Connections: English 224: Old Modules: Romanticism, Fall 02

This page contains the assignments from the Romanticism module "Gender, Sensibility, and Romanticism" with links to the online readings and to supporting materials.

Monday, September 2nd

Thomas Gray, "Elegy Written in a Country Church-Yard" (1751)
- The Thomas Gray Archive includes a chronology, a bibliography, and a gallery of portraits and maps.
- If you need to brush up on iambic pentameter, see these links for explanations of the iamb and pentameter.

This is a two-part assignment to get the electronic side of the class moving. Group I will do the following literary assignment, but all of you need to do this part: go to the class discussion board and write a solid paragraph or two introducing yourself to the class.

Group I Response (due, as always, by 9:00 pm the previous evening): Concentrating on one small section of the poem--10 lines or so--discuss the relationship of the poem's characters to the village society they inhabit, especially in the way Gray portrays the way feelings pass (or do not pass) among the speaker, the villagers, and the imagined readers of the poem.

Wednesday, September 4th

Adam Smith, "Of Sympathy," the first chapter in Theory of Moral Sentiments (1759)
- Edward J. Harpham of the University of Texas at Dallas maintains The Adam Smith Web Page, with biographical and bibliographical information on Smith.
Edmund Burke, from A Philosophical Enquiry into Our Notions of the Sublime and the Beautiful (1757), (e-text from 1759 second edition)
- "Blupete" (a.k.a. Peter Landry, a Canadian lawyer) has put together a simple, careful introduction to Burke.

Group II Response: Use our discussion of Gray as a way into thinking about the models of emotion that Smith and Burke offer us. How does the emotional landscape of Gray's "Elegy" enact or fail to enact the theories that Smith and Burke put forth?

Friday, September 6th

Ann Yearsley, "To Indifference" and "Addressed to Sensibility" from Poems on Various Subjects (1787)
- WORP, or Women of the Romantic Period, an interactive teaching site developed by Morri Safran, includes a page on Yearsley with biographical information and annotatable electronic editions of some of her works. If you're interested in interactive teaching, poke around the WORP site to see what they have been up to.

Group III Response: Discuss these poems in the framework of the three previous works we have read. At some point in your response, offer your sense of how Yearsley seems to define the words "sensibility" and "indifference."

Monday, September 9th

Selections of Della Cruscan poetry (published in newspapers, then collected in 1788 and 1790)

Group IV Response: In class, we will be working to construct a poetics of Della Cruscan verse; that is, a statement of its values, techniques, and strategies. Using Gray's "Elegy" as a point of comparison, give us a head start by talking about how Della Cruscan verse functions and what it wants to achieve.

Wednesday, September 11th

Judith Pascoe, "'That fluttering, tinselled crew': Women Poets and Della Cruscanism" in Romantic Theatricality: Gender, Poetry, and Spectatorship (1997).
Jerome McGann, "The Literal World of the English Della Cruscans" in The Poetics of Sensibility: A Revolution in Literary Style (1996)

Group V Response: Discuss either or both of the articles, emphasizing points or passages you find especially persuasive and also questions that you would like the class to discuss about (or stemming from) this critical work.

Friday, September 13th

Charlotte Smith, all prefatory material and Sonnets I, IX, XII, and XLIV from Elegiac Sonnets and Other Poems (first edition 1784, e-text of 1827 edition)
- For a review of the structure and meaning of the sonnet form, see this page and those that follow it.
- Brent Raycroft, who wrote a dissertation on Smith, has a quirky web page devoted to Smith and her work. The page has some useful material, but its effectiveness is limited by the dearth of high-quality information about Smith online. Stuart Curran's introduction to his edition of Smith's poems is the best recent critical starting point for thinking about her poetry.

Group I Response: open response. (Each group has now written one directed response, so we will now have a round of open responses.)

