Chapter 1 The Literature of the Colonial Period 1.1 An Introduction 1.2 Anne Bradstreet ( 1612 -- 1672) "To My Dear and Loving Husband" 1.3 Edward Taylor (1542 -- 1729) "Huswifery" Chapter 2 The Literature of the Revolutionary Period 2.1 An Introduction 2.2 Benjamin Franklin (1706 -- 1790) An Excerpt from Chapter VIII of The Autobiography 2.3 Patrick Henry ( 1736 -- 1799) Speech in the Virginia Convention 2.4 Thomas Jefferson ( 1743 -- 1826) Declaration of Independence Chapter 3 The Literature of the Romantic Period 3.1 An Introduction 3.2 Washington Irving (1783 -- 1859) An Excerpt from Rip Van Winkle 3.3 Edgar Allan Poe (1809 -- 1849) "To Helen" "Annabel Lee" 3.4 Henry David Thoreau ( 1817 -- 1852) An Excerpt from Wa/den 3.5 Nathartiel Hawthorne ( 1804 -- 1854) Chapter 23 from The Scarlet Letter 3.6 Herman Melville (1819-- 1891) An Excerpt from Chapter 41 of Moby-Dick 3.7 Henry Wadsworth Longfellow ( 1807 --1882) "A Psalm of Life" 3.8 Walt Whitman (1819 -- 1892) Excerpts from "Song of Myself " 3.9 Emily Dickinson ( 1830 -- 1886) "I'm Nobody! Who are You?" "Success is counted sweetest" "Because I could not stop for Death" Chapter 4 The Literature of the Realistic Period 4.1 An Introduction 4.2 Mark Twain ( 1835 -- 1910) An Excerpt from Chapter 19 of Huckleberry Finn 4.3 O. Henry ( 1862 -- 1910) "The Cop and the Anthem" 4.4 Henry James (1843 -- 1916) An Excerpt from Chapter 1 of The Portrait of a Lady 4.5 Theodore Dreiser (1871 -- 1945) An Excerpt from Chapter 47 of Sister Carrie 4.6 Robert Frost ( 1874 --1963) "Fire and Ice" "Nothing Gold Can Stay" "The Road Not Taken" "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening" Chapter 5 The Literature of the Modecmlst Period 5.1 An Introduction 5.2 Ezra Pound ( 1885 -- 1972) "In a Station of the Metro" "A Pact" 5.3 William Carlos Williams (1883 -- 1963) "The Red Wheelbarrow" "Spring and All" 5.4 Langston Hughes ( 1902 -- 1967) "Dreams" "Cross" 5.5 E. E. Cummings (1894- 1962) " "Your Little Voice" 5.6 Ernest Hemingway ( 1899 -- 1961 ) "Indian Camp" 5.7 F. Scott Fitzgerald ( 1896 -- 1940) An Excerpt from Chapter 3 of The Great Gatsby 5.8 William Faulkner ( 1897 -- 1962) "The Bear" 5.9 Eugene O'Neill (1888 -- 1953) An Excerpt from ACT 2, SCENE II of Long Day's Journey into Night Chapter 6 The Literature since World War II 6.1 An Introduction 6.2 Saul Bellow ( 1915 -- 2005) An Excerpt from Seize the Day 6.3 ArChttr Miller ( 1915 -- 2005) An Excerpt from Act II Of The Death of a Salesman 6.4 J. D. Salinger (19i9 -- ) An Excerpt from Chapters 21 of The Catcher in the Rye 6.5 Allen Ginsberg ( 1926 -- 1997) An Excerpt from "Howl" 6.6 Sylvia Plath ( 1932 -- 1963) "Daddy" References