Poetry

R. S. Gwynn has edited several other books, including Drama: A Pocket Anthology; Literature: A Pocket Anthology; Literature: A Pocket Anthology; Inside Literature: Reading, Responding, Writing (with Steven Zani); The Art of the Short Story (with Dana Gioia); and Contemporary American Poetry: A Pocket Anthology (with April Lindner).  He has also authored five collections of poetry, including No Word of Farewell: Selected Poems, 1970-2000. He has been awarded the Michael Braude Award for verse from the American Academy of Arts and Letters.  Gwynn is University Professor of English and Poet-in-Residence at Lamar University in Beaumont, Texas.

• IntroductionAn Anecdote: Where Poetry Starts  Speaker, Listener, and Context  The Star-Spangled BannerLyric, Narrative, Dramatic  The Language of Poetry  Figurative Language  Allegory and Symbol  Tone of Voice  Repetition: Sounds and Schemes  Meter and Rhythm  Free Verse, Open Form and Closed FormsStanza Forms  Fixed Forms  Literary History, Poetic Conventions, and Theory  Writing about Poetry  Poetry  Anonymous Western WindBonny Barbara Allan Sir Patrick Spens Sir Thomas Wyatt (1503?-1542)They Flee from Me  Whoso List to Hunt Edmund Spenser (1552-1599)Amoretti: Sonnet 75Sir Philip Sidney (1554-1586) Astrophel and Stella: Sonnet 1 Robert Southwell (1561?-1595)The Burning Babe Michael Drayton (1563-1631)Idea: Sonnet 61 William Shakespeare (1564-1616)Sonnet 18 Sonnet 20Sonnet 29 Sonnet 73 Sonnet 116 Sonnet 129 Sonnet 130 When Daisies Pied (Spring and Winter) Thomas Campion (1567-1620)There Is a Garden in Her Face John Donne (1572-1631)The Flea Holy Sonnet 10Holy Sonnet 14The Sun Rising A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning Ben Jonson (1573-1637)On My First Son Slow, Slow, Fresh Fount Mary Wroth (1587?-1651?)In This Strange Labyrinth How Shall I TurnRobert Herrick (1591-1674)To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time George Herbert (1593-1633)Easter Wings The Pulley Redemption Edmund Waller (1606-1687) Song John Milton (1608-1674)How Soon Hath Time On the Late Massacre in PiedmontWhen I Consider How My Light Is SpentAnne Bradstreet (1612-1672)The Author to Her Book Richard Lovelace (1618-1658)To Lucasta, Going to the Wars Andrew Marvell (1621-1678)To His Coy Mistress John Dryden (1631-1700)To the Memory of Mr. Oldham Jonathan Swift (1667-1745)A Description of a City Shower Alexander Pope (1688-1744)from An Essay on Criticism Ode on SolitudeThomas Gray (1716-1771) Elegy Written in a Country ChurchyardWilliam Blake (1757-1827)The Chimney Sweeper The Little Black Boy A Poison TreeThe Tyger Robert Burns (1759-1796)A Red, Red Rose John BarleycornWilliam Wordsworth (1770-1850)I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud It Is a Beauteous Evening Nuns Fret Not at Their Convent's Narrow Room Ode: Intimations of Immortality Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834)Frost at Midnight Kubla Khan Work Without HopeGeorge Gordon, Lord Byron (1788-1824)She Walks in BeautyStanzas When We Two Parted Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822)Ode to the West Wind OzymandiasJohn Keats (1795-1821)* Bright Star, Would I