Contents
Introduction
xv
Tools for Reading Poetry
xvii
The First Dimension: Family
Set 1. Generations
The Bee
3
Daughter
5
ROBERT HAYDEN, Those Winter Sundays
LI-YOUNG LEE, I Ask My Mother to Sing
ANNE SEXTON, All My Pretty Ones
7
JAMES DICKEY,
KIMIKO HAHN,
5
6
Set 2. Legacy
Sestina
9
ROSARIO CASTELLANOS, Elegy
10
GENNY LIM, Sweet ’n Sour
11
NANCY MOREJÓN, Mother
12
SHARON OLDS, The Bathrobe
12
ELIZABETH BISHOP,
Set 3. Change
Relocation
14
HOWARD NEMEROV, To David, About His Education
SHARON OLDS, Rites of Passage
17
CAROLE OLES, The Magician Suspends the Children
CATHY SONG, Who Makes the Journey
19
DAVID MURA,
16
17
v
Set 4. Loss and Restoration
Slipping
21
ATWOOD, Death of a Young Son by Drowning
JOAN ALESHIRE,
MARGARET
22
The Lost Boy
23
JAIME JACINTO, The Beads
23
STANLEY KUNITZ, Father and Son
24
JANET LEWIS, For the Father of Sandro Gulotta
GABRIELLE GLANCY,
26
Set 5. Reverence
Nesting
27
NIKKI GIOVANNI, A Poem for Carol
28
LI-YOUNG LEE, Early in the Morning
29
JOSEPHINE MILES, Family
30
SHARON OLDS, Bathing the New Born
31
JOHN CROWE RANSOM, Bells for John Whiteside’s Daughter
CAROL CLARK,
32
Farm Wife
32
WHITEMAN, Star Quilt
33
ELLEN BRYANT VOIGT,
ROBERTA HILL
The Second Dimension: Portraits
Set 1. Identity
This is a Photograph of Me
47
JORGE LUIS BORGES, Spinoza
48
JACINTO JESU′ S CARDONA, Calling All Chamacos
48
NORMA FIFER, Claiming Gray
49
CLAUDIA LARS, Sketch of the Frontier Woman
50
AUDRE LORDE, From the House of Yemanjá
51
SYLVIA PLATH, Mirror
52
MIRIAM WADDINGTON, Canadians
53
NELLIE WONG, My Chinese Love
54
MARGARET ATWOOD,
Set 2. Survival
MARGARET AVISON,
vi
July Man
56
CONTENTS
Housewife
57
ALDEN NOWLAN, Warren Pryor
57
JOHN UPDIKE, Ex-Basketball Player
JOSEPHINE MILES,
58
Set 3. Patterns
Women
59
GWENDOLYN BROOKS, The Rites for Cousin Vit
DIANA CHANG, Implosion
60
DIANA CHANG, Second Nature
61
AMY LOWELL, Patterns
62
RICHARD WILBUR, She
65
LOUISE BOGAN,
59
Set 4. Objects of Regard
cutting greens
67
ROBERT FROST, The Silken Tent
67
TESS GALLAGHER, Black Silk
68
JOHN FREDERICK NIMS, Love Poem
68
THEODORE ROETHKE, Elegy for Jane
69
CLARICE SHORT, The Old One and the Wind
LUCILLE CLIFTON,
70
Set 5. Myths and Legends
Cassandra
71
PHILIP LEVINE, Ruth
71
JANET LEWIS, The Anasazi Woman
72
JANET LEWIS, The Ancient Ones: Betátakin
ELI MANDEL, Houdini
75
ANNE SEXTON, Cinderella
75
R.T. SMITH, Yonosa House
78
LOUISE BOGAN,
74
Set 6. Heroes and Heroines
GREGORY CORSO,
Dreams of a Baseball Star
JAMES DICKEY, The Lifeguard
81
RITA DOVE, Banneker
83
CONTENTS
80
vii
LORINE NIEDECKER,
Audubon
84
Set 7. Eccentrics
Miss Havisham
85
THEODORE ROETHKE, Frau Bauman, Frau Schmidt,
86
and Frau Schwartze
MURIEL RUKEYSER, A Charm for Cantinflas
87
ALICE WALKER, Revolutionary Petunias
87
OLGA OROZCO,
The Third Dimension: Nature
Set 1. Cycles and Seasons
On Nothing
107
Dandelions
108
HOWARD NEMEROV, Elegy for a Nature Poet
AL PURDY, Arctic Rhododendrons
110
WALLACE STEVENS, The Snow Man
