Introduction to Literature (LauraLee Miller)

"I usually tell my students that “close reading” means looking at what is actually on the page, reading the text itself, rather than some idea “behind the text.” It means noticing things in the writing, things in the writing that stand out. To give you some idea of what this means, I’ve made up a list of five sorts of things that a close reading might typically notice: (1) unusual vocabulary, words that surprise either because they are unfamiliar or because they seem to belong to a different context; (2) words that seem unnecessarily repeated, as if the word keeps insisting on being written; (3) images or metaphors, especially ones that are used repeatedly and are somewhat surprising given the context; (4) what is in italics or parentheses; and (5) footnotes that seem too long."

From the Writing Center at UW-Madison.
When your teachers or professors ask you to analyze a literary text, they often look for something frequently called close reading. Close reading is deep analysis of how a literary text works; it is both a reading process and something you include in a literary analysis paper, though in a refined form.
Fiction writers and poets build texts out of many central components, including subject, form, and specific word choices. Literary analysis involves examining these components, which allows us to find in small parts of the text clues to help us understand the whole.

Source: OER Textbook: Introduction to Literature - 2 Lumen (Libre Texts)

Wash the white clothes on Monday and put them on the stone heap; wash the color clothes on Tuesday and put them on the clothesline to dry; don’t walk bare-head in the hot sun...
Source: New Yorker Magazine (online) June 19, 1978.

"During my holidays from school, I was allowed to stay in bed until long after my father had gone to work..."
Source: Poetry and Short Story Reference Center (EBSCO). PDF Full Text.

"The year was 2081 and everyone was finally equal."
Source: Database - Poetry and Short Story (EBSCO)

"My mother is the surviving half of a blind-folded trapeze act, not a fact I think about much now that she is sightless, the result of stubborn and encroaching cataracts." From the website: Common Lit - Creative Commons: CC-BY-NC-SA 4.0

"What could be done with me, what should be done with me? These were the same question. The possibilities were limited...."
Source: Prospect Magazine (online) September 18, 2014)

"Her name was Connie. She was fifteen and she had a quick, nervous, giggling habit of craning her neck to glance into mirrors or checking other people's faces to make sure her own was all right...."
Source: Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been? Selected Early Stories (1993); Database - Literature: LitFinder (Gale)

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"It is very seldom that mere ordinary people like John and myself secure ancestral halls for the summer...."
Source: Database - Literature: LitFinder (Gale)

Source: Exhibition materials from the National Library of Medicine - National Institutes of Health

Charlotte became an influential advocate for women’s rights and a prolific author. She wrote numerous treatises critiquing the limited role of women in society, including her most famous book, Women and Economics (1898), in which she advocated financial independence and meaningful work for women. She was especially interested in these topics having experienced profound unhappiness as a young wife and mother, eventually seeking medical advice.

"The hills across the valley of the Ebro were long and white. On this side there was no shade and no trees and the station was between two lines of rails in the sun.,..
Source: Database - Literature: LitFinder (Gale)