The God Who Loves You

The God Who Loves You

By Carl Dennis

It must be troubling for the god who loves you
To ponder how much happier you'd be today
Had you been able to glimpse your many futures.
It must be painful for him to watch you on Friday evenings
Driving home from the office, content with your week—
Three fine houses sold to deserving families—
Knowing as he does exactly what would have happened
Had you gone to your second choice for college,
Knowing the roommate you'd have been allotted
Whose ardent opinions on painting and music
Would have kindled in you a lifelong passion.
A life thirty points above the life you're living
On any scale of satisfaction. And every point
A thorn in the side of the god who loves you.
You don't want that, a large-souled man like you
Who tries to withhold from your wife the day's disappointments
So she can save her empathy for the children.
And would you want this god to compare your wife
With the woman you were destined to meet on the other campus?
It hurts you to think of him ranking the conversation
You'd have enjoyed over there higher in insight
Than the conversation you're used to.
And think how this loving god would feel
Knowing that the man next in line for your wife
Would have pleased her more than you ever will
Even on your best days, when you really try.
Can you sleep at night believing a god like that
Is pacing his cloudy bedroom, harassed by alternatives
You're spared by ignorance? The difference between what is
And what could have been will remain alive for him
Even after you cease existing, after you catch a chill
Running out in the snow for the morning paper,
Losing eleven years that the god who loves you
Will feel compelled to imagine scene by scene
Unless you come to the rescue by imagining him
No wiser than you are, no god at all, only a friend
No closer than the actual friend you made at college,
The one you haven't written in months. Sit down tonight
And write him about the life you can talk about
With a claim to authority, the life you've witnessed,
Which for all you know is the life you've chosen.

MLA Citation for Video

The God Who Loves You by Carl Dennis. Dir. BAMFPRODUCTIONS123. Perf. Meghan Anedes' and Garrett Tubman. The God Who Loves You By Carl Dennis. 1 Dec. 2010. 5 May 2011 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cgPPyQ_hrPE.

MLA Citation for Poem

Roberts, Edgar V., and Darlene Stock. Stotler. "The God Who Loves You." Literature an Introduction to Reading and Writing. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson / Prentice Hall, 2008. 804-05. Print.



Homage to my hips

Homage to my hips

By Lucille Clifton

these hips are big hips.
they need space to
move around in.
they don't fit into little
petty places. these hips
are free hips.
they don't like to be held back.
these hips have never been enslaved,
they go where they want to go
they do what they want to do.
these hips are mighty hips.
these hips are magic hips.
i have known them
to put a spell on a man and
spin him like a top 

MLA Citation for Video

Homage to my Hips. Dir. Lanthony0421. Perf. Laura, Derek, Kathleen, Ben, Matt. Youtube: Homage to my hips. 24 Apr. 2008. 5 May 2011 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ej6lcnVrSQ.

MLA Citation for Poem

Roberts, Edgar V., and Darlene Stock. Stotler. "Homage to my hips." Literature an Introduction to Reading and Writing. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson / Prentice Hall, 2008. 612. Print.

Sonnet 18: Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer's Day?

Sonnet 18: Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer's Day?

By William Shakespeare

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:
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimm'd;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance or nature's changing course untrimm'd;
But thy eternal summer shall not fade
Nor lose possession of that fair thou owest;
Nor shall Death brag thou wander'st in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou growest:
So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
So long lives this and this gives life to thee.

MLA Citation for video

William Shakespeare's Sonnet 18. Dir. Gillesrousel. Youtube: William Shakespeare's Sonnet 18. 29 Sept. 2010. 5 May 2011 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lYchG2rln-Y&feature=related.

MLA Citation for Poem

Roberts, Edgar V., and Darlene Stock. Stotler. "Sonnet 18: Shall I compare Thee to a Summer's day?" Literature an Introduction to Reading and Writing. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson / Prentice Hall, 2008. 584-85. Print.

Remember

Remember

By Joy Harjo

Remember the sky that you were born under,
know each of the star's stories.
Remember the moon, know who she is. I met her
in a bar once in Iowa City.
Remember the sun's birth at dawn, that is the
strongest point of time. Remember sundown
and the giving away to night.
Remember your birth, how your mother struggled
to give you form and breath. You are evidence of
her life, and her mother's, and hers.
Remember your father. He is your life, also.
Remember the earth whose skin you are:
red earth, black earth, yellow earth, white earth
brown earth, we are earth.
Remember the plants, trees, animal life who all have their
tribes, their families, their histories, too. Talk to them,
listen to them. They are alive poems.
Remember the wind. Remember her voice. She knows the
origin of this universe. I heard her singing Kiowa war
dance songs at the corner of Fourth and Central once.
Remember that you are all people and that all people
are you.
Remember that you are this universe and that this
universe is you.
Remember that all is in motion, is growing, is you.
Remember that language comes from this.
Remember the dance that language is, that life is.
Remember.

