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Readings by session are available below.



Required Texts


Amazon logo Shakespeare, William. Romeo and Juliet. Mineola, NY: Dover, 1993. ISBN: 0486275574.

Amazon logo Ferguson, Margaret, Mary Jo Salter, and Jon Stallworthy, eds. Norton Anthology of Poetry. Shorter Fifth Edition. New York, NY: W.W. Norton, 2004. ISBN: 0393979210.

Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein. (Any edition will do.)

Amazon logo Blake, William. Songs of Innocence and Experience. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 1977. ISBN: 0192810898.

Amazon logo ———. The Marriage of Heaven and Hell. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 1975. ISBN: 0192811673.



Readings by Session



LEC #TOPICSREADINGS
1Why metrics matter: the medium is the message

Why English counts patterns of emphasis as it does

Why does Dante put Ulysses in hell? Does something in the form or tone pass judgment on him?
Alighieri, Dante. Canto 26 of "Inferno." In Norton Anthology of Poetry.

Tennyson, Lord Alfred. "Ulysses." In Norton Anthology of Poetry.

Wroth, Mary. "A Crown of Sonnets Dedicated to Love." In Norton Anthology of Poetry.
2Pastoralism: Genre (derived from Greek Models)

Is "The Pastoral" in fact a sophisticated form?
Sidney, Sir Philip. "Ye Goatherd Gods," "Astrophil and Stella," (sections 1, 21, 31, 48, 49, 52, 63, 90) and "What Length of Verse." In Norton Anthology of Poetry.
3Pastoralism and Gender

Do women use language differently than men do? Tone, diction, form
Marlowe, Christopher. "The Passionate Shepherd to His Love." In Norton Anthology of Poetry.

Ballads and Medieval Forms. "The Cuckoo Song," "Alison," "I am of Ireland," "Lord Randall," "Sire Patrick Spens," "The Three Ravens," "I Sing of a Maiden," "Timor Mortis," and "Western Wind." In Norton Anthology of Poetry.
4Renaissance "wit" and Renaissance metaphors (the "conceit")

"My America": Renaissance sonnet-cycles, readership, publication, and Circulation
Raleigh, Sir Walter. "The Nymphs's Reply to the Shepherd," "A Vision upon the Fairy Queen," and "The Passionate Man's Pilgrimage." In Norton Anthology of Poetry.
5Donne's arguments

Marvell's logic: syllogism and the blandishments of tone

Marvell's irony
Donne, John. "The Good Morrow," "Song," "The Canonization," "The Anniversary," "Valediction Forbidding Mourning," "The Ecstasy," "The Funeral," "The Flea," "Elegy XIX: To His Mistress Going to Bed," and "Good Friday, 1613, Riding Westward." In Norton Anthology of Poetry.

Marvell, Andrew. "To His Coy Mistress." In Norton Anthology of Poetry.
6How the sonnet works (8 and 6 / thesis and antithesis / question and answer)

Shakespeare and the Socratic concept of seduction

Close reading of several sonnets
Shakespeare, William. Sonnets 1, 3, 12, 81, 20, 29, 30, 55, 65, 71, 73, 94, 106, 107, 116, 129, 130, 138, 146. In Norton Anthology of Poetry.
7Resisting the biographical narrative

Embedded sonnets in Romeo and Juliet

Begin the play: civil disorder and children's obedience
Shakespeare, William. Sonnets 1, 3, 12, 81, 20, 29, 30, 55, 65, 71, 73, 94, 106, 107, 116, 129, 130, 138, 146. In Norton Anthology of Poetry.
8The ballroom scene and the metaphors of pilgrimage

Compare ballroom and balcony scenes in several films of the play (Including Franco Zefferelli and Baz Luhrmann)
Shakespeare, William. Romeo and Juliet. Acts I-III.
9Why is Juliet smarter than Romeo?

Christian Sacrifice and Comic Reconciliation
Shakespeare, William. Romeo and Juliet. Acts III-V.
10Keats and the Truth of the Heart's [Art's?] Affection

Who says the last lines of the "Urn" and why does the question matter?

Dickinson, "I lived for Art" and the Keatsian model
Dickinson, Emily. pp. 280, 303 ("The Soul selects her own Society"), 328, 341 ("After great Pain"), 435, 465, 505, 569, 613, 709, 712 ("Because I could not stop for Death"), 754, 861, 986, 1129 ("Tell all the Truth, but tell it Slant"), 1540, 1763. In Norton Anthology of Poetry.

Keats, John. "Ode on a Grecian Urn," and "This Living Hand." In Norton Anthology of Poetry.
11Satan's persuasive rhetoric: read Satan's speeches

Milton's Satan and transverse logic

Milton's problem: Theology versus Aesthetic form
Tennyson, Lord Alfred. "Mariana," "The Lotos-Eaters," "Break, Break, Break," "Ulysses," "The Eagle, "Tithonus," and selections from In Memoriam. In Norton Anthology of Poetry.

Keats, John. "To Autumn." In Norton Anthology of Poetry.

Milton, John. Paradise Lost. Book I (Satan's speeches). In Norton Anthology of Poetry.
12Milton's Eve and the Freedom of Choice / Eve's narcissism

"The Fall" and what happens to the natural world?

