In poetry, language is used in special ways to create vivid, memorable, and sometimes musical impressions. Poems may capture a single moment in time, take you into a world of make-believe, or tell the story of a person's life. As you explore the poems in this unit, you will encounter the following terms: lyric poetry, narrative poetry, poetic form, sound devices, and figurative language. Check out the Additional Questions, Hot Links, Internet Activities, Reading Strategies, and Self-Tests for this unit using the navigation bar at the left.
Robert P. Tristram Coffin	The Secret Heart	Lyric Poem	810
Comparing Literary Works
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow	The Wreck of the Hesperus	Ballad	818
May Swensen	The Centaur	Narrative Poem	824
Comparing Literary Works
Langston Hughes	Harlem Night Song	Lyric Poem	834
William Shakespeare	Blow, Blow, Thou Winter Wind	Lyric Poem	836
John Updike	January	Lyric Poem	838
E. E. Cummings	love is a place	Lyric Poem	840
Comparing Literary Works
Pablo Neruda	Ode to Enchanted Light	Ode	848
Basho and Moritake	Two Haiku	Haiku	849
William Wordsworth	She Dwelt Among the Untrodden Ways	Elegy	850
Paul Laurence Dunbar	Harriet Beecher Stowe	Sonnet	851
Stephen Vincent Benét	from John Brown's Body	Epic	852
Maxine Kumin	400-Meter Free Style	Concrete Poem	854
Comparing Literary Works
Walter de la Mare	Silver	Sound Devices	868
Shel Silverstein	Forgotten Language	Sound Devices	869
Wendy Rose	Drum Song	Sound Devices	870
Emily Dickinson	If I can stop one Heart from breaking	Sound Devices	872
Comparing Literary Works
N. Scott Momaday	New World	Imagery	878
José Garcia Villa	Lyric 17	Imagery	880
Alice Walker	For My Sister Molly Who in the Fifties	Imagery	882
Comparing Literary Works
Edwin Arlington Robinson	The Dark Hills	Figurative Language	890
Donald Justice	Incident in a Rose Garden	Figurative Language	892