MLA Citation for Video

Remember by Joy Harjo. Dir. 324Brittanyj. Youtube: Remember by Joy Harjo. 5 Sept. 2010. 5 May 2011 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g85rxLzdPsY.

MLA Citation for Poem

Roberts, Edgar V., and Darlene Stock. Stotler. "Remember." Literature an Introduction to Reading and Writing. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson / Prentice Hall, 2008. 577-78. Print.

A Red, Red Rose

A Red, Red Rose

By Robert Burns

Oh my luve is like a red, red rose,
That's newly sprung in June:
Oh my luve is like the melodie,
That's sweetly play'd in tune.

As fair art thou, my bonie lass,
So deep in luve am I;
And I will luve thee still, my dear,
Till a' the seas gang dry.

Till a' the seas gang dry, my dear,
And the rocks melt wi' the sun;
And I will luve thee still, my dear,
While the sands o' life shall run.

And fare thee weel, my only luve!
And fare thee weel a while!
And I will come again, my luve,
Tho' it were ten thousand mile!

MLA Citation for Video

A Red, Red Rose by Robert burns, Sung by Andy M. Stewart. Dir. Liozzo. Youtube: A Red, Red Rose by Robert burns, Sung by Andy M. Stewart. 17 June 2007. 5 May 2011 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cBCQMWMbeMU.

MLA Citation for Poem

Roberts, Edgar V., and Darlene Stock. Stotler. "A Red, Red Rose." Literature an Introduction to Reading and Writing. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson / Prentice Hall, 2008. 570. Print.

Let Us Take the Road

Let Us Take the Road

By John Gay

Let us take the road.

Hark! I hear the sound of coaches!

The hour of attack approaches,

To your arms, brave boys, and load.

See the ball I hold!

Let the chemists toil like asses,

Our fire their fir surpasses

And turns all our lead to gold.

MLA Citation for Video

"Let us take the road" from The Beggar's Opera. Dir. Thomas Petiet. Youtube: "Let us take the road" from The Beggar's Opera. 1 Aug. 2010. 4 May 2011 <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h-75ULrewWs>.


MLA Citation for Poem

Roberts, Edgar V., and Darlene Stock. Stotler. "Let Us Take the Road." Literature an Introduction to Reading and Writing. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson / Prentice Hall, 2008. 566. Print.

Bright Star

Bright Star

By John Keats

Bright star, would I were stedfast as thou art--
Not in lone splendour hung aloft the night
And watching, with eternal lids apart,
Like nature's patient, sleepless Eremite,
The moving waters at their priestlike task
Of pure ablution round earth's human shores,
Or gazing on the new soft-fallen maskOf snow upon the mountains and the moors--
No--yet still stedfast, still unchangeable,
Pillow'd upon my fair love's ripening breast,
To feel for ever its soft fall and swell,
Awake for ever in a sweet unrest,
Still, still to hear her tender-taken breath,
And so live ever--or else swoon to death.

MLA Citation for Video

John Keats "Bright Star" poem animation. Dir. Poetryreincarnation. Youtube: John Keats "Bright Star" poem animation. 18 Feb. 2011. 4 May 2011 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bbeGlWcgbE0.

MLA Citation for Poem

Roberts, Edgar V., and Darlene Stock. Stotler. "Bright Star." Literature an Introduction to Reading and Writing. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson / Prentice Hall, 2008. 565. Print.

Spring

Spring

By Gerard Manley Hopkins



Nothing is so beautiful as Spring –         

   When weeds, in wheels, shoot long and lovely and lush;         

   Thrush’s eggs look little low heavens, and thrush         

Through the echoing timber does so rinse and wring         

The ear, it strikes like lightnings to hear him sing;

   The glassy peartree leaves and blooms, they brush         

   The descending blue; that blue is all in a rush         

With richness; the racing lambs too have fair their fling.         

What is all this juice and all this joy?         

   A strain of the earth’s sweet being in the beginning

In Eden garden. – Have, get, before it cloy,         

   Before it cloud, Christ, lord, and sour with sinning,         

Innocent mind and Mayday in girl and boy,         

   Most, O maid’s child, thy choice and worthy the winning. 

