence

Audience
Consider the reader for whom you are writing your essay. Imagine you are writing for
not only your professor but also the other students in your class who have about as
much education as you do. They have read the assigned work just as you have, but
perhaps they have not thought about it in exactly the same way. In other words, it is
not necessary to "retell" the work of literature in any way. Rather, it is your role to
be the explainer or interpreter of the work—to tell what certain elements of the work
mean in relation to your central idea (thesis). When you make references to the text of
the short story, poem, or play, you are doing so to remind your audience of something
they already know. The principle emphasis of your essay is to draw conclusions
and develop arguments. Be sure to avoid plot summary.

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 USING TEXTUAL EVIDENCE

The skillful use of textual evidence -- summary, paraphrase, specific detail, and
direct quotations -- can illustrate and support the ideas you are developing in your
essay. However, textual evidence should be used judiciously and only when it directly
relates to your topic. The correct and effective use of textual evidence is vital to the
successful literary analysis essay.

Summary
If a key event or series of events in the literary work support a point you are trying to
make, you may want to include a brief summary, making sure that you show the
relevance of the event or events by explicitly connecting your summary to your point.
Below is an effective summary (with its relevance clearly pointed out) from the essay
already quoted above on "The Secret Lion" (B):

The boys find the grinding ball, but later attempt to bury it (SUMMARY).
Burying it is their futile attempt to make time stand still and to preserve
perfection (RELEVANCE).

Paraphrase
You can make use of paraphrase when you need the details of the original, but not
necessarily the words of the original: paraphrase to put someone else's words into your
own words. Below is an example (also from the paper on "The Secret Lion") of how to
"translate" original material into part of your own paper:

Original: "I was twelve and in junior high school and something happened
that we didn't have a name for, but it was nonetheless like a lion,
and roaring, roaring that way the biggest things do."

Paraphrase: Early in the story, the narrator tells us that when he turned twelve
and started junior high school, life changed in a significant way that
he and his friends could not quite name or identify.

Specific Detail
Various types of details from the text lend concrete support to the development of the
central idea of your literary analysis essay. These details add credibility to the point you
are developing. Below is a list of some of the details which could have been used in the
developmental paragraph from the paper on John Updike's short story "A & P" (see the
paragraph again for which details were used and how they were used).

"usual traffic"
"fluorescent lights"
"checkerboard green-and-cream rubber-tile floor"
"electric eye"
shoppers like "sheep," "house slaves," and "pigs"
neatly stacked food
dynamite

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Using Direct Quotations
Quotations can illuminate and support the ideas you are trying to develop. A judicious
use of quoted material will make your points clearer and more convincing. As with all
the textual evidence you use, make sure you explain how the evidence is
relevant—let the reader know why the quotes you cite are significant to your
argument. Below are guidelines and examples that should help you effectively use
quotations:

1. Brief quotations (four lines or fewer of prose and three lines or fewer of poetry)
should be carefully introduced and integrated into the text of your paper. Put
quotation marks around all briefly quoted material.

Prose example:
As the "manager" of the A & P, Lengel is both the guardian and enforcer of
"policy" (487). When he gives the girls "that sad Sunday-school-superintendent
stare," the reader becomes aware of Lengel‟s character as the A & P's version of
a dreary bureaucrat who "doesn't miss much" (487). Make sure you give page
numbers when necessary. Notice that in this example the page numbers
are in parenthesis after the quotation marks but before the period.

Poetry example:
4

From the beginning, the Duke in Browning's poem gives the reader a sense of
how possessive he really is: "That's my last Duchess on the wall, / Looking as if
she were alive" (1-2). The reader cannot help but notice how, even though the
Duke is talking about her portrait, his main concern is that she belongs to him.
Notice that line # 1 is separated from line # 2 by a slash. Make sure you
give the line numbers when necessary.

2. Lengthy quotations should be separated from the text of your paper. More than
four lines of prose should be double spaced and indented ten spaces from the
left margin, with the right margin the same as the rest of your paper. More than
three lines of poetry should be double spaced and centered on the page.
Note: do not use quotation marks to set off these longer passages because
the indentation itself indicates that the material is quoted.