111
WILLIAM CARLOS WILLIAMS, Spring and All
EMILY HIESTAND,
HOWARD NEMEROV,
109
112
Set 2. Danger and Death
The Armadillo
113
Angle of Geese
114
THEODORE ROETHKE, The Meadow Mouse
115
WILLIAM STAFFORD, Traveling through the Dark
116
RICHARD WILBUR, The Death of a Toad
117
ELIZABETH BISHOP,
N. SCOTT MOMADAY,
Set 3. Natural Forces
A Holiday
118
AMY CLAMPITT, The Reedbeds of the Hackensack
119
CAROL CLARK, Canoeing Upstream
120
JOY HARJO, Fire
121
JANET LEWIS, The Ancient Ones: Water
122
PABLO NERUDA, Some Beasts
123
WALLACE STEVENS, This Solitude of Cataracts
124
JOHN UPDIKE, Ode to Rot
125
MARGARET ATWOOD,
viii
CONTENTS
RICHARD WILBUR,
126
Still, Citizen Sparrow
Set 4. Survivors
Spiders
128
W.S. MERWIN, Leviathan
128
N. SCOTT MOMADAY, The Bear
130
MARIANNE MOORE, The Frigate Pelican
MARY OLIVER, The Hermit Crab
132
DIANE ACKERMAN,
130
Set 5. Transformations
A Palm Tree
134
Poem for an Afghan Hound
LOUISE ERDRICH, Whooping Cranes
136
BARBARA MEYN, Changing
137
SYLVIA PLATH, Medallion
137
SYLVIA PLATH, Sow
139
CHARLES WRIGHT, Saturday Morning Journal
ROSARIO CASTELLANOS,
FRAN CLAGGETT,
134
140
Set 6. Wonder
This Fevers Me
142
GABRIELLE GLANCY, Deer on the Way to Work
142
LINDA HOGAN, Small Animals at Night
143
LINDA HOGAN, Small Life
144
OCTAVIO PAZ, Lake
145
LESLIE MARMON SILKO, In Cold Storm Light
146
GARY SNYDER, Hay for the Horses
147
WALLACE STEVENS, The Bird with the Coppery, Keen Claws
RICHARD EBERHART,
148
ROBERTA HILL WHITEMAN,
JAMES
The Recognition
WRIGHT, A Blessing
149
149
The Fourth Dimension: Places
Set 1. Identity
MALCOLM COWLEY,
CONTENTS
Boy in Sunlight
169
ix
The Return
170
LYN HEJINIAN, from My Life
171
GENNY LIM, Portsmouth Square
173
GABRIELA MISTRAL, The House
173
CARLOS PELLICER, Wishes
174
ALEJANDRA PIZARNIK, Exile
175
RICHARD WILBUR, Digging for China
176
LOUISE ERDRICH,
Set 2. Mood
Houses Like Angels
177
LUIS CABALQUINTO, Blue Tropic
177
JACINTO JESU′ S CARDONA, La Coste, Texas
179
LANGSTON HUGHES, Juke Box Love Song
179
THEODORE ROETHKE, Dolor
180
CARL SANDBURG, Jazz Fantasia
180
ANNE SEXTON, The Starry Night
181
XAVIER VILLAURRUTIA, Cemetery in the Snow
182
JORGE LUIS BORGES,
Set 3. Geography
The Map
183
JOY HARJO, White Bear
184
DENISE LEVERTOV, A Map of the Western Part of the
185
County of Essex in England
GARY SOTO, The Map
186
ELIZABETH BISHOP,
Set 4. History
The Empty House
188
A.M. KLEIN, Indian Reservation: Caughnawaga
189
ALAN LAU, ashes and food
190
GARY SOTO, Small Town with One Road
191
DEREK WALCOTT, The Virgins
192
ROSARIO CASTELLANOS,
Set 5. Contrasts
The City Limits
194
BROOKS, the birth in a narrow room
A.R. AMMONS,
GWENDOLYN
x
194
CONTENTS
GWENDOLYN BROOKS,
THEODORE
kitchenette building
ROETHKE, Root Cellar
195
195
The Fifth Dimension: Culture
Set 1. Mythic Patterns
Musée des Beaux Arts
211
KENNETH FIELDS, Stringing the Lyre
211
W.S. MERWIN, Odysseus
212
N. SCOTT MOMADAY, Carriers of the Dream Wheel
213
WILLIAM CARLOS WILLIAMS, The Dance
