EN251: British Literature I
Fall Semester 2004

Section A: Monday and Friday 9:30-10:45 in CNS 202
Section B: Monday and Friday 3:30-4:45 in CNS 1

Syllabus

(Subject to revision)
Unless otherwise indicated, page numbers refer to the Norton Anthology of English Literature, vol. 1.

Thursday 9/9: Introduction: Lyric poetry.

Monday 9/13: The Petrarchan Tradition
Read in the Electronic Reserves (password: lyric):

• Bernart de Ventadorn (composed ca. 1150-1180 AD), "Can vei la lauzeta move" ("When I see the lark moving")
• Arnaut Daniel (born ca. 1150), "En cest sonnet coind'e leri" ("To this sweet and pretty air")
• The Countess of Dia (born ca. 1140), "A chantar m'er de so qu'ieu non volria" ("Of things I'd rather keep in silence I must sing"); "Estat ai en greu cossirier" ("I've lately been in great distress")
• Petrarch, Rime Sparse 110, 111, 132, 133, 140, 141,164, 165, 190, 191

Read in the Norton Anthology:

• Chaucer, “Troilus’ Song” (314)
• Chaucer, “Complaint to His Purse” (316)

Thursday 9/16: No class meetings.

Monday 9/20: Wyatt

Read in the Norton Anthology:

• “The Sixteenth Century, 1485-1603” (469-498)
• “Poetic Forms and Literary Terminology” (2944-2953)
• “Sir Thomas Wyatt the Elder” (525-526)
• Poems by Wyatt (527-537)

Thursday 9/23: Surrey

Read in the Norton Anthology:

• “Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey” (569-570)
• Poems by Surrey (570-577)

Monday 9/27: Sidney

Read in the Norton Anthology:

• “Sir Philip Sidney” (909-911)
• Selections from The Defense of Poesy (933-954)
• Selections from the sonnet sequence Astrophil and Stella (917-931)

Response paper: Wyatt, Surrey, and Sidney

Thursday 9/30: Spenser

Read in the Norton Anthology:

• “Edmund Spenser” (614-616)
• Selections from the sonnet sequence Amoretti (864-868)
• Epithalamion (868-878)

Also read Spenser's Amoretti 15 .

Monday 10/4: Shakespeare

Read in the Norton Anthology:

• “William Shakespeare” (1026-27)
• The note on the sonnets (1028)
• Sonnets 1, 3, 12, 15, 18, 19, and 20 (1029-32)

Thursday 10/7: Thesis workshops.

Come to class with a typed thesis for your essay, in a single, complete sentence.

Section B will not meet due to the Presidential Inauguration.

An additional thesis workshop will meet 7:30-8:45 PM in Canisius 1.

Monday 10/11: No class meetings—Columbus Day Holiday.

Thursday 10/14: Shakespeare

Read in the Norton Anthology:

• Sonnets 29, 30, 33, 35, 55, 60, 65, 71, 73, and 74 (1032-35)

First essay due.

Monday 10/18: Shakespeare

Read in the Norton Anthology:

• Sonnets 87, 94, 97, 98, 106, 107, 110, 116, and 126 (1036-39).

Thursday10/21: Shakespeare

Read in the Norton Anthology:

• Sonnets 127, 128, 129, 130, 135, 138, 144, 146, and 147 (1039-43).

Written assignment: original sonnet.

Monday 10/25: Donne

Read in the Norton Anthology:

• “The Early Seventeenth Century, 1603-1660” (1209-1232)
• “John Donne” (1233-1235)
• Poems by Donne (1236-39)

Thursday 10/28: Donne

Read in the Norton Anthology:

• Poems by Donne (1239-1249)

Response paper: Donne's love poems.

Monday 11/1: Donne

Read in the Norton Anthology:

• Poems by Donne (1249-1257)

Thursday 11/4: Donne

Read in the Norton Anthology:

• Selections from the Holy Sonnets (1268-72).

