English 10 Readings

Front 1

A&P- John Updike

Back 1

In walk three girls with nothing but bathing suits, and Sammy finds himself no longer an aproned checkout clerk but an armored knight.

Hint 1

possibly coming of age story

Front 2

A Rose for Emily- William Faulkner

Back 2

Proud, imperious Emily Grierson defied the town from the fortress of her mansion. Who could have guessed the secret that lay within?

Hint 2

in medias res

Front 3

The Tell-Tale Heart- Edgar Allen Poe

Back 3

The smoldering eye at last extinguished, a murderer finds that, despite all his attempts at a cover-up, his victim will be heard.

Hint 3

unreliable narrator

Front 4

Miss Brill- Katherine Mansfield

Back 4

Sundays had long brought joy to solitary Miss Brill, until one fateful day when she happened to share a bench with two lovers in the park.

Hint 4

age/generation gap

Front 5

Everyday Use- Alice Walker

Back 5

When successful Dee visits from the city, she has changed her name to reflect her African roots. Her mother and sister notice other things have changed, too.

Hint 5

differences between actual appreciation of one's heritage and using it to be trendy

Front 6

A Pair of Tickets- Amy Tan

Back 6

A young woman flies with her father to China to meet two half sisters she never knew existed.

Hint 6

expectations

Front 7

A Clean, Well-Lighted Place- Ernest Hemingway

Back 7

All by himself each night, the old man lingers in the bright cafe. What does he need more than brandy?

Hint 7

young man not understanding the lonliness of the elderly

Front 8

Saboteur- Ha Jin

Back 8

When the police unfairly arrest Mr. Chiu, he hopes for justice. After witnessing their brutality, he quietly plans revenge.

Hint 8

is what this man did just?

Front 9

Dead Men's Path- Chinua Achebe

Back 9

The new headmaster of the village school was determined to fight superstition, but the villagers did not agree.

Hint 9

headmaster made things much worse. he should have compromised

Front 10

The Chrysanthemums- John Steinbeck

Back 10

Fenced-in Elisa feels emotionally starved- then her life promises to blossomwith the arrival of the scissors-grinding man.

Hint 10

life

Front 11

The Lottery- Shirley Jackson

Back 11

Splintered and faded, the sinister black box had worked its annual terror for longer than anyone in town could remember.

Front 12

The Yellow Wallpaper- Charlotte Perkins Gilman

Back 12

A doctor prescribes a "rest cure" for his wife after the birth of their child. The new mother tries to settle in to life in the isolated and mysterious country house they have rented for the summer. The cure proves worse than the disease.

Front 13

Aunt Jennifer's Tigers- Adrienne Rich

Back 13

Aunt Jennifer's tigers prance across a screen, Bright topaz denizens of a world of green. They do not fear the men beneath the tree; They pace in sleep chivalric certainty.

Hint 13

sexism toward women

Front 14

Out, Out- Robert Frost

Back 14

As if to prove the saws knew what supper meant, Leaped out of the boy's hand, or seemed to leap-He must have given the hand.

Hint 14

young boys were forced to work and nobody really worried about whether they were okay or not because they had to take care of themselves.

Front 15

Disillusionment of Ten O'Clock- Wallace Stevens

Back 15

The houses are haunted By white night-gowns. None are green, Or purple with green rings

Hint 15

people are too plain

Front 16

Tears, Idle Tears- Alfred, Lord Tennyson

Back 16

Tears, idle tears, I know not what they mean, Tears from the depth of some divine despair Rise in the heart and gather to the eyes

Front 17

My Papa's Waltz- Theodore Roethke

Back 17

The whiskey on your breath could make a small boy dizzy; But i hung on like death: Such waltzing is not easy.

Front 18

Theme for English B- Langston Hughes

Back 18

But it will be a part of you, instructor. You are white- yet a part of me, as I am a part of you. That's American.

Front 19

The Red Wheelbarrow- William Carlos Williams

Back 19

so much depends upon a red wheelbarrow glazed with rain water beside the white chickens

Front 20

Dulce ed Decorum Est- Wilfred Owen

Back 20

Bent double, like old beggars under sacks, Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge, Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs And towards our distant rest began to trudge.