Prose example:
The first paragraph of "The Secret Lion" introduces the narrator as someone who
has just entered adolescence and is uncertain what to make of it:

I was twelve and in junior high school and something happened that we
didn't have a name for, but it was there nonetheless like a lion, and
roaring, roaring that way the biggest things do. Everything changed. Just
that. Like the rug, the one that gets pulled -- or better, like the tablecloth
those magicians pull where the stuff on the table stays the same but the
gasp! from the audience makes the staying-the-same part not matter. Like
that. (41-42) Make sure you give page numbers when necessary.
Notice in this example that the page numbers are in parenthesis after
the period of the last sentence.
6

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 Poetry example:
The Duke seems to object to the fact that his "last Duchess" is not discriminating
enough about bestowing her affection. In the following lines, the Duke lists
examples of this "fault":

Sir, 'twas all one! My favor at her breast,

The dropping of the daylight in the west,
The bough of cherries some officious fool
Broke in the orchard for her, the white mule
She rode with round the terrace -- all and each
Would draw from her alike the approving speech.
(Browning 25-30)
Be sure to provide the line numbers.

3. If any words are added to a quotation in order to explain who or what the
quotation refers to, you must use brackets to distinguish your addition from the
original source.

Example:

The literary critic John Strauss asserts that "he [Young Goodman Brown] is
portrayed as self-righteous and disillusioned" (10). Brackets are used here
because there is no way of knowing who "he" is unless you add that
information.

Brackets are also used to change the grammatical structure of a quotation so

that it fits into your sentence.

Example:

Strauss also argues that Hawthorne "present[s] Young Goodman Brown in an

ambivalent light” (10). Brackets are used here to add the "s" to the verb
"present" because otherwise the sentence would not be grammatically
correct.

4. You must use ellipsis if you omit any words from the original source you are
quoting. Ellipsis can be used at the beginning, in the middle, or at the end of the
quotation, depending on where the missing words were originally. Ellipsis is
formed by either three or four periods with a space between each period.

Original: "Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise."

Example (omission from beginning):

This behavior ". . . makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise." Ellipsis formed
by three dots after the quotation marks.

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 Example (omission from middle):

This maxim claims that "Early to bed . . . makes a man healthy, wealthy, and
wise." Ellipsis formed by three dots used in place of the words "and early
to rise."

Example (omission from end):

He said, "Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy . . . ." Ellipsis is
formed by four dots before the quotation marks -- the fourth dot is really a
period which ends the sentence.

5. Use a single line of spaced periods to indicate the omission of an entire line of
poetry.

Example:

The Duke seems to object to the fact that his "last Duchess" is not discriminating
enough about bestowing her affection:

She looked on, and her looks went everywhere.

.................................
The dropping of the daylight in the west,
The bough of cherries some officious fool
Broke in the orchard for her, while the white mule
She rode around the terrace -- like and each
Would draw from her alike the approving speech….
(Browning 24-30)

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Punctuating Direct Quotations
You will be able to punctuate quoted materials accurately if you observe the following
conventions used in writing about literature:

1. When the quoted material is part of your own sentence, place periods and
commas inside the quotation marks.

Example:

According to the narrator of "The Secret Lion,” change was "like a lion," meaning
that its onset is sudden and ferocious. The comma is inside the quotation
marks.

2. When the quoted material is part of your own sentence, but you need to include a
parenthetical reference to page or line numbers, place the periods and commas
after the reference.

Example:

The narrator of "The Secret Lion" says that the change was "like a lion" (Rios 41).
The period is outside the quotation marks, after the parenthetical reference.

3. When the quoted material is part of your own sentence, punctuation marks other
than periods and commas, such as question marks, are placed outside the
quotation marks, unless they are part of the quoted material.

Example (not part of original):

Why does the narrator of "The Secret Lion" say that the change was "like a lion"?
The question mark is placed after the quotation marks because it does not
appear in the original -- it ends a question being asked about the story.

Example (part of original):

The Duke shows his indignation that the Duchess could like everyone and
everything when he says, "Sir, 'twas all one!" (Browning 25). The exclamation
point is placed inside the quotation marks because it appears in the
original.

4. When the original material you are quoting already has quotations marks (for
instance, dialog from a short story), you must use single quotation marks within
the double quotation marks.

Example:

Lengel tries to stop Sammy from quitting by saying, “„Sammy, you don't want to
do this to your Mom and Dad‟" (Updike 486).

