Readings by session are available below.
Required Texts
Shakespeare, William. Romeo and Juliet. Mineola, NY: Dover, 1993. ISBN: 0486275574.
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.)
Blake, William. Songs of Innocence and Experience. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 1977. ISBN: 0192810898.
———. The Marriage of Heaven and Hell. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 1975. ISBN: 0192811673.
Readings by Session
| LEC # | TOPICS | READINGS |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Why 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. |
| 2 | Pastoralism: 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. |
| 3 | Pastoralism 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. |
| 4 | Renaissance "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. |
| 5 | Donne'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. |
| 6 | How 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. |
| 7 | Resisting 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. |
| 8 | The 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. |
| 9 | Why is Juliet smarter than Romeo? Christian Sacrifice and Comic Reconciliation | Shakespeare, William. Romeo and Juliet. Acts III-V. |
| 10 | Keats 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. |
| 11 | Satan'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. |
| 12 | Milton'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. |
| 13 | Wordsworth: 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. |
| 14 | Blake: 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. |
| 15 | Shelley's Platonism and Romantic self-assertion | Shelley, 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. |
| 16 | The Monster's literary education How does the Creature become the Monster? | Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein (Through at least the Creature's literary education). |
| 17 | Frame narratives in the novel "Forbidden" knowledge? Frankenstein and pop culture | Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein. |
| 18 | Keats' Odes: The Natural World | Byron, 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. |
| 19 | Keats' Odes: Art and Representation | Dickinson, Emily. In Norton Anthology of Poetry. p. 719ff. Keats, John. "Ode on a Grecian Urn." In Norton Anthology of Poetry. |
| 20 | Keats' Odes: Time, Mortality, Repetition | Tennyson, Lord Alfred. In Norton Anthology of Poetry. p. 619ff. Keats, John. "To Autumn." In Norton Anthology of Poetry. |
| 21 | Sonnets! | 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. |
| 22 | Browning 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. |
| 24 | Sincerity 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. |
| 25 | Close reading of Prufrock, focusing on form | Eliot, T.S. "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock." In Norton Anthology of Poetry. |
| 26 | Close reading of Prufrock, focusing on images | Eliot, T.S. "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock." In Norton Anthology of Poetry. |
| 27 | Plath'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. |