Front 21

This is Just to Say- William Carlos Williams

Back 21

I have eaten the plums that were in the icebox and which you were probably saving for breakfast Forgive me they were delicious so sweet and so cold

Front 22

In a Station of the Metro- Ezra Pound

Back 22

The apparition of these faces in the crowd; Petals on a wet, black bough.

Front 23

The Victory- Anne Stevenson

Back 23

I thought you were my victory through you cut through me like a knife when I brought you out of my body into your life.

Front 24

The Falling Flower- Arakida Moritake

Back 24

The falling flower I saw drift back to the branch was a butterfly

Front 25

We Real Cool- Gwendolyn Brooks

Back 25

We real cool. We left school. We lurk late. We strike straight. We sing sin. We thin gin. We jazz june. We die soon

Front 26

Resume- Dorothy Parker

Back 26

Razors pain you;
Rivers are damp;
Acids stain you;
And drugs cause cramp;
Guns aren't lawful;
Nooses give;
Gas smells awful;
You might as well live

Hint 26

don't commit suicide, its not worth it.

Front 27

Beat! Beat! Drums!- Walt Whitman

Back 27

Beat! beat! drums!—Blow! bugles! blow! 15
Make no parley—stop for no expostulation;
Mind not the timid—mind not the weeper or prayer;
Mind not the old man beseeching the young man;

Front 28

The Road Not Taken- Robert Frost

Back 28

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth.

Front 29

Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer's Day- William Shakespeare

Back 29

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:

Hint 29

very eloquent

Front 30

Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer's Day- Howard Moss

Back 30

Who says you're like one of the dog days?
You're nicer. And better.
Even in May, the weather can be gray,
And a summer sub-let doesn't last forever.

Hint 30

much more blunt and open than shakespeare

Front 31

You Fit Into Me- Margaret Atwood

Back 31

You fit into me
like a hook into an eye
A fish hook
An open eye

Hint 31

seems nice at first but then turns into something bad. possibly tough relationship

Front 32

The Secret Sits- Robert Frost

Back 32

We dance round in a ring and suppose,
But the Secret sits in the middle and knows.

Hint 32

people are always dancing around the truth and don't just get right down to it, even though it is right there

Front 33

Coward- A.R. Ammons

Back 33

Bravery runs in my family.

Hint 33

run=literally running which is cowardly

Front 34

Recital- John Updike

Back 34

Eskimos in Manitoba,
Barracuda off Aruba,
Cock an ear when Roger Bobo
Starts to solo on the tuba.

Hint 34

its funny because of the way it sounds and how its written

Front 35

Eight O' Clock- A.E. Housman

Back 35

Strapped, noosed, nighing his hour,
He stood and counted them and cursed his luck;
And then the clock collected in the tower
Its strength, and struck.

Hint 35

being hung

Front 36

In Memoriam John Coltrane- Michael Stillman

Back 36

Listen to the coal
rolling, rolling through the cold
steady rain, wheel on
wheel, listen to the
turning of the wheels this night
black as coal dust, steel
on steel, listen to
these cars carry coal, listen
to the coal train roll.

Hint 36

sound is like his saxaphone. coal because he was black and its a play on his name

Front 37

Ballads of Birmingham- Dudley Randall

Back 37

The mother smiled to know that her child
Was in the sacred place,
But that smile was the last smile
To come upon her face.

Hint 37

ironic because the only place the mother thought was safe was where her daughter got blown up

Front 38

The Heart- Stephen Crane

Back 38

In the desert
I saw a creature, naked, bestial,
Who, squatting upon the ground,
Held his heart in his hands,
And ate of it.
I said, "Is it good, friend?"
"It is bitter - bitter," he answered;
"But I like it
Because it is bitter,
And because it is my heart."

Hint 38

giving up on life and society to be by himself

Front 39

In Just- E.E. Cummings

Back 39

and eddieandbill come
running from marbles and
piracies and it's
spring

when the world is puddle-wonderful

the queer
old baloonman whistles
far and wee
and bettyandisbel come dancing

Hint 39

taking away children's innocense

Front 40

Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night- Dylan Thomas

Back 40

Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

And you, my father, there on the sad height,
Curse, bless me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Hint 40

fight to stay alive