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 UNIT 6: PERIODS OF AMERICAN LITERATURE
American Literature Timeline

Period Dates Period Name Period Characteristics Famous Authors

and Works
Arrived 40,000 - Native Americans 1. Oral literature: epic narratives, creation
20,000 B.C myths, stories, poems, songs.
2. Use stories to teach moral lessons and
convey practical information about the natural
world.
3. Deep respect for nature and animals
4. Cyclical world view
5. Figurative language/parallelism

1600-1800 Puritanism 1. Wrote mostly diaries and histories, which William Bradford (“Of
expressed the connections between God an Plymouth Plantation”),
First “American” their everyday lives. Anne Bradstreet (poetry),
colonies 2. Sought to “purify” the Church of England Jonathan Edwards
established by reforming to the simpler forms of worship (“Sinners in the Hands of
and church organization described in the New an Angry God”), Edward
Salem Witch Trials Testament Taylor (“Huswifery”)
3. Saw religion as a personal, inner
experience.
4. Believed in original sin and “elect” who
would be saved.
5. Used a plain style of writing
1750-1800 Rationalism 1. Mostly comprised of philosophers, Benjamin Franklin
scientists, writing speeches and pamphlets. (Autobiography), Patrick
Revolutionary War “The Age of 2. Human beings can arrive at truth (God’s Henry (“Speech to the
Reason” rules) by using deductive reasoning, rather Virginia Convention”),
The Constitution, than relying on the authority of the past, on Thomas Paine (“The
The Bill of Rights, “The Enlighten- religious faith, or intuition. Crisis”), Phyllis Wheatley
and The ment” (poetry)
Declaration of
Independence
were created.
1800-1860 Romanticism 1. Valued feeling, intuition, idealism, and Washington Irving (“Rip
inductive reasoning. Van Winkle”), Emily
Industrialization 2. Placed faith in inner experience and the Dickinson (poetry), Walt
power of the imagination. Whitman (Leaves of
War of 1812 3. Shunned the artificiality of civilization and Grass), Edgar Allan Poe
seek unspoiled nature as a path to spirituality. (“The Raven”), Nathaniel
California Gold 4. Championed individual freedom and the Hawthorne (The Scarlet
Rush worth of the individual. Letter)
5. Saw poetry as the highest expression of
the imagination.
6. Dark Romantics: Used dark and
supernatural themes/settings (Gothic style)

1840-1860 Transcendentalism 1. Everything in the world, Including human Ralph Waldo Emerson
beings, is a reflection of the Divine Soul (Nature, “Self-Reliance”),
Abolitionist, “The American 2. People can use their intuition to behold Henry David Thoreau
Utopian, and Renaissance” God’s spirit revealed in nature or in their own (Walden, Life in the
Women’s Suffrage souls. Woods).
Movements 3. Self-reliance and individualism must Louisa May Alcott (Little
outweigh external authority and blind Women)
conformity to tradition

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1850-1900 Realism 1. Feelings of disillusionment Mark Twain (Huckleberry
2. Common subjects; slums of rapidly Finn), Jack London (Call
Civil War growing cities, factories replacing farmlands, of the Wild, “To Build a
poor factory workers, corrupt politicians Fire,”) Stephen Crane
Reconstruction 3. Represented the manner and environment (“The Open Boat”),
of everyday life and ordinary people as Ambrose Bierce (“An
realistically as possible (regionalism) Occurrence at Owl Creek
4. Sought to explain behavior Bridge”), Kate Chopin
(psychologically/socially). (“Story of an Hour,” The
Awakening)
1900-1950 Modernism 1. Sense of disillusionment and loss of faith in Lorraine Hansberry (A
the “American Dream”: the independence, Raisin in the Sun), F.
World War I self-reliant, individual will triumph. Scott Fitzgerald (The
2. Emphasis on bold experimentation in style Great Gatsby), William
The Great and form over the traditional. Faulkner (“A Rose for
Depression 3. Interest in the inner workings of the human Emily”). Eudora Welty (“A
mind (ex. Stream of consciousness). Worn Path”),Robert Frost
World War II (poetry), T.S. Eliot (The
Waste Land, “Love Song
of J. Alfred Prufrock”),
John Steinbeck (Of Mice
and Men, Grapes of
Wrath)
1920-1940 Harlem 1. Black cultural movement in Harlem, New James Weldon Johnson,
Renaissance York Claude McKay, Countee
“The New Negro 2. Some poetry rhythms based on spirituals, Cullen, Langston Hughes
Movement” “The Jazz Age” and jazz, lyrics on the blues, and diction from (poetry), Zora Neale
the street talk of the ghettos Hurston
Prohibition “The Roaring 20s”” 3. Other poetry used conventional lyrical
forms
1950-present Contemporary 1. Influenced by studies of media, language, Alice Walker, Wallace
and information technology Stevens, E. E.
Korean War “Postmodernism” 2. Sense that little is unique; culture endlessly Cummings, Maya
duplicates and copies itself Angelou, Anne Sexton,
Vietnam War 3. New literary forms and techniques: works James Baldwin, Richard
composed of only dialogue or combining Wright, Sandra Cisneros,
fiction and nonfiction, experimenting with Amy Tan
physical appearance of their work

