Table of Contents

Introduction

1. William Shakespeare, Sonnet 73
2. William Shakespeare, Sonnet 29
3. William Shakespeare, The Ghost's Speech
4. John Donne, “The Flea”
5. John Donne, Holy Sonnet I
6. John Donne, Holy Sonnet XIV
7. George Herbert, “Church-monuments”
8. George Herbert, “The Quip”
9. George Herbert, “Love”
10. Andrew Marvell, “To His Coy Mistress”
11. William Blake, “The Chimney Sweeper”
12. William Blake, “London”
13. William Wordsworth, “The World Is Too Much with Us”
14. William Wordsworth, “Composed upon Westminster Bridge”
15. Percy Bysshe Shelley, “Ozymandias”
16. Samuel Taylor Coleridge, “Kubla Khan”
17. Walt Whitman, Song of Myself
18. Emily Dickinson, “Because I Could Not Stop for Death”
19. Emily Dickinson, “Safe in Their Alabaster Chambers”
20. Emily Dickinson, “The Soul Selects Her Own Society”
21. William Butler Yeats, “The Second Coming”
22. William Butler Yeats, “Leda and the Swan”
23. Wallace Stevens, “Disillusionment of Ten O’Clock”
24. Wallace Stevens, “Anecdote of the Jar”
25. William Carlos Williams, “The Red Wheelbarrow”
26. William Carlos Williams, “This Is Just to Say”
27. Jean Toomer, “Georgia Dusk”
28. Langston Hughes, “Jazzonia”
29. Theodore Roethke, “Cuttings”
30. Theodore Roethke, “Root Cellar”
31. Theodore Roethke, “The Visitant”
32. Robert Lowell, “Man and Wife”
33. Sylvia Plath, “Daddy”
34. Frank O’Hara, “A Mexican Guitar”
35. Paul Blackburn, “The Once-Over”
36. May Swenson, “At East River”
37. Gary Snyder, “Old Pond”
38. Norman H. Russell, “The Tornado”
39. Chuck Wachtel, “A Paragraph Made Up of Seven Sentences”
40. Rochelle Kraut, “My Makeup”
41. Wanda Coleman, “Wanda Why Aren’t You Dead?”
42. Ralph Pomeroy, “Corner”
43. Joni Mitchell, “Woodstock”

Biographical Notes
Bibliography
Acknowledgments
Permissions

About the Author

Camille Paglia is the University Professor of Humanities and Media Studies at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia. A regular contributor to Salon.com, she is the author of Glittering Images; Break, Blow, Burn; Sexual Personae; Sex, Art, and American Culture; and Vamps & Tramps.

Reviews

“She flies as high as you can go. . . . Bold and convincing. . . . Exemplary. . . . A rich book.”–The New York Times Book Review “The chapter on Sylvia Plath’s ‘Daddy’ will take the top of your head off!” –James Wolcott “As entertaining as it is dazzingly erudite, Break, Blow, Burn is capable of re-energizing any reader’s engagement with poetry.”–Francine du Plessix Gray, The Week “I hope a lot of people read this book. . . . There wasn’t a commentary where I didn’t learn something about the poem in question, no matter how familiar the poem was.” –Philip Marchand, Toronto Star “It will have students storming the walls of tomorrow’s English departments, mad for poetry again.” –St. Petersburg Times “Dazzling. . . . Bursts with her ingenuity. . . . Brilliant insights . . . permeate the book. . . . Readers receive a marvelous education.”–Rocky Mountain News “Paglia’s vision is always fresh. . . . She makes a fascinating and challenging reading companion. These essays will inspire anyone to turn back to poetry again.” –The Times (London)