This dissertation is concerned with the role that close reading (textual analysis of a literary work) plays in the methods, teaching materials, and training of prospective secondary school English teachers. Despite the impact of the movement of close reading in higher education and educators' recent call for its practice in the high school, there is evidence that little close reading is done in secondary English classes. In order to examine their skill in close reading, approximately 200 students in teacher education programs wrote an exercise on a modern poem. Also, 11 methods texts currently in use in English education programs were examined. The results of these studies were: (1) Those students tested gave little evidence of being able to read poetry closely. (2) The methods texts contained little or no material in close reading. Part of the dissertation is composed of explications of 10 modern poems with accompanying teaching strategies shaped by the process of close reading. It is recommended that training in close reading be provided for prospective teachers of secondary school English. (Author/DB)