Monday, September 16th

William Wordsworth, Preface (anthology 332), "Old Man Travelling" (anthology 327), "The Thorn" (anthology 319), and "Note to the Thorn" (anthology 324) from Lyrical Ballads (1798 and 1800)
- For a review of the structure and meaning of the ballad form, see this page and those that follow it.
- The Lyrical Ballads Bicentenary Project is an excellent scholarly site. A lot of Wordsworthian information of varying quality dots the Internet; the best and most authoritative starting point is probably the Wordsworth section of the Voice of the Shuttle Romanticism page. That page has a section for Coleridge as well, but you can also start with Marjorie A. Tiefert's Coleridge Archive.

Group II Response: open response.

Wednesday, September 18th

Wordsworth, "Lines Written a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey" (1798, anthology 328) and Samuel Taylor Coleridge, "The Eolian Harp" (1800, anthology 478) from Lyrical Ballads
- For a review of the structure and meaning of blank verse, see this page and those that follow it.

Group III Response: open response.

Friday, September 20th

Coleridge, "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" (1817 version, anthology 484) and the 1798 excerpt for comparison (anthology 482) from Lyrical Ballads

Group IV Response: open response.

Monday, September 23rd

Mary Robinson, "London's Summer Morning" (anthology 203) and "The Old Beggar" (anthology 204) from Lyrical Tales (1800)
- Romantic Circles has an electronic edition of Robinson's Letter to the Women of England, which also has excellent complementary texts; Virginia has an E-text of Sappho and Phaon, and the Penn Library's Celebration of Women Writers has created an electronic copy of an 1895 memoir.
Isobel Armstrong "The Gush of the Feminine: How Can We Read Women's Poetry of the Romantic Period?" in Romantic Women Writers: Voices and Countervoices, ed. Feldman and Kelley (1995)

Group V Response: open response.

Wednesday, September 25th

John Keats, "On First Looking into Chapman's Homer" and companion readings (1816, anthology 748), "On Seeing the Elgin Marbles" (1817, anthology 757)
- In spite of its preposterously overstated title, John Keats: A Comprehensive Study of His Life and Work is in fact an interesting and useful general site with some primary texts. Also good are a British Library exhibition on Keats and the site of Rome's Keats-Shelley House.

Group I Response: Write about today's readings using (explicitly) one of the six approaches from "Some Hints to Help You Read Poetry with More Pleasure."

Friday, September 27th

Keats, "La Belle Dame sans Mercy" (1820, anthology 768) and "Ode to a Nightingale" (1820, anthology 773)
- For a review of the structure and meaning of the ode, see this page and those that follow it.

Group II Response: Write about today's readings using (explicitly) one of the six approaches from "Some Hints to Help You Read Poetry with More Pleasure."

PAPER PROSPECTUS DUE
FOR STUDENTS WRITING PAPERS

Monday, September 30th

Percy Bysshe Shelley, "Ode to the West Wind" (1820, anthology 670) and "To a Sky-Lark" (1820, anthology 672)
- See again the Keats-Shelley House. None of the amateur sites online can capture Shelley as well as his own words in Stuart Curran's e-text of the notes to Queen Mab.

Group III Response: Write about today's readings using (explicitly) one of the six approaches from "Some Hints to Help You Read Poetry with More Pleasure."

Wednesday, October 2nd

Reading George Gordon, Lord Byron, Don Juan, Dedication and Canto I (1819, anthology 569)
- The companion to the Keats site of the same crazy title: Byron: A Comprehensive Study of His Life and Work. Aside from that site, there is remarkably little useful online information about Byron.

Group IV Response: Write about today's readings using (explicitly) one of the six approaches from "Some Hints to Help You Read Poetry with More Pleasure."