214
WILLIAM CARLOS WILLIAMS, Landscape with the Fall of Icarus
W.H. AUDEN,
214
Set 2. Portraits
PAULA GUNN ALLEN,
Kopis’taya (A Gathering of Spirits)
CECILIA BUSTAMANTE, Nobel Peace Prize
217
JACINTO JESU′ S CARDONA, Avocado Avenue
218
TESS GALLAGHER, Some Painful Butterflies Pass Through
216
219
As for Poets
220
ALFONSINA STORNI, Men in the City
222
CARMEN TAFOLLA, Allí por la calle San Luis
JEAN TOOMER, Reapers
223
GARY SNYDER,
223
Set 3. History
The Caged Bird
224
MAYA ANGELOU, My Guilt
225
COUNTEE CULLEN, Yet Do I Marvel
226
E.E. CUMMINGS, [plato told]
226
PAUL LAURENCE DUNBAR, We Wear the Mask
227
LANGSTON HUGHES, The Negro Speaks of Rivers
228
SHIRLEY KAUFMAN, Relics
228
SHIRLEY KAUFMAN, Stones
229
MAYA ANGELOU,
CONTENTS
xi
WENDY ROSE,
ALICE
Long Division: A Tribal History
WALKER, Women
231
230
Set 4. Transition
MARILYN CHIN,
We Are Americans Now, We Live
232
in the Tundra
LOUIS ERDRICH, Dear John Wayne
233
M. CARL HOLMAN, Mr. Z.
234
LANGSTON HUGHES, Dinner Guest: Me
235
DIANE MEI-LIN MARK, Suzie Wong Doesn’t Live Here
CATHY SONG, Lost Sister
237
GARY SOTO, Who Will Know Us
239
KITTY TSUI, Chinatown Talking Story
240
236
Set 5. Upheaval
Hiroshima Exit
242
SHIRLEY GEOK-LIN LIM, Pantoun for Chinese Women
243
DAVID MURA, The Natives
244
SHARON OLDS, Things That Are Worse Than Death
245
RICHARD WRIGHT, Between the World and Me
246
JOY KOGAWA,
The Sixth Dimension: Time
Set 1. Youth and Age
The Ball Poem
263
JAMES DICKEY, Cherrylog Road
263
ROBERT FROST, Birches
267
LINDA HOGAN, Fishing
268
JANET LEWIS, Helen Grown Old
269
WILLIAM STAFFORD, Fifteen
270
JOHN BERRYMAN,
Set 2. Cycles and Rebirth
MAYA ANGELOU,
xii
Late October
271
CONTENTS
Once and Future
271
RICHARD EBERHART, The Groundhog
272
ROBERT FROST, The Wood-Pile
273
MARIANNE MOORE, Nevertheless
274
RICHARD WILBUR, Love Calls Us to the Things
276
of This World
DIANA CHANG,
Set 3. Hopes and Dreams
JACINTO JESU′ S CARDONA,
TOM
De Vez En Cuando
DISCH, The Crumbling Infrastructure
277
277
Set 4. Preservation
ROSARIO CASTELLANOS,
Silence Concerning an Ancient Stone
280
LINDA HOGAN,
Saving
281
Inside the Great Pyramid
282
PABLO NERUDA, Things Breaking
283
ALICE WALKER, While Love Is Unfashionable
284
GWENDOLYN MACEWEN,
Set 5. The Vivid Past Remembered
Amapolasong
286
The Rocking Chair
288
MAXINE KUMIN, Remembering You
289
PHILIP LEVINE, Scouting
289
JACINTO JESU′ S CARDONA,
A.M. KLEIN,
Glossary of Poetic Terms
303
About the Poets
315
About the Authors and Artist
331
Copyrights and Acknowledgments
333
Index of Titles and Authors
345
CONTENTS
xiii
The Second Dimension:
Portraits
E
ach of the poems in this section offers a portrait of a person
or a group of people, real or imaginary, whose singular characteristics have made an impression on the speaker. As you read,
consider the selection of detail and the importance of emphasis
in fashioning a portrait through poetry.
a great cloak, and meditate
on the heavenly bodies?
