Untitled Normal Page

Reading Plays	Note that your text has extra information about Trifles on pp. 2172 and 2175. You may also want to look at some links to Trifles. You might want to test your knowledge of Death of a Salesman by trying this quiz. (You’ll get an X for a wrong answer and a sideways smiling face for a right answer.) Dr. D. Campbell of Gonzaga University has some useful links to Arthur Miller that provide additional information about him. Don’t forget to check the link to material related to our text at the bottom of this page (next to Mr. Pencil). In 2000 Arthur Miller wrote "Are You Now Or Were You Ever?" about the accusations that he was a Communist that surfaced when Death of a Salesman was made into a movie. Here is a study guide on Death of a Salesman. The song in the background of Am I Blue is, not surprisingly, "Am I Blue?" Beth Henley, the author of Am I Blue, wrote a number of plays that have been turned into movies. We’ll be discussing some questions about Antigone during the last class session on it. You might want to work on Antigone, a play by Sophocles, by playing The Antigone Game. Andrew Wilson, a British teacher of Latin, Greek, and ancient history, provides some information on Tiresias on The Classics Pages. Summaries of Antigone by Jason Bowns are available at Bookrags, but you should be wary of this site because it is commercial rather than scholarly. (Remember, never ever buy a paper online. This is cheating, and the penalties for it are severe.) A more reputable source is provided by Helen Shaw, a theater student in Massachusetts, who has posted some information on Sophocles.
Reading Stories	Want some help with literary terms? These definitions come from the publisher Bedford / St. Martin’s. Also, note that our text has definitions of literary terms in the back of the book. Notre Dame Cathedral is one of the cathedrals the narrator sees on television in Ray Carver’s “Cathedral.” This article about Carver describes the blind visitor for whom Tess Gallagher used to work. Both of them later used material from his visit in their fiction and poetry. Salon Magazine has a useful interview with Jamaica Kincaid. You might also want to follow the links on this Flannery O'Connor website. Writing Vietnam is a speech Tim O’Brien gave. He answers questions from the audience afterwards. The Things They Carried is a book of linked short stories that begins with the story we read. The Reader's Companion to this book has questions that will help you think about our story. Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried was the 2005 choice as the book everyone in the Delaware Valley should read. Ursula Le Guin has a web page you might like with information on her writing. Here’s a link to T.C. Boyle's webpage. It contains photos of him, selections from his writing, and a discussion board, along with lots more material. And here’s a link to a trailer for a Ohio University film school production of Greasy Lake. One of the allusions in “Greasy Lake” is to the rape of the Sabine women. This version is by Nicholas Poussin and this one by Peter Paul Rubens.
Reading Poems	Professor Huck Gutman of the University of Vermont has some good suggestions for reading poems. Here are some more ideas I have about how to read a poem. Look at the variety of concrete poetry on the internet. (For some of these links you’ll need special plug-ins.) Poems on love and sex: You may want to look at more poems by Kim Addonizio, Emily Dickinson, and Elizabeth Barrett Browning. Follow the links from these Academy of American Poets for more information about these poets. Interested in Emily Dickinson set to silly music? Here’s Dinah on YouTube singing Dickinson. Poems on war and death: Yusef Komunyakaa’s “Facing It” is set at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. Comments on Carolyn Forche’s "The Colonel" will help you understand it. You may also want to look at John Donne’s poem "Death, Be Not Proud." Comments on e.e. cummings’ "Buffalo Bill's" are also available on the internet. Information on Langston Hughes is widely available on the internet. Here is another link to Langston Hughes. And another one. And one more. (This last one has songs by Hughes and recordings of him reciting his poems with music in the background.) You might want to compare another translation of Rainer Maria Rilke’s "Entrance" with the translation by Dana Gioia in our text. Gioia’s translation was not centered; what difference does it make to see it in its original form? Our translation of Li Po’s “Drinking Alone by Moonlight” is by Arthur Waley. What do you think of this translation from The Columbia Book of Chinese Poetry? Here’s another version for you to consider. You can hear Taniguchi Buson’s “The Piercing Chill I Feel” and look at a translation from the Japanese into Italian. A villanelle follows a specific pattern. Dylan Thomas’s "Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night" is an example of a villanelle. "One Art" is a villanelle by Elizabeth Bishop. "Summer Villanelle" is by Wendy Cope, as is "Lonely Hearts." The writer Conrad Geller provides more information on villanelles.
Writers on Writing	Refer to Writers on Writing for articles by professional writers on the art and craft of writing. This link will take you to The New York Times. You'll have to register, but the articles are free. Rachel Simon's The Writer's Writing Guide is an entire book containing many useful ideas about writing fiction. Her Writer's Survival Guide is a practical guide to the writing life, and her articles on writing are also useful. Advice from the fiction writer Walter Mosley will encourage you to keep writing regularly.
Writing Poems	Having trouble deciding when to start one line and end another? Here are strategies to help you make decisions about line breaks. You can transform your poems by making thoughtful revisions. Here are fifty tips for revising your poems. And here are twenty more tips for revising your poems. You may also want to find out how to close your poems more effectively.
Writing Short Stories	Looking closely at published stories will help you decide what you can adapt to your own work. To make your characters interesting and convincing, you may find it useful to examine the secret lives of characters by answering questions about them. Another skill that will help your fiction is writing skillful dialogue. It's not necessary to write about sex, but if you feel you must, these suggestions from Elizabeth Benedict might be useful to you. Revising is an important way to improve your stories, and you'll want to copy edit carefully.
Your Tests	Here's a sample fiction test from a past year. Your test will be very similar though many of the items will be different. Also, here’s an old poetry test you might want to look at. And here’s another sample poetry test. You may also want to look at a sample drama test.