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 PERIODS OF AMERICAN LITERATURE

1. The Colonial Period (1492–1700)

Native Americans, the first inhabitants of the continent, did not develop anything
we can call “literature” – their stories and poems were spread orally, which means
the American literally history begins with the age of colonialism.

The character of early American literature is strongly influenced by several

factors:

• It was the era of colonizing the continent. Since not only the English
explored and claimed the territories, the beginnings of American literature
are more or less connected also with French, Spanish or Dutch literatures
as well.

• The first writers brought mainly English ideas and ways of writing, which
means early American literature is based on the literature of England. As
years passed and literary theory developed, the writers who adopted the
English style are now sometimes called pale faces (Franklin, Longfellow,
James, Pound). Their poetry is sometimes referred to as “cooked poetry”.
On the other hand, there were authors who explored new topics and helped
shape America’s own literary tradition. Those are called redskins
(Whitman, Emerson, the Beat Generation). Their poetry is referred to as
“raw poetry”.

• Religion played an important part in the writers’ lives. Many writings of

the period were sermons and theological books. The fact that the Pilgrims
landed in the Massachusetts Bay in 1620 had an immense influence on the
culture of the newly developing colonial system.

• The topics common in the early periods were connected with the issues of
living in a new land (agriculture, explorations, and relations with the
native people) and travelling (travel logs, journals).

JOHN SMITH (1580–1631) is considered to be the first American writer. He

was an explorer and colonist; he helped found Jamestown in 1607. His A True

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Relation of Virginia is said to be the first American book written in English. It
describes the problems of colonizing the area.

WILLIAM BRADFORD (1590–1657) was a Puritan writer who described

life in the early English settlements. His book Of Plymouth Plantation is full of
religious topics and depictions of a difficult life in the colony.

ANNE BRADSTREET (1612–1672) wrote lyrical, religious and personal

poetry. She is the author of To My Dear and Loving Husband.

MARY ROWLANDSON (1637–1711) gives us the image of a woman’s life

in the colonial period. Her A Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs.
Mary Rowlandson tells her story of being kidnapped by Native Americans. The
book became a bestseller.

2. The Revolutionary Period (1700–1800)

As dissatisfaction with the colonial system and the relations with Britain grew,
the literature gradually changed its shape. The writers became more politically,
anti-British and revolutionary oriented, rationalism and enlightenment
prevailed. Essays, speeches and pamphlets became more important, the Puritans’
religious poetry fell out of favour as man was not considered naturally sinful any
longer.

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN (1706–1790) is one of the most important figures

of the period. He can be described as what we call a “renaissance man” – a person
of many skills. He was a politician, scientist, philosopher, publisher, humorist,
inventor and writer. The Way to Wealth gives the reader advice on how to become
successful – hard work and common sense are very important. Autobiography –
Franklin writes about his life, his successes and failures, individualism. His style
is very plain. It is one of the first depictions of the American dream.

THOMAS PAINE (1737–1809) was an English-born essayist and pamphleteer.

His pamphlet “Common Sense” is a sharp critique of the colonial system and
explains why the Americans should rise against the English. JOHN HECTOR ST.
JOHN (1735–1813) was a French- American writer, one of the fathers of the
American novel. His epistolary novel Letters from an American Farmer deals with

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the differences between life in Europe and in America.

