Sources of Poetry Criticism
PRINT & ELECTRONIC
          Databases & Websites
                                                              Books, Periodical Articles & Essays
 

Professsor Steele's Composition II
8:30 a.m., Tuesday, April 8, 2003
Nancy Dennis, Outreach Librarian

                                       Books 
 
Noble Online Catalog
http://www.salemstate.edu/library/
Lists books available at SSC and surrounding towns.

                    In "Subject" or "Keyword" index, search:
                    author's last name, first name

                    Select titles involving criticisms, not biographical information.
                    Limit the search to those available at Salem State; broaden to the
                    rest of NOBLE if you are willing to travel to local libraries.
                    Clicking on the subject heading link at the end of a record will 
                    link to additional material.

                        Noble libraries have surprisingly strong critical collections.
 
Scholarly Articles

EBSCO
http://www.noblenet.org/ssc/campus/gateways.htm

InfoTrac
http://www.noblenet.org/ssc/campus/gateways.htm

FirstSearch- Humanities Abstracts
http://www.noblenet.org/ssc/campus/gateways.htm

MLA International Bibliography (contained within  Silver Platter)
http://www.noblenet.org/ssc/campus/gateways.htm
 
                    Search for your author's name as a "keyword" or "subject."
 
                    EBSCO and InfoTrac provide full-text of many articles, but
                    do not have the range and depth of FirstSearch and MLA.
                    FirstSearch and MLA provide citations only; you must go to
                    periodical room to retrieve journals containing these articles.
                    If SSC does not have the journal containing an article you want
                    to read, we can get it through Inter-library Loan. (allow 10 days).
 
                    All four of these databases publish refereed, scholarly articles.
                    MLA is the most scholarly.
                    You should look for refereed articles, since they carry the
                    most authority.

                    Select articles involving criticisms, not biographical information.
                    Skim titles to see which articles interest you.
                    If you cannot find an article on your specific poem, try to find
                    one that concerns similar themes or stylistic devices.
                    Click on the subject heading link at the end of an article to find
                    additional material.
                    In MLA, limit your search to English language.
                    Many articles provide bibliographies.
 

                                       Other Web Sources
 

Reference books containing full-text essays and excerpts from longer critical pieces:
The major set providing excerpts of highly praised literary criticism:

     Contemporary Literary Criticism, v. 1-125
    REF PN 771 .C59

    Nineteenth Century Literature Criticism, v. 1 -82 
    Ref. PN 761 .N5

    Poetry Criticism, v. 1-27
    Ref PN 1010 .P499

    Twentieth Century Literary Criticism, v. 1-91
    Ref. PN 771 .G27

Another very useful book:

Robert Frost : Studies of the Poetry, Edited with an introd. by Kathryn Gibbs Harris.
Publisher Boston : G. K. Hall, 1979.
Ref. PS 3511 .R94
 

Printed Indexes to Criticisms

Guide to British Poetry Explication. Boston: G.K. Hall, 1991
Ref. PR 311 .M37 1991

Poetry Explication: A Checklist of Interpretation Since 1924 of British and
American Poets Past and Present. Boston: G.K. Hall, 1980.
Ref. PR 502 .K8 1980

                                          Citing Electronic Sources

Style Guides Link
http://www.noblenet.org/ssc/campus/refdesk.htm#style  

Evaluating Literary Criticisms
What does the professor want?

Three examples of acceptable sources

1.) Kilcup, Karen. "Men work together; I told him form the heart': Frost's (in)delicate
masculinity. ELH, Fall 98, Vol. 65 Issue 3, p731, 26p
 
Abstract:
Attempts to trace poet Robert Frost's conversion of sexualized discourse into gender
discourse, by the ideas of masculinity and femininity. What poems such as `North of Boston,'
`New Hampshire' and `Mountain Interval' reveal about Frost's sexual identity; Suggestion
that Frost affirms his status as `real man' with the use of voice that is at times homophobic;
How Frost's poems display an uneasiness about contemporary masculinity and not sexuality.

2.) McNair, Wesley. "Robert Frost and dramatic speech." Sewanee Review, Winter 98,
Vol. 106 Issue 1, p68, 9p
 
Abstract:
Looks at the use of dramatic speech in contemporary poetry in the works of Robert Frost.
Criticism of works from Frost's book `The Way Out' such as `Mending Wall' and `The Road
Not Taken'; Comparison with poems by other artists such as Timothy Liu's `Passion',
`Conversation in Woodside' by Kim Addonizio, Max Cox's `Geese' and William Olsen's
`The Oasis Motel.'