Were Stedfast as Thou ArtLa Belle Dame sans Merci Ode to a Nightingale On First Looking into Chapman's Homer Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806-1861)Sonnets from the Portuguese, 18Sonnets from the Portuguese, 43 Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882)The Arsenal at Springfield The Cross of Snow Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849)The Haunted PalaceThe RavenSonnet: To Science Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809-1892)The Eagle The Lady of ShalottTears, Idle Tears Ulysses Robert Browning (1812-1889)My Last Duchess Porphyria's LoverWalt Whitman (1819-1892)A Noiseless Patient Spider O Captain, My CaptainA Sight in Camp in the Daybreak Grey and DimSong of Myself, 1Song of Myself, 5Song of Myself, 6 Song of Myself, 11 Song of Myself, 21Song of Myself, 32 Song of Myself, 52 When I Heard the Learn'd Astronomer Matthew Arnold (1822-1888)Dover Beach Emily Dickinson (1830-1886) After Great Pain a Formal Feeling ComesBecause I Could Not Stop for Death The Brain Is Wider than the SkyI Felt a Funeral, in My Brain  Much Madness is Divinest Sense A Narrow Fellow in the Grass Some Keep the Sabbath Going to ChurchThe Soul Selects Her Own SocietyTell All the Truth, But Tell It SlantThere’s a Certain Slant of LightWild Nights--Wild Nights Christina Rossetti (1830-1894)Up-Hill Thomas Hardy (1840-1928)Ah, Are You Digging on My Grave? Channel FiringNeutral Tones The Ruined Maid Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844-1889)God's Grandeur Pied BeautySpring and Fall: To a Young Child  Emma Lazarus (1849-1887)The New Colossus A. E. Housman (1859-1936)Eight O'Clock Loveliest of Trees, the Cherry Now Stars, I Have Seen Them Fall “Terence, This Is Stupid Stuff . . .” William Butler Yeats (1865-1939)The Lake Isle of InnisfreeLeda and the Swan Sailing to Byzantium The Second Coming The Song of Wandering Aengus Edwin Arlington Robinson (1869-1935)Firelight The Mill Richard CoryStephen Crane (1871-1900)The Trees in the Garden Rained FlowersThe Wayfarer Paul Laurence Dunbar (1872-1906) We Wear the Mask Robert Frost (1874-1963)Acquainted with the Night After Apple-Picking Design Home Burial The Need of Being Versed in Country Things The Road Not TakenStopping by Woods on a Snowy EveningAdelaide Crapsey (1878-1034)AmazeLanguor after PainTrapped Wallace Stevens (1879-1955)Anecdote of the Jar Disillusionment of Ten O'Clock The Emperor of Ice-CreamThe Snow Man Sunday MorningThe Worms at Heavens Gate William Carlos Williams (1883-1963)The Last Words of My English Grandmother The Red WheelbarrowSpring and All Ezra Pound (1885-1972)In a Station of the Metro Portrait d'une FemmeThe River-Merchant's Wife: A Letter Elinor Wylie (1885-1928)Let No Charitable HopeOphelia H. D. (Hilda Doolittle) (1886-1961)Pear Tree Sea RoseSiegfried Sassoon (1886-1967)Dreamers Robinson Jeffers (1887-1962)The Purse-Seine Marianne Moore (1887-1972)The FishSilence T. S. Eliot (1888-1965) Journey of the Magi The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock Preludes Edna St. Vincent Millay (1892-1950)If I Should Learn, in Some Quite Casual Way Oh, Oh, You Will Be Sorry for that Word