MLA Citation for Video

MLA Citation for Poem

Roberts, Edgar V., and Darlene Stock. Stotler. "Spring." Literature an Introduction to Reading and Writing. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson / Prentice Hall, 2008. 544. Print.

Spring. Dir. Sarah Vandarsdale. Youtube: Spring. 24 Apr. 2010. 4 May 2011 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tBYrXpRidc4.

Daffodils

Daffodils

By William Wordsworth

I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the milky way,
They stretched in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

The waves beside them danced; but they
Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:
A poet could not but be gay,
In such a jocund company:
I gazed--and gazed--but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought:

For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.

MLA Citation for Video

Daffodils. Dir. SpokenVerse. Youtube: Daffodils. 6 Oct. 2009. 4 May 2011 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EK9UWpYuZiE.

MLA Citation for Poem

Roberts, Edgar V., and Darlene Stock. Stotler. "Daffodils." Literature an Introduction to Reading and Writing. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson / Prentice Hall, 2008. 520-21. Print.

Eating Poetry

Eating Poetry

By Mark Strand

Ink runs from the corners of my mouth. There is no happiness like mine. I have been eating poetry.
The librarian does not believe what she sees. Her eyes are sad and she walks with her hands in her dress.
The poems are gone. The light is dim. The dogs are on the basement stairs and coming up.
Their eyeballs roll, their blond legs bum like brush. The poor librarian begins to stamp her feet and weep.
She does not understand. When I get on my knees and lick her hand, she screams.
I am a new man. I snarl at her and bark. I romp with joy in the bookish dark.
MLA Citation for Video
Eating Poetry, By Mark Strand. Dir. Ocog01. Youtube: Eating Poetry. 15 June 2010. 4 May 2011 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EzEMFnSrl0o. MLA Citation for Poem
Roberts, Edgar V., and Darlene Stock. Stotler. "Eating Poetry." Literature an Introduction to Reading and Writing. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson / Prentice Hall, 2008. 519-20. Print.

Disillusionment of Ten O'Clock

Disillusionment of Ten O'Clock

By Wallace Stevens

The houses are haunted
By white night-gowns.
None are green,
Or purple with green rings,
Or green with yellow rings,
Or yellow with blue rings.
None of them are strange,
With socks of lace
And beaded ceintures.
People are not going
To dream of baboons and periwinkles.
Only, here and there, an old sailor,
Drunk and asleep in his boots,
Catches Tigers
In red weather.

MLA Citation for Video

Disillusionment of Ten O'Clock. Dir. Z11111. Perf. Jay. Youtube: Disillusionment of Ten O'Clock. 14 Sept. 2007. 4 May 2011 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NNS_l3EIrEA.

MLA Citation for Poem

Roberts, Edgar V., and Darlene Stock. Stotler. "Disillusionment of Ten O'Clock." Literature an Introduction to Reading and Writing. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson / Prentice Hall, 2008. 519. Print.

next to of course god america i

next to of course god america i

By E.E. Cummings

"next to of course god america i
love you land of the pilgrims' and so forth oh
say can you see by the dawn's early my
country tis of centuries come and go
and are no more what of it we should worry
in every language even deafanddumb
thy sons acclaim your glorious name by gorry
by jingo by gee by gosh by gum
why talk of beauty what could be more beaut-
iful than these heroic happy dead
who rushed like lions to the roaring slaughter
they did not stop to think they died instead
then shall the voice of liberty be mute?"

He spoke.  And drank rapidly a glass of water

MLA Citation for Video

Next to of course god america i. Prod. Awetblackboe. Perf. E.E Cummings. Youtube: next to of course god america i. 25 July 2010. 4 May 2011 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=__r3CHkyLY4.

MLA Citation for Poem

Roberts, Edgar V., and Darlene Stock. Stotler. "next to of course god america i." Literature an Introduction to Reading and Writing. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson / Prentice Hall, 2008. 507. Print.

Green Grow the Rashes, O

Green Grow the Rashes, O

By Robert Burns

There's nought but care on every han'
In every hoor that passes O
What signifies the life o' man
An't were na for the lasses O

Chorus:

Green grow the rashes O;

Green grow the rashes O;

The Sweetest hours that e'er I spend

Are spent among the lasses O

The warldly race may riches chase
An' riches still may fly them O
An' tho' at last they catch 'em fast
Their hearts can ne'er enjoy them O

Chorus

But Gie me a canny hour at e'en
My arms about my dearie O
An' warldly cares, an' warldly men
May a' gang tapsalteerie O

Chorus

For you, sae douse, ye sneer at this
Ye're nought but senseless asses O
The wisest man that the warld e'er saw
He dearly lo'ed the lasses O

Chorus

Auld Nature swears, the lovely dears
Her noblest work she classes O
Her prentice han' she tried on man
An' then she made the lasses O

Chorus

MLA Citation for Video

Green Grow the Rashes, O. Dir. Lauchinrain. Perf. Auld Lang Syne. Youtube: Green Grow the Rashes, O. 26 Jan. 2009. 4 May 2011 <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Io-n-WIcj_M>.