Friday, October 4th

FIRST EXAM/PAPER DATE

Textbook Poetry Fiction Film Theory Contexts Research and Writing Research Writing Courses Tutorial 120 224 Syllabus Discussion Board Assignments Policies Old Modules Romanticism F02 Romanticism S03 Victorianism S03 Modernism S03 Romanticism F03 Victorianism F03 Modernism F03 Romanticism S04 Victorianism S04 Modernism S04 Romanticism F04 Victorianism F04 Modernism F04 226 Seminars Site Information Site Updates Navigation Site Map	Romanticism Module, Fall 2002 This page contains the assignments from the Romanticism module "Gender, Sensibility, and Romanticism" with links to the online readings and to supporting materials. Monday, September 2nd Thomas Gray, "Elegy Written in a Country Church-Yard" (1751) The Thomas Gray Archive includes a chronology, a bibliography, and a gallery of portraits and maps. If you need to brush up on iambic pentameter, see these links for explanations of the iamb and pentameter. This is a two-part assignment to get the electronic side of the class moving. Group I will do the following literary assignment, but all of you need to do this part: go to the class discussion board and write a solid paragraph or two introducing yourself to the class. Group I Response (due, as always, by 9:00 pm the previous evening): Concentrating on one small section of the poem--10 lines or so--discuss the relationship of the poem's characters to the village society they inhabit, especially in the way Gray portrays the way feelings pass (or do not pass) among the speaker, the villagers, and the imagined readers of the poem. Wednesday, September 4th Adam Smith, "Of Sympathy," the first chapter in Theory of Moral Sentiments (1759) Edward J. Harpham of the University of Texas at Dallas maintains The Adam Smith Web Page, with biographical and bibliographical information on Smith. Edmund Burke, from A Philosophical Enquiry into Our Notions of the Sublime and the Beautiful (1757), (e-text from 1759 second edition) "Blupete" (a.k.a. Peter Landry, a Canadian lawyer) has put together a simple, careful introduction to Burke. Group II Response: Use our discussion of Gray as a way into thinking about the models of emotion that Smith and Burke offer us. How does the emotional landscape of Gray's "Elegy" enact or fail to enact the theories that Smith and Burke put forth? Friday, September 6th Ann Yearsley, "To Indifference" and "Addressed to Sensibility" from Poems on Various Subjects (1787) WORP, or Women of the Romantic Period, an interactive teaching site developed by Morri Safran, includes a page on Yearsley with biographical information and annotatable electronic editions of some of her works. If you're interested in interactive teaching, poke around the WORP site to see what they have been up to. Group III Response: Discuss these poems in the framework of the three previous works we have read. At some point in your response, offer your sense of how Yearsley seems to define the words "sensibility" and "indifference." Monday, September 9th Selections of Della Cruscan poetry (published in newspapers, then collected in 1788 and 1790) Group IV Response: In class, we will be working to construct a poetics of Della Cruscan verse; that is, a statement of its values, techniques, and strategies. Using Gray's "Elegy" as a point of comparison, give us a head start by talking about how Della Cruscan verse functions and what it wants to achieve. Wednesday, September 11th Judith Pascoe, "'That fluttering, tinselled crew': Women Poets and Della Cruscanism" in Romantic Theatricality: Gender, Poetry, and Spectatorship (1997). Jerome McGann, "The Literal World of the English Della Cruscans" in The Poetics of Sensibility: A Revolution in Literary Style (1996) Group V Response: Discuss either or both of the articles, emphasizing points or passages you find especially persuasive and also questions that you would like the class to discuss about (or stemming from) this critical work. Friday, September 13th Charlotte Smith, all prefatory material and Sonnets I, IX, XII, and XLIV from Elegiac Sonnets and Other Poems (first edition 1784, e-text of 1827 edition) For a review of the structure and meaning of the sonnet form, see this page and those that follow it. Brent Raycroft, who wrote a dissertation on Smith, has a quirky web page devoted to Smith and her work. The page has some useful material, but its effectiveness is limited by