What Lips My Lips Have Kissed, and Where, and Why Wilfred Owen (1893-1918)Dulce et Decorum Est e. e. cummings (1894-1962)pity this busy monster,manunkindplato told r-p-o-p-h-e-s-s-a-g-r *  somewhere I have never travelled, gladly beyondJean Toomer (1894-1967)Georgia Dusk Louise Bogan (1897-1970)Women Langston Hughes (1902-1967)Dream Boogie* Harlem SweetiesThe Weary BluesStevie Smith (1902-1971)Our Bog Is DoodCountee Cullen (1903-1946)Incident Yet Do I Marvel W. H. Auden (1907-1973)As I Walked Out One EveningMusée des Beaux Arts The Unknown Citizen Theodore Roethke (1908-1963)Dolor My Papa's WaltzRoot Cellar Elizabeth Bishop (1911-1979)The Fish One Art* The ShampooRobert Hayden (1913-1980)Those Winter Sundays  Dudley Randall (1914-2000)Ballad of Birmingham William Stafford (1914-1993) Traveling through the Dark Dylan Thomas (1914-1953)Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night Poem in October Weldon Kees (1914-1955)For My Daughter Margaret Walker (1915-1998)For Malcolm X Gwendolyn Brooks (1917-2000)the ballad of chocolate Mabbiethe mother We Real Cool Lawrence Ferlinghetti (b. 1919)A Coney Island of the Mind, #15 May Swenson (1919-1989)How Everything Happens Howard Nemerov (1920-1991)A Primer of the Daily Round Richard Wilbur (b. 1921)Junk * For CThe Writer Year's End Philip Larkin (1922-1985)Next, Please This Be the VerseThe Whitsun Weddings James Dickey (1923-1997)The Heaven of Animals Alan Dugan (1923-2003)Love Song: I and Thou Anthony Hecht (b. 1923)The Dover BitchThird Avenue in Sunlight Daniel Hoffman (b. 1923)As I Was Going to Saint-IvesLouis Simpson (b. 1923)American Classic My Father in the Night Commanding No Vassar Miller (1924-1997)Subterfuge Donald Justice (b. 1925)Counting the MadCarolyn Kizer (b. 1925)The Ungrateful Garden Pro Femina: Part Three  Maxine Kumin (b. 1925)Noted in the New York Times Allen Ginsberg (1926-1997)A Supermarket in California James Merrill (1926-1995)Casual WearFrank O'Hara (1926-1966)The Day Lady Died W. D. Snodgrass (1926-2009)Mementos, I John Ashbery (b. 1927)Farm Implements and Rutabagas in a Landscape Paradoxes and Oxymorons W. S. Merwin (b. 1927)For the Anniversary of My Death The Last One James Wright (1927-1980)Autumn Begins in Martins Ferry, OhioSaint Judas Philip Levine (b. 1928)You Can Have It Anne Sexton (1928-1974)Cinderella Thom Gunn (b. 1929)From the Wave Terminal X. J. Kennedy (b. 1929)In a Prominent Bar in Secaucus One Day Little Elegy Adrienne Rich (b. 1929)Aunt Jennifer's TigersDiving into the Wreck Rape Ted Hughes (b. 1930-1998)Pike Gary Snyder (b. 1930)A Walk Miller Williams (b. 1930)The Book Linda Pastan (b. 1932)EthicsSylvia Plath (1932-1963)DaddyEdge Metaphors Gerald Barrax (b. 1933)Strangers like Us: Pittsburgh, Raleigh, 1945-1985Mark Strand (b. 1934) The Tunnel Lewis Turco (b. 1934)The PremonitionRussel Edson (b. 1935)Ape Mary Oliver (b. 1935)The Black Walnut TreeHoney at the Table Fred Chappell (b. 1936)Narcissus and Echo Lucille Clifton (1936-2010)homage to my hipswishes for sons Marge Piercy (b. 1936)What’s That Smell in the Kitchen! Betty Adcock (b. 1938)Voyages Robert Phillips (b. 1938)The Stone Crab: A Love PoemDabney Stuart (b. 