MLA Citation for Poem

Roberts, Edgar V., and Darlene Stock. Stotler. "Green Grow the Rashes, O." Literature an Introduction to Reading and Writing. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson / Prentice Hall, 2008. 504. Print.

Jabberwocky

Jabberwocky

by Lewis Carroll

'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.

'Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
The frumious Bandersnatch!'

He took his vorpal sword in hand:
Long time the manxome foe he sought --
So rested he by the Tumtum tree,
And stood a while in thought.

And, as in uffish thought he stood,
The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,
Came whiffling through the tulgey wood,
And burbled as it came!

One two! One two! And through and through
The vorpal blade went snicker-snack!
He left it dead, and with its head
He went galumphing back.

'And hast thou slain the Jabberwock?
Come to my arms, my beamish boy!
Oh frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!'
He chortled in his joy.

'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.

MLA Citation for Video

MLA Citation for Poem

Roberts, Edgar V., and Darlene Stock. Stotler. "Jabberwocky." Literature an Introduction to Reading and Writing. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson / Prentice Hall, 2008. 505-06. Print.

Jabberwocky. Dir. Jim Clark. Youtube: Jabberwocky. 2010. 4 May 2011 <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y6Qcv9e3JCI>.

Naming of Parts

Naming of parts

by Henry Reed

Today we have naming of parts. Yesterday,
We had daily cleaning. And tomorrow morning,
We shall have what to do after firing. But today,
Today we have naming of parts. Japonica
Glistens like coral in all of the neighboring gardens,
And today we have naming of parts.

This is the lower sling swivel. And this
Is the upper sling swivel, whose use you will see,
When you are given your slings. And this is the piling swivel,
Which in your case you have not got. The branches
Hold in the gardens their silent, eloquent gestures,
Which in our case we have not got.

This is the safety-catch, which is always released
With an easy flick of the thumb. And please do not let me
See anyone using his finger. You can do it quite easy
If you have any strength in your thumb. The blossoms
Are fragile and motionless, never letting anyone see
Any of them using their finger.

And this you can see is the bolt. The purpose of this
Is to open the breech, as you see. We can slide it
Rapidly backwards and forwards: we call this
Easing the spring. And rapidly backwards and forwards
The early bees are assaulting and fumbling the flowers
They call it easing the Spring.

They call it easing the Spring: it is perfectly easy
If you have any strength in your thumb: like the bolt,
And the breech, and the cocking-piece, and the point of balance,
Which in our case we have not got; and the almond-blossom
Silent in all of the gardens and the bees going backwards and forwards,
For today we have naming of parts.



MLA Citation For Video

Naming Parts. Dir. Robert Bloomberg. Youtube: Naming of Parts. 16 May 2007. 1 May 2011 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ju_enTEyTpg.

MLA Citation for Poem

Roberts, Edgar V., and Darlene Stock. Stotler. "Naming of Parts." Literature an Introduction to Reading and Writing. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson / Prentice Hall, 2008. 516. Print.

The Lamb

The Lamb

William blake

Little Lamb, who made thee?

         Dost thou know who made thee?

Gave thee life, and bid thee feed

By the stream and o'er the mead;

Gave thee clothing of delight,

Softest clothing, woolly, bright;

Gave thee such a tender voice,

Making all the vales rejoice?

         Little Lamb, who made thee?

         Dost thou know who made thee?

         Little Lamb, I'll tell thee,

         Little Lamb, I'll tell thee:

He is called by thy name,

For he calls himself a Lamb.

He is meek, and he is mild;

He became a little child.

I a child, and thou a lamb.

We are called by his name.

         Little Lamb, God bless thee!

         Little Lamb, God bless thee!

MLA Citation for video

The Lamb. Dir. JustAudio2008. Youtube: The Lamb. 10 May 2010. 28 Apr. 2011 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E6726PhqwIk.

MLA Citation for Poem

Roberts, Edgar V., and Darlene Stock. Stotler. "The Lamb." Literature an Introduction to Reading and Writing. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson / Prentice Hall, 2008. 503. Print.

