English 9 Honors –
Poetry Unit
Dr. Ray Gen
Reading Assignments
Please be sure to have read and have a thorough understanding of the following poems that are found in your anthologies The Language of Literature (Orange) and Arrangement in Literature (Arrangement), and in your handouts.
| Arrangement Titles | Poets | Page # |
| “Lament, for Cocoa” | John Updike | 224 |
| “The Centaur” | May Swenson | 24-5 |
| “The Funeral” | Gordon Parks | 253 |
| “Birthday” | M. T. Buckley | 229 |
| “Daedalus and Icarus” | Ovid | 254 |
| “Miss Rosie” | Lucille Clifton | 234 |
| “There Will Come Soft Rains” | Sara Teasdale | 245 |
| “What Do I Remember of the Evacuation” | Joy Kogawa | 244 |
| “Good People” | Mike Carlin | |
| “Incendiary” | Vernon Scannell | |
| “On the Pulse of the Morning” | Maya Angelou | |
| “Sonnet XXXVI” | William Shakespeare | |
| “Mirror” | Sylvia Plath | |
Choose one of the following poems to present to the class. Write a brief analytical paper (one page) following the model provided. Be sure to
1. Interpret the poem. Explain the message/story of the poem.
2. Discuss the theme.
3. Note the important poetic/literary devices that affect the meaning of the poem.
The Language of Literature (Orange)
“Annabel Lee” Edgar Allan Poe 198
“The Bells” Edgar Allan Poe 198
“Beware: Do Not Read This Poem” Ishmael Reed 845
“Caged Bird” Maya Angelou 488
“Cloud” Sandra Cisneros 698
“Courage My Mother Had” Edna St. Vincent Millay 608
“Fable for When There’s No Way Out” May Swenson 568
“Fireworks” Amy Lowell 475
“Good Night, Willie Lee, I’ll See You…” Alice Walker 268
“Grape Sherbet” Rita Dove 613
“Hanging Fire” Audre Lorde 343
“I like a Look of Agony” Emily Dickinson 70
“Incident in a Rose Garden” Donald Justice 146
“Ithaka” C.P. Cavafy 971
“The Journey” Mary Oliver 680
“Lineage” Margaret Walker 608
“Luxury” Nikki Giovanni 158
"Metaphor” Eve Merriam 675
“My Father’s Song” Simon Ortiz 642
“My Papa’s Waltz” Theodore Roethke 613
“A Narrow Fellow in the Grass” Emily Dickinson 552
“O What Is That Sound” W. H. Auden 141
“Oranges” Gary Soto 339
“Penelope” Dorothy Parker 970
“Poetry” Pablo Neruda 854
“A Poison Tree” William
Blake 474
"There’s a Place for Us"
Stephen Sondheim 1108
“The Road Not Taken” Robert Frost 288
“The Seven Ages of Man” William Shakespeare 348
“The Sharks” Denise Levertov 552
“since feeling is first” e.e. cummings 313
“Siren Song” Maragret Atwood 938
“Song of the Open Road” Walt Whitman 288
“Surgeons must be careful” Emily Dickinson 357
“Theme for English B” Langston Hughes 466
“A Voice” Pat Mora 680
"The Writer" Richard Wilbur 469
"Woman with Flower" Naomi Long Madgett 604
"The Wreck of the Hesperus" Henry Wadsworth Longfellow 125