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Home , Anthony Hecht

Recommended Readings for Introduction To Creative Writing/Colloquy

Below are some short stories and poems which you may find it helpful to read over the course of the semester. While I hope that we will be able to discuss at least a few of these in class, it will definitely not be feasible to cover all of them. However, keep this list handy; it will give you excellent examples of the principles we will be discussing and applying. And, as always, to be a better writer, you must first be a reader. Feel free to add to this list any works which you have found helpful in your own writing life.

Stories

1. “The Red Convertible” by Louise Erdrich 2. “The Shawl” by Louise Erdrich (description/word choice) 3. “Borders” by Thomas King 4. “Silver Pavements, Golden Roofs” by Chitra Divakaruni 5. “The Lesson” by Toni Cade Bambara 6. “American Horse” by Louise Erdrich 7. “A Drug Called Tradition” by Sherman Alexie 8. “The Only Traffic Signal on the Reservation Doesn’t Flash Red Anymore” by Sherman Alexie (Setting/character) 9. “The Approximate Size of My Favorite Tumor” by Sherman Alexie (character) 10. “Sonny’s Blues” by James Baldwin (plot) 11. “Girl” by Jamaica Kincaid (Narration/POV) 12. “The Lady With the Dog” by Anton Chekhov (Setting/ POV) 13. “Hills Like White Elephants” by Ernest Hemingway (Narration/POV) 14. “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” by Flannery O’Connor (Character/setting) 15. “The Demon Lover” by Elizabeth Bowen (description/word choice) 16. “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson (theme/symbolism) 17. “The Dead” by James Joyce (setting/plot) 18. “A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner (POV) 19. “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” by Joyce Carol Oates (Character) 20. “The Whole Town is Asleep” by (description/word choice; character) Poetry

1. “The Flea” by John Donne 2. “La Bella Dame Sans Merci” by John Keats 3. “Diving Into the Wreck” by Adrienne Rich (open form) 4. “Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night” by (villanelle) 5. “One Art” by (villanelle) 6. “Sestina of the Royal-Tramp” by Rudyard Kipling (sestina) 7. “The Book of Yolek” by Anthony Hecht (sestina) 8. “Pantoum of the Great Depression” by Donald Justice (pantoum) 9. “Composed upon Westminster Bridge, September 3, 1802” by William Wordsworth () 10. “Ozymandias” by Percy Bysshe Shelley (sonnet) 11. “Bright Star” by John Keats (sonnet) 12. From “Monna Innominata” by Christina Rossetti (sonnet) 13. “Sonnet 43” from to the Portugese by Elizabeth Barrett Browning (sonnet) 14. “Carrion Comfort” by Gerard Manley Hopkins (sonnet) 15. “To My Mother” by George Barker (sonnet) 16. “The Wife of Usher’s Well” by Anonymous (ballad) 17. “We Real Cool” by (ballad) 18. “Ulysses” by Alfred, Lord Tennyson (blank verse) 19. From Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare (III.ii.70-104; blank verse) 20. “Directive” by (blank verse) 21. From An Essay on Criticism by Alexander Pope (lines 201-252; heroic couplet) 22. “My Last Duchess” by Robert Browning (heroic couplet) 23. “R. Alcona to J. Brenzaida” by Emily Bronte (elegy) 24. “O Captain! My Captain” by Walt Whitman (elegy) 25. “Child Burial” by Paula Meehan (elegy) 26. “To My Sister” by William Wordsworth (pastoral) 27. “Ode on a Grecian Urn” by John Keats (pastoral) 28. “Ode to the West Wind” by Percy Bysshe Shelley (ode) 29. “Perhaps the World Ends Here” by (ode) 30. “Daddy” by (open form)