THOMAS JEFFERSON (1743–1826) was an architect, essayist, lawyer,

politician, and later became the 3rd President of the United States of America. His
greatest contribution to the history of America is that he is the main author of the
Declaration of Independence, which was adopted by the Continental Congress on
4th July 1776 during the War of Independence. For illustration, read the final
section of the Declaration:

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General

Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the
rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People
of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these united Colonies are,
and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from
all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them
and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free
and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract
Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which
Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with
a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each
other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

3. The Period of Romanticism and Transcendentalism (1800–1880)

The period of romanticism represented a revolt against classicism and its values
such as reason and form. The American variant of romanticism was different from
the European one to a certain degree. There was a great interest in Indians and
their culture. The writings were less political and religious, the topics were mostly
American, and the writers stressed imagination, nature and individualism.

The Knickerbockers were a group of romantic writers who contributed to The

Knickerbocker, a magazine published in New York. They named themselves after
WASHINGTON IRVING’s (1783–1859) A History of New York, by Diedrich
Knickerbocker. Irving was America’s first professional writer and the founder of
short story in the USA, “Rip Van Winkle” being one of his most famous short
stories. It follows a henpecked husband who falls asleep in a forest and wakes up

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many years later after the colonies have become an independent country. “The
Legend of Sleepy Hollow” is about a headless knight who terrorizes the
inhabitants of a settlement.

JAMES FENIMORE COOPER (1789–1851) was interested in life in

wilderness and among the native inhabitants. He wrote a series of five novels,
together called the Leatherstocking Tales. They concentrate on Natty Bumppo, a
white man living in the forests of New York, and his friend Chingachgook, a
Mohican chief. There are five books in the series: The Deerslayer, The Last of the
Mohicans, The Pathfinder, The Pioneers and The Prairie.

EDGAR ALLAN POE (1809–49) is one of the most important figures of the
American literary tradition. His life was filled with sorrow and suffering. After

unsuccessful studies he became an editor. He drank alcohol and misfortune had a

notable impact on his work. His writings are gloomy and bizarre; his characters
are murderers, alcoholics, desperate lovers and tortured prisoners. Poe is the
founder of modern American horror story and detective story. His short stories
often describe the darkest states of human mind and mysteries solved by logic.
The most famous short stories by Poe include: “The Tell-Tale Heart”, “The
Black Cat”, “The Pit and the Pendulum”, “The Mask of the Red Death” or
“The Gold-Bug”. He is not less famous for his melancholic poems such as
“Annabel Lee”, “Eldorado” or “The Raven”, which expresses the idea of
vanity27 through the eyes of a man asking a mysterious raven about his dead love
while the raven’s only answer is “nevermore”:

And the Raven, never flitting, still is sitting, still is sitting

On the pallid bust of Pallas just above my chamber door;

And his eyes have all the seeming of a demon’s that is dreaming

And the lamplight o’er him streaming throws his shadow on the floor

And my soul from out that shadow that he’s floating on the floor

Shall be lifted – nevermore.

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 Transcendentalism is a movement of authors concentrated in Boston. They
rejected the then- common spirituality and materialism. They were inspired by
nature, spent time alone and relied on themselves. They also stressed the role
of intuition and God was omnipresent for them.

RALPH WALDO EMERSON (1803–82) is the author of “The Nature” – an

essay expressing Transcendentalist ideas. His friend HENRY DAVID
THOREAU (1817–1862) wrote Walden, a philosophical book about his new birth
near Walden Lake, where he spent two years alone.

NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE (1804–63) wrote The Scarlet Letter (1850),

one of the most famous and important books in the American literary history. It
tells the tale of Hester Prynn, a woman who is sentenced to wearing the letter A
on her clothes (A for “adultery”). She lives with her daughter Pearl and evolves
into a strong character. The book criticises Puritan morals, prejudice and
intolerance.

HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW (1817–82) is known for his

romantic poems written in simple language. He wrote “The Song of Hiawatha”, a
poem about the Indian chief Hiawatha inspired by the Finnish epic Kalevala.

WALT WHITMAN (1819–92) is considered as one of the best American poets

of all time. He introduced free verse – no metrical pattern and no rhymes appear in
his poems. This influenced many poets to come – the Chicago Renaissance or the
Beat Generation. Leaves of Grass (1855) is a collection of poems where he compares
freedom to grass – it should grow everywhere. “When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard
Bloom’d” is a long poem about the death of Abraham Lincoln.

