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American Poetry: The Nineteenth Century

Note: This CD-ROM works only on a Macintosh computer; it is currently installed on the iMac (the aqua colored Macintosh near the door).

I. BRIEF OVERVIEW OF STRUCTURE AND CONTENT:

American Poetry is a CD-ROM database that combines the Library of America's two-volume anthology with search software. The text contains poetry and songs in three chapters: "19th-Century American Poets," "19th-Century Versions of American Indian Poetry," and "Folk Songs and Spirituals." You can also find related annotations, appendices, and indices. John Hollander wrote the introduction.

II. STARTING UP AMERICAN POETRY: THE NINETEENTH CENTURY:

Take the American Poetry: The Nineteenth Century CD-ROM from its case and place it in the CD carrier of the computer by pressing the button below and to the right of it. Double-click on the following icons:

  • The CD ROM PROGRAMS folder icon;
  • The American Poetry folder icon;
  • The American Poetry icon.

If you do not see these icons, please ask a staff member for assistance.

As the CD-ROM loads, you will see a black screen with the words "Voyager Presents" on it. The CD-ROM should then begin with an image of a boat on water and Rachel Hadas's voice reciting a couplet by Thoreau. Follow the screen instructions and click to continue. From the copyright page, you can enter the rest of the material either by clicking the right arrow key on the keyboard, which will deposit you at the Contents Overview page; or by clicking on the bookmark icon at bottom right, which will deposit you at the last page used.

III. USING AMERICAN POETRY: THE NINETEENTH CENTURY:

The search features are displayed in a tool panel at the top right corner of the screen. They include Page, Chapter, Find, Mark, and Retrace in the Introductory and Contents material. An additional option, Highlight, is included in the tool menu when you are in the Text section of the CD-ROM. The tool panel does not appear on the Contents Overview page; if you don't see the tool panel from another screen, press [Apple-T].

At the very top of the screen is a pull-down menu called Books (if you don't see this menu, move the cursor to the top of the screen and it will appear.) Selecting American Poetry in the Books drop-down menu takes you back to the introductory screen. Annotations inserts and removes the gray underlines that indicate links to other texts. Clicking on a word with a gray underline will take you to its corresponding footnote. Clicking on the underlined portion of the footnote returns you to the main body of the text.

For online help, press [Apple-?].

Summary of tool panel items:

  • Page: the Page button at the top of the tool panel allows you to "turn" pages either forward or backward by clicking on the arrows either left or right. To get to any page immediately, click on the Page button, which will open a window called "Go Page". Type the page number, click on the section (Contents or Text), and click on the Go button. Contents consists of the Contents Overview, the Introduction, and additional tables of contents; Text consists of the remainder of the text: poetry and annotations.

  • Chapter: the Chapter button allows you to skip forward or backward by larger increments. To move several pages at a time, click on the arrows either left or right. To see an overview of all the chapters, click and hold on Chapter; move to the chapter of your choice and release the mouse to go to that chapter directly. Chapter is the most helpful compass for navigating through American Poetry. It is the only way to summon an overview of the material from any location.

  • Find: the Find button allows you to search the entire CD-ROM (including the editorial apparatus) for specific words.

  • Mark: the Mark button allows you to bookmark pages. To mark a page, click on Mark. You can return to these pages by clicking and holding the mouse on the Mark button or by clicking on the corresponding arrow keys. NOTE: This command does not always work.

  • Retrace: the Retrace button allows you to review your preceding steps and to return to any spot you've visited in the CD-ROM by direct link. To review or to retrace your steps, click and hold on Retrace, which will unfold a list of your steps. To visit any of these directly, release the mouse over the desired spot. The down arrow next to Retrace moves you back a single step.

  • Highlight: This is not a reliable command. When it works correctly, however, the Highlight button allows you to highlight text in one of four colors. Click and drag the cursor across the text you wish to highlight, until it has all been selected (the text will appear blocked out just as it would on a word processor.) Click highlight, then select a color. To remove the highlight, press clear. The highlighted text should be saved until you indicate otherwise. (Caution: This feature can cause the program to freeze up. If this should occur, please ask for assistance.)

Searching and saving with Find:

You can search for a word or phrase with the help of the tool panel button Find. If you wish to search, for example, for the word "spangled," click on Find. This will call up a small window with a text insert line and a Find button. Click on the word-processing line and type in "spangled." Click on the small Find button.

If the CD-ROM were not to contain the word, it would announce "spangled was not found." Since the CD-ROM naturally does feature this most American word, it will instead offer a new window named "spangled in context," which will display a list of text segments that include "spangled," thus allowing you to see the word in its immediate context. The number of occurrences of the word (14 in this example) will also be displayed. (This number includes both poetic and annotative contexts.) A small scrollbar on the right of the new window lets you scroll up and down the list of fragments. Clicking and releasing on any of the samples will take you directly to it.

When you close the "spangled in context" window, yet another window will ask you "Save spangled in context?" You can choose Save, Don't Save, or Cancel. If you choose Save, "spangled in context" will show up on a shortlist each time you use Find, and it will also be stored in the folder American Poetry Finds on your hard drive. To retrieve this list, click and hold the cursor on the Find button in the toolbar. When the menu pops up, select one of your Find items from the list by moving over it and then releasing the mouse button.

To save your American Poetry Finds, follow these steps:

  • Exit the CD-ROM by choosing File on the pull-down menu (if you don't see this menu, move the cursor to the top of the screen), and then choosing Quit Hypercard. This will retrace your CD-ROM start-up steps, bringing you to the penultimate window which contains the constellation of American Poetry folders, including American Poetry Finds.

  • Double-click on this folder to display the saved file. Drag this file to wherever you would like to save it (someplace like your home directory is good). NOTE: If you do copy the file, be sure to copy it back to the American Poetry Finds folder before restarting the CD-ROM.

IV. EXITING AMERICAN POETRY: THE NINETEENTH CENTURY AND REMOVING THE CD-ROM:

Exit the program by choosing File from the pull-down menu at the top of the screen (if you don't see this menu, move the pointer to the top of the screen and it will appear.) Then choose Quit Hypercard. This will return you to the desktop. To remove the CD-ROM from the computer, drag its desktop icon over the trash can. Remove the CD from its carrier by pressing the button below and to the right of it. Please place the CD back in its case and return it to a member of the Etext Center staff.