Speech:   Finding Poetry, Short Stories, and Essays

A CDS Library Helpsheet

Poetry:

American poetry :   Call number:   811

British poetry :   Call number:   821

Thematic Guide to American Poetry    REF 811 Bur 2002

21 essays on various themes and how the theme is treated in individual poems (86 poets are represented).   Table of contents: -- Introduction -- Art and Beauty -- Civilization -- Family Relations -- Freedom and Slavery -- The Individual and Society -- Innocence and Experience -- Life and Death -- Loss -- Love and Sex -- Memory -- Nature -- Obligations and Choices -- Poetry -- The Self -- Skepticism and Belief -- Suffering and Joy   - Thought and Perception -- Time and Change -- Tradition and Heritage -- Truth and Appearance -- War -- Appendix: Biographical Sketches -- Bibliography -- Index

Books for You: An Annotated Booklist for Senior High   REF 011.62 Boo 1997

Contains short descriptions of works published from 1994-1996 in general categories, such as Romance or Family Relationships .   Two of the categories are Short Stories and Poetry and Drama .   The real value for this assignment is the detailed subject index in the back.

Columbia Granger's Index to Poetry   REF 808.81 FRA

The last index in the book is a subject index.   Under each subject is a list of authors and the poems they have written about that subject.

Poetry for Students    REF 808.1 POE

has a Subject/Theme index in each volume.   Beware:   the index only covers the poetry analyzed in that particular volume!

Poetry Speaks:   Hear Great Poets Read Their Work    REF 811 POE

Book of modern poetry and CDs.

Bartlett's Familiar Quotations    REF 808.88 Bar   16th

Maybe that famous quotation will lead you to a poem, essay, or short story!   The index is by keyword.   Other quotations books in the reference section are arranged by topic or theme.   Take a look!

Chadwyck-Healey Literature Collections .

Available from the NC Live databases ( www.nclive.org ).   Several databases there have full texts of poems you may not find easily available elsewhere.   Databases include:   The Faber Poetry Library (20 th century), American Poetry (1600-1900), English Poetry (600-1900), English Poetry, Second Edition (8 th century to 21 st century), African-American Poetry (1600-1915), 20 th Century African-American Poetry, 20 th Century American Poetry, 20 th Century English Poetry, and Canadian Poetry (17 th -early 20 th centuries).   You can't search by subject, but once you've found an author or a title of a work, try it here.   To get there, once you log into NC Live, choose Browse Resources - Alphabetic .   Click on any Chadwyck-Healey database to take you to their home page.   You will then have the above databases (among others) to choose from.

Short Stories:

Critical Survey of Short Fiction   REF 809.3 Cri  

One of the indexes in the last volume is by Category (be careful to go to that one rather than the Subject index, which will not be terribly helpful).  The seven-volume set is organized by author and discusses authors' selected short stories. The last volume also contains long essays about various forms and types of the short story.

Thematic Guide to Popular Short Stories   REF 809.3 The 2002  

The stories are entered alphabetically by author with the themes covered in the story listed before a short description and explanation of the story.   There are over a hundred themes listed in the index in the back and include such topics as Allegory, Betrayal, Class Conflicts, Coming of Age, Courage, Culture conflicts, Death, Decadence, Epiphany, Family, Fate, Fathers and children, Friendship, Hispanic Experience, Grief, Guilt,   Illusion vs. Reality, Jealousy, Love/Hate, Marriage, Men and Women, Mothers and Children, Pride, Race Relations, Religion/Spirituality, Revenge, Siblings, Society, Sports, Tradition/Convention, Underdogs, Vanity, Violence, War.   Other indexes:   Author and Short Story Title.

Books for You: An Annotated Booklist for Senior High    REF 011.62 Boo 1997

Contains short descriptions of works published from 1994-1996 in general categories, such as Romance or Family Relationships .   Two of the categories are Short Stories and Poetry and Drama .   The real value for this assignment is the detailed subject index in the back.

Facts on File Companion to the American Short Story   REF 813 FAC 2000

Appendix II (page 512) is "Suggested Readings by Theme and Topic."   You may then look up the author or short story (not all short stories have their own entries, though) in the main part of the book for more information.

Browsing the Library's Fiction Collection    FIC

If you'd like to browse the fiction section, look for the green dots by the call numbers on the spine that signify a book is a collection of short stories.

Essays:

Opposing Viewpoints Database:

Available from the library's web page.   Ask for the username and password.   Many current social issues are listed on the front page.   You can try other searches by keyword. The right column will list the type of resource, such as "essay."   Jackpot!   Other databases may also be helpful, such as The Student Resource Center or LexisNexis , also available on the library's web page at http://www.cdschool.org/library/LibraryHome.htm .

CDS Catalog :  

You can find books of essays on the CDS catalog.   Just typing in essays as a keyword brings up almost 500 entries.   Sort these by clicking on Call Number at the top left of the screen.   You'll then have the list sorted pretty much by topic.

 

You might also just try your topic as a keyword search on the catalogue, sort by call number, and see what turns up!

ks 9-05