EMILY DICKINSON (1830–86) is another poet considered as one of the

greatest in American history. She rarely left her house, her poems were scarcely
published during her life, they are personal and lyrical. They do not have any titles.

HERMAN MELVILLE (1819–91) spent a part of his life at sea. Moby-Dick

is a long novel about a young sailor called Ishmael, who joins the crew of the
Pequod, a ship under the command of captain Ahab, who is trying to hunt a giant
whale which once bit off his leg. The clash between Ahab and Moby-Dick is the
allegory of man’s struggle against nature.

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4. American Realism and Naturalism (1860–1930)

Just as in Europe, the period of romanticism was followed by the period of

realism. Writers left behind the styles and topics adopted by the previous
generation and rather concentrated on describing life as it was with its negatives
typical for the period. It was the era of industrialization and migration,
determinism was a major paradigm of the age. Regionalism also appeared (Local
Color School – a group of authors who described the customs and specifics of
particular regions). Novel was the main genre.

MARK TWAIN (1835–1910), born Samuel Langhorne Clemens, was a great

American novelist, short story writer and humorist. He was a member of the Local
Color School. He spent a major part of his life on the Mississippi as a boatman,
which plays an important part in his writings. His most famous novels are probably
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, a book describing the life of a problem boy, and
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884), which concentrates on Tom
Sawyer’s friend Huck, who assists a black slave on his journey. The book criticizes
slavery and tries to describe the world through the eyes of a naïve, uncivilized, yet
honest boy. The Prince and the Pauper tells the story of a poor boy called Tom
Canty who changes places with Prince Edward, Henry VIII’s son. The book brought
a sharp critique of England’s feudal system in the 16th century and people spoilt by
their properties. A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court is a satirical novel
which follows a young American engineer who bumps his head and wakes up in
Arthurian England in the 6th century. He is shocked by the conditions people live
in and tries to improve them. The book is full of both funny and depressing
moments.

HARRIET BEECHER-STOWE (1811–96) is another of the socially critical

writers of the period – she is the author of Uncle Tom’s Cabin, where she fought
against slavery.

HENRY JAMES (1843–1916), who became a British citizen, wrote

psychological novels and compared different cultures. His most famous works
include What Maisie Knew (a novel about an unloved child), The Turn of the Screw
(a ghost story novella) or Daisy Miller.

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 The 1890s saw the rise of naturalism, an extreme form of realism coined by
Émile Zola. Writers portrayed people in extreme situations and described their real
behavior – their books are full of dirty environments, poor neighborhoods,
prostitutes, drunks, crime and illiteracy. They formed a group called the
Muckrakers.

STEPHEN CRANE (1871–1900) wrote Maggie: A Girl of the Streets about a

New York prostitute, and The Red Badge of Courage about a naïve soldier’s
experience in the Civil war.

JACK LONDON (1876–1916) is famous for his books taking place in Alaska
during the Gold Rush – he is the author of White Fang or The Call of the Wild, a
novel about a dog whose master is killed by Indians and which becomes the leader
of a wolf pack.

THEODORE DREISER (1871–1945) wrote Sister Carrie and An American

Tragedy (1925), which is a critique of the idea of the American dream. Its hero,
Clyde Griffiths, pursues his dream of becoming rich and important. When he has
a chance to marry a rich girl, he murders his girlfriend, is found guilty and dies in
an electric chair.

UPTON SINCLAIR’s (1878–1968) best known book is The Jungle – it is a

story of immigrants from Poland and Lithuania living in Chicago and working in
terrible conditions in a slaughterhouse.

5. American Modernism and the Literature of the First Half of the 20 th

Century

Since the dawn of the 20th century, writers were looking for new ways of writing
and new topics. Their writings expressed their feelings about living in the modern
age, some of them wrote positively, some negatively. Their style became more
complicated, experiments were quite common. Many movements appeared; together
they might be called “modernism”.

EZRA POUND (1885–1972) was one of the most influential poets of the 20 th
century. He was born in the USA but he spent a long time in Europe, he also spoke
many languages. He is one of the most complex writers in the American history.