1938)Discovering My Daughter Margaret Atwood (b. 1939)Siren Song Stephen Dunn (b. 1939)The Sacred Seamus Heaney (b. 1939)Digging PunishmentTed Kooser (b. 19390Abandoned FarmhouseTom Disch (b. 1940)Ballade of the New God Florence Cassen Mayers (b. 1940)All American SestinaPattiann Rogers (b. 1940)Foreplay Billy Collins (b. 1941)LitanyParadelle for Susan  Robert Hass (b. 1941)Meditation at Lagunitas Simon J. Ortiz (b. 1941)The Serenity in Stones Gibbons Ruark (b. 1941)The Visitor Gladys Cardiff (b. 1942)CombingB.H. Fairchild (b. 1942)Body and SoulCharles Martin (b. 1942)E.S.L.Sharon Olds (b. 1942)The One Girl at the Boys Party Henry Taylor (b. 1942)From Brief CandlesDiane Lockward (b. 1943)My Husband Discovers PoetryEllen Bryant Voight (b. 1943)Daughter Robert Morgan (b. 1944)Mountain Bride Craig Raine (b. 1944)A Martian Sends a Postcard Home Enid Shomer (b. 1944)Women Bathing at Bergen Belsen Wendy Cope (b. 1944)Rondeau RedoubléDick Davis (b. 1945)A Monorhyme for the ShowerKay Ryan (b. 1945)BestiaryLeon Stokesbury (b. 1945)The Day Kennedy DiedJohn Whitworth (b. 1945)The ExaminersMarilyn Nelson (b. 1946)The Ballad of Aunt Geneva Ai (1947-2010)Child BeaterJim Hall (b. 1947)Maybe Dats Your Pwoblem Too Yusef Komunyakaa (b. 1947)Facing ItR.S. Gwynn (b. 1948)Approaching a Significant Birthday, He Peruses an Anthology of Poetry Timothy Steele (b. 1948)Sapphics Against Anger James Fenton (b. 1949)God, a Poem Sarah Cortez (b. 1950)Tu NegritoCarolyn Forché (b. 1950)The Colonel Dana Gioia (b. 1950)Planting a Sequoia Rodney Jones (b. 1950)Winter Retreat: Homage to Martin Luther King, Jr.Timothy Murphy (b. 1950)Case NotesJoy Harjo (b. 1951)She Had Some Horses Andrew Hudgins (b. 1951)Air View of an Industrial Scene Robert Wrigley (b. 1951)Thatcher BitchboyJudith Ortiz Cofer (b. 1952)The Latin Deli: An Ars PoeticaRita Dove (b. 1952)American Smooth Mark Jarman (b. 1952)After DisappointmentJulie Kane (b. 19520Alan Doll RapNaomi Shihab Nye (b. 1952)The Traveling Onion Alberto Ríos (b. 1952)The Purpose of Altar Boys Julia Alvarez (b. 1953)Bilingual Sestina Harryette Mullen (b. 1953)Dim LadyKim Addonizio (b. 1954)Sonnenizio on a Line by MillayDavid Mason (b. 1954)Fog Horns Mary Jo Salter (b. 1954)Welcome to Hiroshima Cathy Song (b. 1955)Stamp CollectingGinger Andrews (b. 1956)Primping in the Rearview MirrorAnnie Finch (b. 1956)Coy Mistress* Amy Gerstler (B. 1956) Advice from a Caterpillar* Rebecca Faust (B. 1957)Family StoryApril Lindner (b. 1962)First KissCatherine Tufariello (b. 1963)Useful AdviceSherman Alexie (b. 1966)The Exaggeration of DespairNatasha Trethewey (b. 1966)Domestic Work, 1937* Craig Arnold (1967-2009)The SingersAllison Joseph (b. 1967)The AthleteBrian Turner (b. 1967)Here. BulletSuji Kwock Kim (b. 1968)OccupationA. E. Stallings (b. 1968)First Love: A QuizJoshua Mehigan (b. 1969)Riddle* Ernest Hilbert (B. 1970)Domestic SituationSophie Hannah (b. 1971)The Guest SpeakerEmily Moore (b. 1977)Auld Lang Syne* Erica Dawson (B. 1979)Somewhere Between Columbus and Cincinnati  Appendix: Stanza, Fixed, and Nonce Forms  Acknowledgments  Index of Critical Terms  Index of Authors, Titles, and First Lines of Poems  Additional Titles of Interest