Thomas R. Arp received a B.A. in English from the University of Michigan (1954) and a Woodrow Wilson Fellowship to Stanford University. In 1955-1956, he produced educational television for the University of Michigan. He received an M.A. from Stanford University in 1960 and a Ph.D. from Stanford in 1962. He has taught at Bowdoin College, Princeton University, University of California at Berkeley, Hull University (England), and since 1970 at Southern Methodist University. His volume, THE FORM OF POETRY, was published by Macmillan in 1966, and he received a Fulbright lectureship at University of Bucharest (Romania) in 1969-1970. Arp joined Laurence Perrine in preparing revised editions of… SOUND AND SENSE, STORY AND STRUCTURE, and LITERATURE: STRUCTURE, SOUND, AND SENSE beginning in 1982. He became sole author of the books in 1997, and was joined as co-author by Greg Johnson in 2002.
1. Writing about Literature. Why Write about Literature? For Whom Do You Write? Choosing a Topic. Proving Your Point. Writing the Paper. Introducing Quotations. Documentation. Stance and Style. Grammar, Punctuation, and Usage: Common Problems. Writing Samples. FICTION: THE ELEMENTS OF FICTION. 2. Reading the Story. Plot and Structure. Richard Connell, The Most Dangerous Game. Ernest Hemingway, The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber. Suggestions for Writing. 3. Characterization. Alice Walker, Everyday Use. Katherine Mansfield, Miss Brill. Tobias Wolff, Hunters in the Snow. Suggestions for Writing. 4. Theme. Toni Cade Bambara, The Lesson. James Joyce, Eveline. Eudora Welty, A Worn Path.… Nadine Gordimer, Once Upon a Time. Suggestions for Writing. 5. Point of View. Willa Cather, Paul''s Case. Shirley Jackson, The Lottery. Katherine Anne Porter, The Jilting of Granny Weatherall. William Faulkner, A Rose for Emily. 6. Symbol, Allegory, and Fantasy. D. H. Lawrence, The Rocking-Horse Winner. Nathaniel Hawthorne, Young Goodman Brown. Gabriel Garca Mrquez, translated by Gregory Rabassa, A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings. Suggestions for Writing. 7. Humor and Irony. Frank O''Connor, The Drunkard. Lorrie Moore, You''re Ugly, Too. Albert Camus, translated by Justin O''Brien, The Guest. Suggestions for Writing. 8. Evaluating Fiction. General Exercises for Analysis and Evaluation. Exercise. O. Henry, A Municipal Report. Susan Glaspell, A Jury of Her Peers. Exercise. Edith Wharton, Roman Fever. F. Scott Fitzgerald, A New Leaf. Suggestions for Writing. Three Writers: Anton Chekhov, Flannery O''Connor, and Joyce Carol Oates. Anton Chekhov, translated by Constance Garnett, Gooseberries, The Lady with the Dog, and The Darling. Flannery O''Connor, A Good Man Is Hard to Find, A Late Encounter with the Enemy, and Greenleaf. Joyce Carol Oates, Heat, The Lady with the Pet Dog, and Life after High School. Suggestions for Writing. STORIES FOR FURTHER READING. Chinua Achebe, Civil Peace. Raymond Carver, Errand. John Cheever, The Swimmer. Stephen Crane, The Bride Comes to Yellow Sky. Dagoberto Gilb, Love in L.A. Zora Neale Hurston, The Gilded Six-Bits. Herman Melville, Bartleby the Scrivener. Cynthia Ozick, The Shawl. Edgar Allen Poe, The Cask of Amontillado. Katherine Anne Porter, He. Thomas Wolfe, The Child by Tiger. POETRY: THE ELEMENTS OF POETRY. 1. What Is Poetry? Alfred, Lord Tennyson, The Eagle. William Shakespeare, Winger. Wilfred Owen, Dulce et Decorum Est. William Shakespeare, Spring. Emily Dickinson, How many times these low feet staggered. Robert Hayden, The Whipping. Dudley Randall, Ballad of Birmingham. Gwendolyn Brooks, Kitchenette Burning. William Carlos Williams, The Red Wheelbarrow. Ezra Pound, In a Station of the Mtro. Langston Hughes, Suicide''s Note. A. E. Housman, Terence, this is stupid stuff. Archibald MacLeish, Ars Poetica. Suggestions for Writing. 2. Reading the Poem. Thomas Hardy, The Man He Killed. Philip Larkin, A Study of Reading Habits. A. E. Housman, Is my team plowing. General Exercises for Analysis and Evaluation. John Donne, Break of Day. Emily Dickinson, There''s Been a Death, in the Opposite House. Sylvia Plath, Mirror. Carter Revard, Discovery of the New World. Edwin Arlington Robinson, Eros Turannos. Katherine Phillips, Against Love. Dabney Stuart, Hidden Meanings. Suggestions for Writing. 3. Denotation and Connotation. Emily Dickinson, There is no Frigate like a Book. William Shakespeare, When my love swears that she is made of truth. Ellen Kay, Pathedy of Manners. Exercises. Ben Jonson, On My First Son. Henry Reed, Naming of Parts. Langston Hughes, Cross. William Wordsworth, The world is too much with us. Robert Frost, Desert Places. John Donne, A Hymn to God the Father. Elizabeth Bishop, One Art. Suggestions for Writing. 4. Imagery. Robert Browning, Meeting at Night. Parting at Morning. Gerard Manley Hopkins, Spring. William Carlos Williams, The Widow''s Lament in Springtime. Emily Dickinson, I felt a Funeral, in my