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He was involved in pioneering new styles and movements – imagism (words
provoke pictures in the reader’s mind) or vorticism. His most important work is
called Cantos.

T. S. ELIOT (1888–1965) lived in Britain and wrote “The Waste Land”, a

very complicated modernist poem.

E. E. CUMMINGS (1894–1962) was an experimental poet. His poems often

played with form.

The Chicago Renaissance was a movement consisting of Illinois poets.

CARL SANDBURG (1878–1967) was optimistic about America’s future; he

expressed his passion for the rhythm of a modern city in his Chicago Poems.

The Lost Generation is a term invented by Gertrude Stein to refer to a group

of writers who felt alienated to the world. They wrote about young people who do
not find any pleasure in everyday life or becoming rich. The group included
Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Gertrude Stein, John Dos Passos and
William Faulkner.

ERNEST HEMINGWAY (1899–1961) is probably the most famous

representative. His writing style is very plain, however, his stories and novels are
sometimes compared to an iceberg (you only see its one eighth; the rest is hidden
below the surface). His novelette The Old Man and the Sea (1952) earned him
the Nobel Prize for literature. It shows the struggle between a fisherman called
Santiago and the natural world. He is a great fish, and I must convince him, he
thought. I must never let him learn his strength nor what he could do if he made
his run. If I were him I would put in everything now and go until something broke.
But, thank God, they are not as intelligent as we who kill them; although they are
more noble and more able. The old man had seen many great fish. He had seen
many that weighed more than a thousand pounds and he had caught two of that
size in his life, but never alone. Now alone, and out of sight of land, he was fast to
the biggest fish that he had ever seen and bigger than he had ever heard of, and his
left hand was still as tight as the gripped claws of an eagle. The moral of the story
can be summed up as “a man can be destroyed, but not defeated”. The Sun Also

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 Rises is about a group of young people who drink, have love affairs and attend
bullfights, all these without any mental satisfaction. A Farewell to Arms and For
Whom the Bell Tolls are Hemingway’s accounts of war in Europe.

F. SCOTT FITZGERALD (1896–1940) is well known for The Great Gatsby

(1925). It is a short novel about Nick Carraway, who meets a mysterious rich man
named Jay Gatsby. Gatsby spends time throwing lavish parties; however, this
does not make him feel happy. The book shows the negative aspects of high
society in the roaring twenties. “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” is a
short story about a man suffering from reverse ageing.

WILLIAM FAULKNER (1897–1962) is one of the most important writers of

the American South. He situated his writings in the fictional Yoknapatawpha
County in Mississippi. In his books, he concentrates on the fall of the Southern
aristocracy. His texts are often very demanding, the reader does not know who
says what. He wrote The Sound and the Fury, Light in August or Absalom,
Absalom!.

SINCLAIR LEWIS (1885–1951) was a satirist from the American Midwest.

He is the first American writer to be awarded the Nobel Prize for literature. His
best novel is Babbitt, which tells the story of a typical middle class man.

JOHN STEINBECK (1902–68) is one of the best known socially critical

writers of all time. His style is very realistic, he wrote about exploited 49 people
who fall to the bottom of the society. Of Mice and Men is a novel about two
homeless farm workers. The Grapes of Wrath is probably his most famous novel;
it is the story of the Joad family moving from Oklahoma to California to work
there on fruit farms in terrible conditions. East of Eden is another of his great
works.

6. American Literature in the 2nd Half of the 20th Century and

Contemporary American Literature

The authors of the 2nd half of the 20th century followed in the tradition developed
by their predecessors. More movements appeared (the Beat Generation,
Hippies), ethnic writers (African-American, Asian, Native American, Jewish)

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became more involved and some of the authors may be called “post-modernist”.
New topics became popular (the revolt against the system, ethnic and racial
issues, the holocaust), new genres flourished (comic books, fantasy novels, sci-
fi, horror stories). American drama was going through its best times.

J.D. SALINGER (1919–2010) wrote The Catcher in the Rye (1951), a short
novel about a young man leaving his university studies, disgusted with people
around him.

WILLIAM STYRON (1925–2006) was a southern writer who is best

known for Sophie’s Choice (1979). It is the story of a young Southerner Stingo
who befriends a Polish immigrant Sophie and her paranoid lover Nathan. Sophie
tells him her story of having to choose between sacrificing one or the other child
in a concentration camp during WWII.