3.) Link, Carl. "Nature's Extra-Vagrants: Frost and Thoreau in the Maine Woods."
Papers on Language & Literature, Spring 97, Vol. 33 Issue 2, p182, 16p

Excerpt from the full-text:

NATURE'S EXTRA-VAGRANTS: FROST AND THOREAU IN THE
                                      MAINE WOODS

The connection between Robert Frost and Henry David Thoreau has been observed by
several critics. Frost himself encouraged this association through public acknowledgment
of his deep respect for Thoreau's achievement in Walden (1854): first, he listed Walden third
in a list of ten books which he felt should be included in every public library (738); second,
in a 1915 letter Frost remarks that a passage in Walden "must have had a good deal to do
with the making of me," and in 1922 Frost wrote that Walden "surpasses everything we
have had in America" (Selected Letters 182,278; cf. Bagby 390). Still, though many critics
have noted the Thoreau-Frost connection, they frequently misunderstand Thoreau by
aligning his own blend of optimism and skepticism too closely with the much more positive
and progressive metaphysic of Emerson--which, in turn, results in a misunderstanding of
the subsequent ties between Frost and Thoreau. For instance, when Elizabeth Isaacs writes
that Frost "has the practicality of Arnold, Thoreau, or Hardy; yet he is not as one-sided as
they are in hisbeliefs," she is justifiably pointing toward Frost's complexity, but she does so
at the risk of underestimating a similar thematic complexity in Thoreau (39).

Likewise, when J. Donald Crowly writes that "although Frost found Thoreau's modulations
equal to many of his own purposes, there is in the Thoreauvian voice an ultimate confidence
in the solid bottoms being everywhere, in the making snug in the limitless, that Frost often
questions and goes beyond" (305), he is correctly noting Frost's "extra-vagant" struggle to
"go beyond" the limits of this world, but his reading of Thoreau does not account for the
many passages in both Walden and especially The Maine Woods where Thoreau pursues
a similar "extra-vagant" quest. In fact, it is, in part, because we have poems like "For Once,
Then, Something," and "The Woodpile," that we can look back at Thoreau and better
understand  the complex questioning of Nature that Thoreau exhibits in some of his
writings.

Although Thoreau and Frost are traditionally seen as relatively optimistic in their exploration

An unacceptable source:

Personal essay by a student on a web site:
http://www.angelfire.com/on/piecesofme/isu.html

Excerpt from this site:

"Any writer, any artist, I'm sure is obsessed with death, a prerequisite for life."

- Anne Sexton

Is it true that all artists have an obsession with death? Events in the personal
lives of Emily Dickinson, Sylvia Plath and Anne Sexton contributed to their
attitudes toward death which prevailed in their writings. Emily Dickinson led
a very uneventful,eccentric, and reclusive life. Her isolation and her preoccupation
with death led to the development of her romantic attitude toward it. Sylvia Plath
was a gifted writer who suffered an extreme mental breakdown; this, in turn, led
to an obsession with the theme of death in her poetry. Plath finally took her own
life at the age of thirty-one. Similarly, Anne Sexton's eighteen- year
career was abruptly ended by her suicide. Her poetry spoke with brutal honesty
and painful intensity of what she knew about others, but could not understand
in herself. Sexton's poems revealed a dark, unhappy world which was constantly
overshadowed and even controlled by her desire to die. Seclusion, depression,
an obsession with death, and even suicide were thus significant common factors
in the lives of these three masterful poets.

Totally unacceptable sources: fan sites of authors that have no criticism:

From a Yahoo! search on "Robert Frost"
 

Yahoo! Site Matches   (1 - 19 of 21)

Arts Humanities Literature Poetry Poets Frost, Robert (1874-1963)
     Robert Frost: America's Poet - biographical information, poems, and a chance to vote for your
     favorite Frost piece.
     The Road Not Taken: Robert Frost's Lesser Known Poems - features different poems, with
     personal commentary, and tidbits about Frost's life.
     A Frost Bouquet: Robert Frost, His Family, and the Clifton Waller Barrett Library of American
     Literature - exhibit of Frost manuscripts, editions, and his family magazine Bouquet.
     Robert Frost in the Atlantic Monthly - includes audio of recordings.
     Robert Frost Discussion Port - message board and live chat devoted to the life and work of
     Frost.
     Robert Frost Web Page, The - offers poems, selected interviews, biography, and sound files.
     Discovering Robert Frost - lesson plan for introducing the works of the poet in the classroom.
     Frost in Cyberspace - a web site introducing Robert Frost to a new generation.
     Frost Place, The - Center for Poetry and the Arts located at Robert Frost's former home in
     Franconia, NH. With information on the Frost museum and the annual poetry festival.

Example of one fan site:

http://www.ketzle.com/frost/

From the web page:

This page's maintainer, Jeff Ketzle

I highly recommend those who only know of Frost through his poetry to read
through the biographical information. It hasn't diminished my appreciation for
him as a poet nor as a person, but it does, I believe, expand our understanding
of his poems. I am also planning on marking the poems with initial publication
dates to help with perspective.
 

                                        For further assistance,

Contact:                Nancy Dennis
                                Outreach Librarian
                                    Salem State College Library
                                        Sign-up sheet outside office door
                                            Room C-203 (Inside ERL)
                                                Phone: 542-6218
 
 

nancy.dennis@salemstate.edu