the dearth of high-quality information about Smith online. Stuart Curran's introduction to his edition of Smith's poems is the best recent critical starting point for thinking about her poetry. Group I Response: open response. (Each group has now written one directed response, so we will now have a round of open responses.) Monday, September 16th William Wordsworth, Preface (anthology 332), "Old Man Travelling" (anthology 327), "The Thorn" (anthology 319), and "Note to the Thorn" (anthology 324) from Lyrical Ballads (1798 and 1800) For a review of the structure and meaning of the ballad form, see this page and those that follow it. The Lyrical Ballads Bicentenary Project is an excellent scholarly site. A lot of Wordsworthian information of varying quality dots the Internet; the best and most authoritative starting point is probably the Wordsworth section of the Voice of the Shuttle Romanticism page. That page has a section for Coleridge as well, but you can also start with Marjorie A. Tiefert's Coleridge Archive. Group II Response: open response. Wednesday, September 18th Wordsworth, "Lines Written a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey" (1798, anthology 328) and Samuel Taylor Coleridge, "The Eolian Harp" (1800, anthology 478) from Lyrical Ballads For a review of the structure and meaning of blank verse, see this page and those that follow it. Group III Response: open response. Friday, September 20th Coleridge, "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" (1817 version, anthology 484) and the 1798 excerpt for comparison (anthology 482) from Lyrical Ballads Group IV Response: open response. Monday, September 23rd Mary Robinson, "London's Summer Morning" (anthology 203) and "The Old Beggar" (anthology 204) from Lyrical Tales (1800) Romantic Circles has an electronic edition of Robinson's Letter to the Women of England, which also has excellent complementary texts; Virginia has an E-text of Sappho and Phaon, and the Penn Library's Celebration of Women Writers has created an electronic copy of an 1895 memoir. Isobel Armstrong "The Gush of the Feminine: How Can We Read Women's Poetry of the Romantic Period?" in Romantic Women Writers: Voices and Countervoices, ed. Feldman and Kelley (1995) Group V Response: open response. Wednesday, September 25th John Keats, "On First Looking into Chapman's Homer" and companion readings (1816, anthology 748), "On Seeing the Elgin Marbles" (1817, anthology 757) In spite of its preposterously overstated title, John Keats: A Comprehensive Study of His Life and Work is in fact an interesting and useful general site with some primary texts. Also good are a British Library exhibition on Keats and the site of Rome's Keats-Shelley House. Group I Response: Write about today's readings using (explicitly) one of the six approaches from "Some Hints to Help You Read Poetry with More Pleasure." Friday, September 27th Keats, "La Belle Dame sans Mercy" (1820, anthology 768) and "Ode to a Nightingale" (1820, anthology 773) For a review of the structure and meaning of the ode, see this page and those that follow it. Group II Response: Write about today's readings using (explicitly) one of the six approaches from "Some Hints to Help You Read Poetry with More Pleasure." PAPER PROSPECTUS DUE FOR STUDENTS WRITING PAPERS Monday, September 30th Percy Bysshe Shelley, "Ode to the West Wind" (1820, anthology 670) and "To a Sky-Lark" (1820, anthology 672) See again the Keats-Shelley House. None of the amateur sites online can capture Shelley as well as his own words in Stuart Curran's e-text of the notes to Queen Mab. Group III Response: Write about today's readings using (explicitly) one of the six approaches from "Some Hints to Help You Read Poetry with More Pleasure." Wednesday, October 2nd Reading George Gordon, Lord Byron, Don Juan, Dedication and Canto I (1819, anthology 569) The companion to the Keats site of the same crazy title: Byron: A Comprehensive Study of His Life and Work. Aside from that site, there is remarkably little useful online information about Byron. Group IV Response: Write about today's readings using (explicitly) one of the six approaches from "Some Hints to Help You Read Poetry with More Pleasure." Friday, October 4th FIRST EXAM/PAPER DATE
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Erik Simpson \| simpsone@grinnell.edu This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.