As for authors writing about war, NORMAN MAILER (1923–2007) is best

known for his novel The Naked and the Dead (1948), which takes place during
WWII in the Pacific.

JOSEPH HELLER (1923–99) wrote Catch-22, a war novel taking place in the
Mediterranean. A group of pilots is added new and new flights to their schedule
instead of being laid off.

TENNESSEE WILLIAMS (1914–83) wrote psychological plays. He is the

author of A Cat on a Hot Tin Roof or A Streetcar Named Desire. The latter is the
tragedy of a woman raped by her brother-in-law. It is one of the most quoted
American plays ever written.

ARTHUR MILLER (1915–2005) wrote Death of a Salesman, the tragedy of

a disappointed ageing man who commits suicide to ensure his family money from
his life insurance. Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? by EDWARD ALBEE
(1928) is another famous drama of the period.

In the 1950s, a group of non-conformist authors emerged, which is now known

as the Beat Generation. They refused to fit in the society, revolted against the
establishment, experimented with drugs and criticized consumerism. They
preferred spontaneity and travelling, San Francisco became their center. Their

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literature is still popular and inspirational for many young people.

JACK KEROUAC (1922–69) wrote On the Road, which became a kind of a

Bible for his followers. It tells stories of people travelling across America.

LAWRENCE FERLINGHETTI (1919) is the best known poet of the

generation, together with ALLEN GINSBERG (1926– 1997), who wrote
“Howl”.

CHARLES BUKOWSKI (1920–94) is well known for his poems and stories
full of sex, alcohol and drugs.

KEN KESEY (1935–2001) is the author of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest,
a novel taking place in a mental asylum whose patients rebel against the oppressing
system represented by nurse Ratched.

TRUMAN CAPOTE (1924–84) was a post-modernist writer who combined

fiction and non-fiction (e.g. In Cold Blood).

African-American literature became more prominent as the struggle for

human rights intensified. They followed the so called Harlem Renaissance, a
movement of black writers (e.g. the poet Langston Hughes) from the 1920s.

JAMES BALDWIN (1924–87) was an essayist and novelist writing not only
about black people’s problems, but also about homosexuals’ problems.

TONI MORRISON (1931) is famous for her novel The Bluest Eye (1970)
about a black girl who is raped by her father and becomes pregnant with him. The
book criticizes black girls’ pursuit of the ideal of beauty embodied51 by white girls.

Jewish American literature draws inspiration from the painful experience of

the holocaust, but also from the Jewish spirit, traditions and humor. The main hero
is often an unlucky outsider.

ISAAC BASHEVIS SINGER (1902–91) wrote Gimpel the Fool, the story of
an unlucky man who has five children without sleeping with his wife.

BERNARD MALAMUD (1914–86) is the author of The Fixer, a book about

Jews experiencing anti-Semitism in Ukraine.

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 PHILIP ROTH (1933) was accused of being anti-Semitic even though he is
Jewish. He wrote Portnoy’s Complaint, a book about a boy spied by his mother.

N. SCOTT MOMADAY (1934) is probably the best known Native American

writer. He wrote The House Made of Dawn, a non-linear novel about an Indian
man who belongs neither to his tribe nor to the majority.

Asian-American (John Okada, Maxine Hong Kingston) and Latin- American

(Sandra Cisneros) writers also appeared.

New genres have become more popular in the past decades. As for sci-fi,
PHILIP K. DICK (1928–82) and RAY BRADBURY (1920–2012) are worth
mentioning. The former is the author of dystopian novels Do Androids Dream of
Electric Sheep? and A Scanner Darkly, the latter wrote many short stories and the
novel Fahrenheit 451 about a society where books are banned and burnt.

GEORGE R.R. MARTIN (1948) is the author of A Song of Ice and Fire, a
series of fantasy books beginning with the bestselling A Game of Thrones.

STEPHEN KING (1947) is the example of modern horror fiction – his books
The Dreamcatcher, Carrie, ’Salem’s Lot, It, Misery or The Dark Tower became
hits. Teen fiction has become very popular in the past few years, The Maze
Runner by JAMES DASHNER (1972) being an example of a contemporary
bestseller.

REFERENCES

1. Le Thi Thanh. (2007). American Literature. NXB Giáo Dục.

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