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Poetry Guide
The River-Merchant's Wife
by Ezra Pound
"The River-Merchant's Wife" is Ezra Pound's reinterpretation of an 8th-century poem by the Classical Chinese writer Li Bai. The poem's speaker is a young wife pining for her husband, a merchant off...
Poetry Guide
Sonnet to Science
by Edgar Allan Poe
"Sonnet to Science" is an early poem by Edgar Allan Poe, composed in 1829 and published in Al Aaraaf, Tamerlane, and Minor Poems. The poem's speaker laments the impact of science on art and creativ...
Lit Guide
Talking to Strangers
by Malcolm Gladwell
Gladwell begins Talking to Strangers with an overview of the death of Sandra Bland, which he sees as a tragic example of the misunderstanding, conflict, and tragedy that result from our inability t...
Poetry Guide
The River-Merchant's Wife
by Ezra Pound
"The River-Merchant's Wife" is Ezra Pound's reinterpretation of an 8th-century poem by the Classical Chinese writer Li Bai. The poem's speaker is a young wife pining for her husband, a merchant off...
Poetry Guide
Sonnet to Science
by Edgar Allan Poe
"Sonnet to Science" is an early poem by Edgar Allan Poe, composed in 1829 and published in Al Aaraaf, Tamerlane, and Minor Poems. The poem's speaker laments the impact of science on art and creativ...
Lit Guide
Talking to Strangers
by Malcolm Gladwell
Gladwell begins Talking to Strangers with an overview of the death of Sandra Bland, which he sees as a tragic example of the misunderstanding, conflict, and tragedy that result from our inability t...
Lit Guide
The Stepford Wives
by Ira Levin
Joanna Eberhart has just moved from New York City to the suburban town of Stepford with her husband, Walter, and their two kids. The houses here are beautiful, but the women who live here are all o...
Poetry Guide
The River-Merchant's Wife
by Ezra Pound
"The River-Merchant's Wife" is Ezra Pound's reinterpretation of an 8th-century poem by the Classical Chinese writer Li Bai. The poem's speaker is a young wife pining for her husband, a merchant off...
Poetry Guide
Sonnet to Science
by Edgar Allan Poe
"Sonnet to Science" is an early poem by Edgar Allan Poe, composed in 1829 and published in Al Aaraaf, Tamerlane, and Minor Poems. The poem's speaker laments the impact of science on art and creativ...
Lit Guide
Talking to Strangers
by Malcolm Gladwell
Gladwell begins Talking to Strangers with an overview of the death of Sandra Bland, which he sees as a tragic example of the misunderstanding, conflict, and tragedy that result from our inability t...
Lit Guide
The Stepford Wives
by Ira Levin
Joanna Eberhart has just moved from New York City to the suburban town of Stepford with her husband, Walter, and their two kids. The houses here are beautiful, but the women who live here are all o...
Lit Guide
Howl’s Moving Castle
by Diana Wynne Jones
In the magical land of Ingary, teenage Sophie knows she’s destined to fail in life because she’s the eldest of three children. So it’s no surprise to Sophie when, after her father dies, her stepmot...
Poetry Guide
Morning at the Window
by T. S. Eliot
"Morning at the Window" is a short poem by T. S. Eliot, first published in the poet's 1917 collection Prufrock and Other Observations. Looking down on an urban street from a window (perhaps in Lond...
Poetry Guide
Immortality (Do not stand at my grave and weep)
by Clare Harner
The popular bereavement poem "Immortality (Do not stand at my grave and weep)" presents death as a kind of transformation rather than an ending. The speaker declares, from beyond the grave, that th...
Poetry Guide
The Dead (IV)
by Rupert Brooke
"The Dead (IV)" is part of English poet Rupert Brooke's sequence "1914": five linked poems that honored the fallen soldiers of World War I. In this sonnet,  a speaker laments all the small joys of ...
Poetry Guide
The Dead (III)
by Rupert Brooke
"The Dead (III)" is part of a sonnet sequence by Rupert Brooke, titled "1914" and published in the volume 1914 and Other Poems (1915). The poem is an elegy for the fallen UK soldiers of World War I...
Lit Guide
The Origin of Species
by Charles Darwin
Charles Darwin, a British naturalist who took a life-changing trip to the Galapagos Islands on a ship called the H.M.S. Beagle, announces that at the urging of colleagues like Sir Charles Lyell and...
Lit Guide
Tsotsi
by Athol Fugard
Four Black South African gang members—Tsotsi, Boston, Butcher, and Die Aap—are sitting in Tsotsi’s room, waiting for night, when Tsotsi suggests they kill a man on the train. Sadistic Butcher and s...
Lit Guide
Meditations on First Philosophy
by René Descartes
In Meditations on First Philosophy, arguably the most influential philosophical text of the 17th century, René Descartes takes the reader on an intellectual journey in order to demonstrate how scho...
Poetry Guide
Request to a Year
by Judith Wright
The speaker of Judith Wright's "Request to a Year" recounts the story of her art-loving great-great-grandmother, who looked on as her son got swept downriver toward a waterfall. Realizing that she ...
Poetry Guide
Infant Sorrow
by William Blake
English Romantic poet William Blake's "Infant Sorrow" appears in the Experience section of his major collection Songs of Innocence and of Experience (1794). In this poem, an infant speaker describe...
Poetry Guide
On the Grasshopper and Cricket
by John Keats
The English Romantic poet John Keats (1795-1821) wrote "On the Grasshopper and Cricket" during an 1816 sonnet competition with his friend Leigh Hunt; he published the poem in his first collection, ...
