Argues that, although Matthew Arnold was instrumental in launching English literature in Britain as a proper school subject, he purposively limited the extent of literature's educational value. (MG)

Intended to impart the basic ways a poem is constructed, this concise handbook is a prose guide to writing poetry. The handbook talks about meter and rhyme, form and diction, sound and sense, iambs and trochees, couplets and sonnets, and how and why this should matter to any person writing or reading poetry. Interspersing history and analysis with…

Describes a "Shakespeare Coursework Unit" in which Shakespearean and other literary works of the Tudor era were analyzed for evidence of the gender biases prevalent in that period. Notes that by the end of the course, students accepted the assertion that textual analysis is never truly completed. (SG)

In the 19th century alone, Christopher Columbus was the subject of hundreds of poems that rarely questioned his voyage, his methods, or his place in human history. However, the scholarly work and political realities of the 20th century have undermined the noble, heroic visions conveyed by the poets. Modern readers/students have a dual duty to…