Venerable, the good people of Baltimore
whispered, shocked and more than
a little afraid. After all, it was said
he took to strong drink.
Why else would he stay out
under the stars all night
and why hadn’t he married?
But who would want him! Neither
Ethiopian nor English, neither
lucky nor crazy, a capacious bird
humming as he penned in his mind
another enflamed letter
to President Jefferson—he imagined
the reply, polite and rhetorical.
Those who had been to Philadelphia
reported the statue
of Benjamin Franklin
before the library
his very size and likeness.
A wife? No, thank you.
At dawn he milked
the cows, then went inside
and put on a pot to stew
while he slept. The clock
he whittled as a boy
still ran. Neighbors
woke him up
with warm bread and quilts.
At nightfall he took out
his rifle—a white-maned
figure stalking the darkened
breast of the Union—and
shot at the stars, and by chance
one went out. Had he killed?
THE SECOND DIMENSION: PORTRAITS
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
85
The Anasazi Woman
JANET LEWIS
1. What experience triggers the speaker’s thoughts about the
Anasazi woman? What discrepancies do you note between the
physical image of the woman as the speaker sees her in death
(stanzas 1 and 2) and the imagined image of her in the remaining
stanzas?
2. What examples of character does the speaker provide in her
portrait of a woman she has not known personally? What gives
her the authority to create the portrait and call her “My sister, my
friend” (42)?
3. Explain the meaning of line 37 and its significance to the
speaker’s experience in imagining the Anasazi woman.
Comparison:
A.M. Klein, “Indian Reservation: Caughnawaga”
Janet Lewis, “The Ancient Ones: Betátakin”
Clarice Short, “The Old One and the Wind”
The Ancient Ones: Betátakin
JANET LEWIS
1. To whom is the speaker referring as “they” in the second line?
What place is the speaker describing in the first stanza?
2. Explain the significance of the nature images in the second stanza
and their relationship to the human subjects of lines 1–3 and 4–8.
What collective portrait does the speaker create through these
and other images?
3. Explain the meaning of “Time’s unchanging room” (33). What
ideas about time and immortality does this poem explore, and
what is the relationship of these concepts to the culture
described?
Comparison:
Paula Gunn Allen, “Kopis’taya” (A Gathering of Spirits)
A.M. Klein, “Indian Reservation: Caughnawaga”
Janet Lewis, “The Anasazi Woman”
Clarice Short, “The Old One and the Wind”
Houdini
ELI MANDEL
1. According to the speaker, what kinds of devices does Houdini
call upon to make his escapes? How do syntax, repetition, and
the structure of the poem suggest the magician’s concentration
102
TWENTIETH-CENTURY VOICES
and art of escape?
2. What does the last sentence, especially the last two lines, add to
the portrait of Houdini? What feelings do the speaker, the
audience, and the reader share?
Comparison:
Rita Dove, “Banneker”
Lorine Niedecker, “Audubon”
Muriel Rukeyser, “A Charm for Cantinflas”
Cinderella
ANNE SEXTON
1. In what ways do the four examples introducing the story of
Cinderella establish a tone that you expect to find in the rest of
the poem? What words in lines 1–21 serve as symbols of people
or conditions?
2. To what extent does the narrator follow the plot that is familiar to
you? Where does she deviate or elaborate? What is the effect of
both? What examples of colloquial and contemporary language
strike you as particularly humorous and ironic?
3. How many meanings does the phrase “That story” acquire in the
poem? What view of the modern world does the speaker present
in the “happily ever after” conclusion?
Comparison:
Diana Chang, “Implosion”
Amy Lowell, “Patterns”
Richard Wilbur, “She”
Yonosa House
R.T. SMITH
1. For what reasons does the speaker cherish his grandmother
Yonosa?
2. What physical details—appearance and gesture—make her
memorable?
Comparison: Ellen Bryant Voigt, “The Farm Wife”
Composition: In a poem or prose sketch, pay tribute to a relative
whom you have had a chance to observe closely and whom you
THE SECOND DIMENSION: PORTRAITS
103