Lit Guide
Howl’s Moving Castle
by Diana Wynne Jones
In the magical land of Ingary, teenage Sophie knows she’s destined to fail in life because she’s the eldest of three children. So it’s no surprise to Sophie when, after her father dies, her stepmot...
Poetry Guide
Morning at the Window
by T. S. Eliot
"Morning at the Window" is a short poem by T. S. Eliot, first published in the poet's 1917 collection Prufrock and Other Observations. Looking down on an urban street from a window (perhaps in Lond...
Poetry Guide
Immortality (Do not stand at my grave and weep)
by Clare Harner
The popular bereavement poem "Immortality (Do not stand at my grave and weep)" presents death as a kind of transformation rather than an ending. The speaker declares, from beyond the grave, that th...
Poetry Guide
The Dead (IV)
by Rupert Brooke
"The Dead (IV)" is part of English poet Rupert Brooke's sequence "1914": five linked poems that honored the fallen soldiers of World War I. In this sonnet,  a speaker laments all the small joys of ...
Poetry Guide
The Dead (III)
by Rupert Brooke
"The Dead (III)" is part of a sonnet sequence by Rupert Brooke, titled "1914" and published in the volume 1914 and Other Poems (1915). The poem is an elegy for the fallen UK soldiers of World War I...
Lit Guide
The Origin of Species
by Charles Darwin
Charles Darwin, a British naturalist who took a life-changing trip to the Galapagos Islands on a ship called the H.M.S. Beagle, announces that at the urging of colleagues like Sir Charles Lyell and...
Lit Guide
Tsotsi
by Athol Fugard
Four Black South African gang members—Tsotsi, Boston, Butcher, and Die Aap—are sitting in Tsotsi’s room, waiting for night, when Tsotsi suggests they kill a man on the train. Sadistic Butcher and s...
Lit Guide
Meditations on First Philosophy
by René Descartes
In Meditations on First Philosophy, arguably the most influential philosophical text of the 17th century, René Descartes takes the reader on an intellectual journey in order to demonstrate how scho...
Poetry Guide
Request to a Year
by Judith Wright
The speaker of Judith Wright's "Request to a Year" recounts the story of her art-loving great-great-grandmother, who looked on as her son got swept downriver toward a waterfall. Realizing that she ...
Poetry Guide
Infant Sorrow
by William Blake
English Romantic poet William Blake's "Infant Sorrow" appears in the Experience section of his major collection Songs of Innocence and of Experience (1794). In this poem, an infant speaker describe...
Poetry Guide
On the Grasshopper and Cricket
by John Keats
The English Romantic poet John Keats (1795-1821) wrote "On the Grasshopper and Cricket" during an 1816 sonnet competition with his friend Leigh Hunt; he published the poem in his first collection, ...
Lit Guide
The Stepford Wives
by Ira Levin
Joanna Eberhart has just moved from New York City to the suburban town of Stepford with her husband, Walter, and their two kids. The houses here are beautiful, but the women who live here are all o...
Lit Guide
Howl’s Moving Castle
by Diana Wynne Jones
In the magical land of Ingary, teenage Sophie knows she’s destined to fail in life because she’s the eldest of three children. So it’s no surprise to Sophie when, after her father dies, her stepmot...
Poetry Guide
Morning at the Window
by T. S. Eliot
"Morning at the Window" is a short poem by T. S. Eliot, first published in the poet's 1917 collection Prufrock and Other Observations. Looking down on an urban street from a window (perhaps in Lond...
Poetry Guide
Immortality (Do not stand at my grave and weep)
by Clare Harner
The popular bereavement poem "Immortality (Do not stand at my grave and weep)" presents death as a kind of transformation rather than an ending. The speaker declares, from beyond the grave, that th...
Poetry Guide
The Dead (IV)
by Rupert Brooke
"The Dead (IV)" is part of English poet Rupert Brooke's sequence "1914": five linked poems that honored the fallen soldiers of World War I. In this sonnet,  a speaker laments all the small joys of ...
Poetry Guide
The Dead (III)
by Rupert Brooke
"The Dead (III)" is part of a sonnet sequence by Rupert Brooke, titled "1914" and published in the volume 1914 and Other Poems (1915). The poem is an elegy for the fallen UK soldiers of World War I...
Lit Guide
The Origin of Species
by Charles Darwin
Charles Darwin, a British naturalist who took a life-changing trip to the Galapagos Islands on a ship called the H.M.S. Beagle, announces that at the urging of colleagues like Sir Charles Lyell and...
Lit Guide
Tsotsi
by Athol Fugard
Four Black South African gang members—Tsotsi, Boston, Butcher, and Die Aap—are sitting in Tsotsi’s room, waiting for night, when Tsotsi suggests they kill a man on the train. Sadistic Butcher and s...
Lit Guide
Meditations on First Philosophy
by René Descartes
In Meditations on First Philosophy, arguably the most influential philosophical text of the 17th century, René Descartes takes the reader on an intellectual journey in order to demonstrate how scho...
Poetry Guide
Request to a Year
by Judith Wright
The speaker of Judith Wright's "Request to a Year" recounts the story of her art-loving great-great-grandmother, who looked on as her son got swept downriver toward a waterfall. Realizing that she ...
Poetry Guide
Infant Sorrow
by William Blake
English Romantic poet William Blake's "Infant Sorrow" appears in the Experience section of his major collection Songs of Innocence and of Experience (1794). In this poem, an infant speaker describe...
Poetry Guide
On the Grasshopper and Cricket
by John Keats
The English Romantic poet John Keats (1795-1821) wrote "On the Grasshopper and Cricket" during an 1816 sonnet competition with his friend Leigh Hunt; he published the poem in his first collection, ...
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