Adam's ironic love-song at the moment Eve falls
Milton, John. "When I Consider," "On the Late Massacre in Piemont," and "Methought I Saw." In Norton Anthology of Poetry.

Shelley, Percy Bysshe. "Ozymandias." In Norton Anthology of Poetry.

Wordsworth, William. "It is a Beauteous Evening," "London, 1802," "Composed upon Westminster Bridge," and "Nuns Fret Not." In Norton Anthology of Poetry.

Keats, John. "On the Sonnet," "On First Looking into Chapman's Homer," and "When I have Fears." In Norton Anthology of Poetry.

Milton, John. Paradise Lost. Book I (Satan's speeches) and Book III (temptation and fall). In Norton Anthology of Poetry.
13Wordsworth: reclaiming paradise

Blake: reclaiming innocence

Blake: Vision and illustration

"Lamb" and catechetics
Blake, William. Songs of Innocence, Songs of Experience, and Marriage of Heaven and Hell.

Wordsworth, William. “Lines Composed a Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey,” Book I of The Prelude, “My Heart Leaps Up,” “Resolution and Independence,” “Ode: Intimations of Mortality,” “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud,” and “The Solitary Reaper.” In Norton Anthology of Poetry.
14Blake: compare "The Lamb" and "The Tyger"

The grammar of "The Tyger"

Why is the Tyger smiling?
Blake, William. Songs of Innocence, Songs of Experience, and Marriage of Heaven and Hell.

Wordsworth, William. “Lines Composed a Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey,” Book I of The Prelude, “My Heart Leaps Up,” “Resolution and Independence,” “Ode: Intimations of Mortality,” “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud,” and “The Solitary Reaper.” In Norton Anthology of Poetry.
15Shelley's Platonism and Romantic self-assertionShelley, Percy Bysshe. "Hymn to Intellectual Beauty," "Mont Blanc," "England in 1819," "Ode to the West Wind," "To a Skylark," and "Adonais." In Norton Anthology of Poetry.

Clare, John. "Farewell," "The Badger," and "I Am." In Norton Anthology of Poetry.
16The Monster's literary education

How does the Creature become the Monster?
Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein (Through at least the Creature's literary education).
17Frame narratives in the novel

"Forbidden" knowledge?

Frankenstein and pop culture
Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein.
18Keats' Odes: The Natural WorldByron, Lord George Gordon Noel. "She Walks in Beauty," "When We Two Parted," and selections from Don Juan. In Norton Anthology of Poetry.

Keats, John. "La Belle Dame Sans Merci," "Ode to Psyche," "Ode to a Nightingale," and "Ode on Melancholy." In Norton Anthology of Poetry.

Hardy, Thomas. "Hap." In Norton Anthology of Poetry.

Yeats, William Butler. "When you are old." In Norton Anthology of Poetry.

Hopkins, Gerard Manley. "The Windhover," "Pied Beauty," "No Worse, there is None," and "Carrion Comfort." In Norton Anthology of Poetry.
19Keats' Odes: Art and RepresentationDickinson, Emily. In Norton Anthology of Poetry. p. 719ff.

Keats, John. "Ode on a Grecian Urn." In Norton Anthology of Poetry.
20Keats' Odes: Time, Mortality, RepetitionTennyson, Lord Alfred. In Norton Anthology of Poetry. p. 619ff.

Keats, John. "To Autumn." In Norton Anthology of Poetry.
21Sonnets!Sonnet Festival: Milton (pp. 274, 278); Shelley (p. 541); Keats (pp. 567, 568, 569, 578); Wordsworth (pp. 476-8); Hardy (p. 744ff); Yeats (p. 776); Hopkins (p. 755). In Norton Anthology of Poetry.
22Browning and the secret self

Tone and self-revelation
Browning, Robert. "The Bishop Orders his Tomb," "My Last Duchess," and "Porphyria's Lover." In Norton Anthology of Poetry.

Browning, Elizabeth Barrett. Sonnets from the Portuguese. In Norton Anthology of Poetry.

Yeats, William Butler. "The Lake Isle of Innisfree," "No Second Troy," "Easter, 1916," "Wild Swans at Coole," "Among School Children," and "Crazy Jane Talks to the Bishop." In Norton Anthology of Poetry.
23"Home Burial" and Gender Difference

Counting iambic pentameter: flexibility and social measurement
Frost, Robert. "Home Burial," "Witch of Coos," and "Death of a Hired Man." In Norton Anthology of Poetry.
24Sincerity and authenticity

Why does Lionel Trilling call Frost a "terrifying" poet?
Frost, Robert. "Mending Wall," "The Road Not Taken," "Design," "Provide, Provide," "Acquainted with the Night," and "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening." In Norton Anthology of Poetry.
25Close reading of Prufrock, focusing on formEliot, T.S. "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock." In Norton Anthology of Poetry.
26Close reading of Prufrock, focusing on imagesEliot, T.S. "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock." In Norton Anthology of Poetry.
27Plath's humor and Plath's form

After modernism, what?
Plath, Sylvia. "Daddy," and "Lady Lazarus." In Norton Anthology of Poetry.

Hughes, Langston. "Theme for English B," and "Harlem." In Norton Anthology of Poetry.

 








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