The Man He Killed

The Man he killed

by Thomas Hardy

 "Had he and I but met
        By some old ancient inn,
We should have sat us down to wet
        Right many a nipperkin! 

"But ranged as infantry,
        And staring face to face,
I shot at him and he at me,
        And killed him in his place.

"I shot him dead because –
        Because he was my foe,
Just so – my foe of course he was;
        That's clear enough; although 

       "He thought he'd 'list perhaps,
        Off-hand like – just as I –
Was out of work – had sold his traps –
        No other reason why. 

 "Yes; quaint and curious war is!
        You shoot a fellow down
You'd treat if met where any bar is,
        Or help to half-a-crown."

Video MLA Citation

The Man He Killed. Dir. SDMagicMan. Youtube: The Man He Killed. 23 Mar. 2008. 01 May 2011 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JY_HzHWAz04.

MLA Citation for Poem

Roberts, Edgar V., and Darlene Stock. Stotler. "The Man He Killed." Literature an Introduction to Reading and Writing. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson / Prentice Hall, 2008. 471. Print.

Snow

Snow

By Louis MacNeice

The room was suddenly rich and the great bay-window was
Spawning snow and pink roses against it
Soundlessly collateral and incompatible:
World is suddener than we fancy it.

World is crazier and more of it than we think,
Incorrigibly plural. I peel and portion
A tangerine and spit the pips and feel
The drunkenness of things being various.

And the fire flames with a bubbling sound for world
Is more spiteful and gay than one supposes–
On the tongue on the eyes on the ears in the palms of your hands–
There is more than glass between the snow and the huge roses.

MLA Citation For Video

Watch Snow Fall in Quiet Neighborhood. Prod. Woodamarc. Youtube Watch Snow Fall in Quiet Neighborhood. 22 Dec. 2008. 1 May 2011 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HbgoKKj7TNA.

MLA Citation for Poem

Roberts, Edgar V., and Darlene Stock. Stotler. "Snow." Literature an Introduction to Reading and Writing. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson / Prentice Hall, 2008. 476. Print.

Where I come from

Where I come From

by Elizabeth Brewster

People are made of places. They carry with them
hints of jungles or mountains, a tropic grace
or the cool eyes of sea gazers. Atmosphere of cities

how different drops from them, like the smell of smog

or the almost-not-smell of tulips in the spring,
nature tidily plotted with a guidebook;
or the smell of work, glue factories maybe,
chromium-plated offices; smell of subways
crowded at rush hours.


Where I come from, people
carry woods in their minds, acres of pine woods;
blueberry patches in the burned-out bush;
wooden farmhouses, old, in need of paint,
with yards where hens and chickens circle about,
clucking aimlessly; battered schoolhouses
behind which violets grow. Spring and winter
are the mind's chief seasons: ice and the breaking of ice.


A door in the mind blows open, and there blows
a frosty wind from fields of snow.

MLA Citation for Video

Back where I come From. Perf. Kenny chesney. Youtube Where I come From. 04 Mar. 2009. 1 May 2011 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-1sbjI_Ggqc.

MLA Citation for Poem

Roberts, Edgar V., and Darlene Stock. Stotler. "Where I come From." Literature an Introduction to Reading and Writing. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson / Prentice Hall, 2008. 467. Print.

Because I could not stop for death

Because I could not stop for Death

By Emily dickinson

Because I could not stop for Death,
He kindly stopped for me;
The carriage held but just ourselves
And Immortality.

We slowly drove, he knew no haste,
And I had put away
My labor, and my leisure too,
For his civility.

We passed the school, where children strove
At recess, in the ring;
We passed the fields of gazing grain,
We passed the setting sun.

Or rather, he passed us;
The dews grew quivering and chill,
For only gossamer my gown,
My tippet only tulle.

We paused before a house that seemed
A swelling of the ground;
The roof was scarcely visible,
The cornice but a mound.

Since then 'tis centuries, and yet each
Feels shorter than the day
I first surmised the horses' heads
Were toward eternity.

MLA Citation for Video

 

Because I could not Stop for Death. Prod. SpokenVerse. Youtube Because I could not stop for Death. 17 Nov. 2009. 1 May 2011 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6U-CRhnDyK8.

MLA Citation for Poem

Roberts, Edgar V., and Darlene Stock. Stotler. "Because I could not stop for Death." Literature an Introduction to Reading and Writing. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson / Prentice Hall, 2008. 468-69. Print.