Monday 11/8: Wroth

Read in the Norton Anthology:

• “Mary Wroth” (1422-23)
• Selections from the sonnet sequence Pamphilia to Amphilanthus (1428-32)

Thursday 11/11: Jonson

Read in the Norton Anthology:

• “Ben Jonson” (1292-94)
• “To John Donne” (1395)
• “A Celebration of Charis in Ten Lyric Pieces” (1403-08)
• “A Sonnet to Lady Mary Wroth” (1408)
• “To the Memory of… Shakespeare” (1414-16)
• “Ode to Himself” (1416-18)

Second essay due.

Monday 11/15: Some Devotional Poems

Read in the Norton Anthology:

• “George Herbert” (1595-96)
• “The Altar” (1597)
• “Easter Wings” (1599)
• “Affliction” (1599-1601)
• “Prayer” (1601)
• “Church Monuments” (1602)
• “Man” (1604-05)
• “Time” (1606-07)
• “The Flower” (1610-12)

• “Henry Vaughan” (1615-16)
• “Regeneration” (1617-19)
• “The World” (1622-23)

• “Richard Crashaw” (1629-30)
• “To the Infant Martyrs” (1634)
• “I Am the Door” (1634)
• “On the Wounds of Our Crucified Lord” (1634-35)
• “To the Countess of Denbigh” (1639-40)
• “The Flaming Heart” (1641-43)

Thursday 11/18: Some Political Poems

Read in the Norton Anthology:

• “Richard Lovelace” (1670)
• “To Lucasta, Going to the Wars” (1670-71)
• “The Grasshopper” (1671-72)
• “To Althea, from Prison” (1672-73)

• “Katherine Philips” (1679)
• “Upon the Double Murder of King Charles” (1680)

• “Andrew Marvell” (1684-85)
• “An Horatian Ode: Upon Cromwell’s Return from Ireland”(1700-1704)

• "John Milton" (1771-74)
• “On the New Forces of Conscience Under the Long Parliament (1812)
• “To the Lord General Cromwell, May 1652” (1813)
• “When I Consider How My Light Is Spent” (1814)

Response paper: politics in poetry.

Monday 11/22: Some Carpe Diem Poems

Read in the Norton Anthology:

• “Robert Herrick” (1643-44)
• “The Argument of His Book” (1644-45)
• “Delight in Disorder” (1646)
• “Corinna’s Going A-Maying” (1648-49)
• “To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time” (1649-50)

• Thomas Carew, “A Rapture” (1661-64)

• Andrew Marvell, “To His Coy Mistress” (1691-92).

Thursday 11/25: No class meetings—Thanksgiving Break

Monday 11/29: Pope

Read in the Norton Anthology:

• “The Restoration and the Eighteenth Century, 1660-1785” (2045-70)
• “Alexander Pope” (2505-08)
• Selections from “An Essay on Man” (2555-62)

Thursday 12/2: Pope

Read in the Norton Anthology:

• The introduction to The Rape of the Lock (2525-26)
• Pope's letter to Arabella Fermor (2526-27)
• Cantos 1 and 2 of The Rape of the Lock (2527-33)

Monday 12/6: Pope

Read in the Norton Anthology:

• Cantos 3-5 of The Rape of the Lock (2533-44)

Thursday 12/9: Swift

Read in the Norton Anthology:

• “Jonathan Swift” (2298-99)
• “A Description of a City Shower” (2300-01)
• “The Lady’s Dressing Room” (2585-88)

Response paper: Swift's Poetry

Monday 12/13: Montagu

Read in the Norton Anthology:

• “Lady Mary Wortley Montagu” (2579-80)
• “The Lover: A Ballad” (2580-81)
• “The Reasons That Induced Dr. swift to Write a Poem Called the Lady’s Dressing Room” (2588-90)

Thursday 12/16: Final exam, Section B.

Two take-home essays due at start of exam. Click here for the essay assignments.

Tuesday 12/21: Final exam, Section A.

Two take-home essays due at start of exam. Click here for the essay assignments.