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Office: Blaustein 321; Box 5335; 439-2197; lber@conncoll.edu
Office Hours: Tuesdays 11:30 a.m.-1 p.m. and by appointment
- Texts:
- Eighteenth-Century Poetry (ed. Fairer and Gerrard)
- John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester, Complete Works (ed. Ellis)
- The Norton Anthology of English Literature: Major Authors (6th edition)
Course Requirements: Three essays: 3-4 pages analyzing Dryden, Rochester
or Finch (20%), 7-8 pages analyzing Pope, Johnson, Swift or Montagu (25%), and
3-4 pages arguing for reading a particular author or works in the final week
of classes (15%); a poem of 20-40 lines in heroic couplets (15%); a final exam
(15%); and active participation in class discussion (10%). You must complete
all work assigned in order to pass the course.
You may miss three classes without penalty. Any further absences will result
in the automatic lowering of your final grade by 2/3 of a grade (e.g., a B would
become a C+). If you are more than 10 minutes late or miss a scheduled conference
without notice you will be marked absent. I expect you to collect any handouts
distributed in your absence from the bin on my office door.
All written work must be double-spaced, typed on one side of the page, and stapled
in the upper left-hand corner. No extra title pages, folders, or covers. Your
grade will suffer if you fail to follow guidelines for citations and format
distributed in class.
You may take one extension of up to one week on either of the first two papers,
or on the revision of the poem. The draft of the poem and the third paper must
be handed in on time. Late papers will be marked down 1/3 of a grade. I wil
not accept a paper that is more than a week overdue.
When you are assigned a question to answer during class discussion, prepare
3-5 minutes of organized comments. Use the questions to guide your reading;
all members of the class should participate in discussion of all questions.
If a poem assigned below appears in both anthologies, read the version in
Eighteenth-Century Poetry.
| Thursday, 2 September | Introduction. Dryden: "Epigram on Milton" |
| Tuesday, 7 September | Dryden: Absalom and Achitophel |
| Thursday, 9 September | Dryden: Absalom and Achitophel |
| Tuesday, 14 September | Dryden: "To the Memory of Mr. Oldham";
Phillips: "The Splendid Shilling" |
| Thursday, 16 September | Dryden: Mac Flecknoe |
| Tuesday, 21 September | Rochester: "A Satyr against Mankind,"
"The Maimed Debauchee" |
| Thursday, 23 September | Behn: "The Disappointment" [handout];
Rochester: "Th'Imperfect Enjoyment," "Upon
his Leaving his Mistress," "Song to Cloris,"
"Song [Love a Woman? You're an Ass]" |
| Tuesday, 28 September | Rochester: "Artemisia to Chloe" |
| Thursday, 30 September | Finch: "The Introduction" and "The Agreeable" |
| Tuesday, 5 October | Pope: An Essay on Criticism; paper 1 due |
| Thursday, 7 October | Pope: An Essay on Criticism |
| Tuesday, 12 October | Pope: Windsor Forest, 1-42 and Essay on Man, from Epistle 2 |
| Thursday, 14 October | draft of poem due in class; details TBA |
| Tuesday, 19 October | Swift: "A Description of a City Shower";
Finch: "A Nocturnal Reverie"; revision of poem due |
| Thursday, 21 October | Swift: "A Beautiful Young Nymph Going to Bed";
Montagu: "Saturday: The Small Pox" |
| Tuesday, 26 October | Pope: The Rape of the Lock |
| Thursday, 28 October | Pope: The Rape of the Lock |
| Tuesday, 2 November | Swift: "The Lady's Dressing Room"; Montagu:
"The Reasons that induced Dr. S---- to write . . . the Lady's Dressing
Room" [handouts]; "The Lover: A Ballad" |
| Thursday, 4 November | Pope: Epistle to Dr. Arbuthnot;
Montagu: "Verses Addressed to the Imitator of the First
Satire of the Second Book of Horace" |
| Tuesday, 9 November | Pope: The Dunciad, Book 1 |
| Thursday, 11 November | Pope: The Dunciad, from Book 4 |
| Tuesday, 16 November | Johnson: The Vanity of Human Wishes |
| Thursday, 18 November | Johnson: The Vanity of Human Wishes; paper 2 due |
| Tuesday, 23 November | Johnson: "On the Death of Dr. Robert Levet";
Gray: "Sonnet on the Death of Mr. Richard West"; Cowper: "The Cast-away" |
| THANKSGIVING BREAK |
| Tuesday, 30 November | Gray: "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard" |
| Thursday, 2 December | Gray: "Ode on the Death of a Favorite Cat
Drowned in a Tub of Goldfishes"; Smart: "my Cat Jeoffry" from
Jubilate Agno |
| Monday, 6 December | paper 3 due via email (details below) |
| Tuesday, 7 December | Smart: "A Song to David" |
| Thursday, 9 December | POEMS TO BE ANNOUNCED |
| Tuesday, 14 December | POEMS TO BE ANNOUNCED |
Poem in heroic couplets, of 20-40 lines, due in class on Thursday, 14 October.
The goal of this assignment is to ensure that you fully grasp the elements of the heroic couplet--not only its structure but also how its form may be exploited to further a poetical argument.
- Choose one of the following typical 18th century subjects:
--a description of a landscape, building or monument
--a short narrative with a moral (comic, tragic or satirical)
--a character portrait. The portrait may be of a real person or a "type" (like Rochester's "Fine Lady"). It may be praise or satire, and adopt a comic or a serious tone. If you choose to write a character sketch of a real person, do not write about anyone in the class.
- Write your poem. It must meet these criteria:
a. 90 percent of the lines must be in iambic pentameter couplets
b. include at least one of the following: chiasmus, zeugma, alexandrine, triplet.
c. include at least one example of parallel structure (that is, when the syntax of the first line in a couplet mirrors that in the second line)
d. include at least one allusion to either classical or "contemporary" mythology. You may refer to Greek gods, or you may allude to modern fictional characters who serve the same function for contemporary readers (e.g., Marge Simpson, Sherlock Holmes, Tarzan). Such allusions in either case must be generally recognizable and convey a clear meaning to the average reader.
e. at least 60 percent of the couplets must work as self-contained units of thought (that is, don't overdo enjambment, and remember that heroic couplets are organic wholes assembled into longer poems).
f. Optional elements that may strengthen your poem: alliteration or assonance; references to, imitations of, or short quotations from other poems; any of the suggestions Pope makes in Essay on Criticism for ensuring that sound echoes sense.
- TRIPLE space your poem and bring FOUR copies to class on 14 October. There you will go over your poems in small groups, ensuring that the couplets meet the above requirements and seeking suggestions and improvements from your peers. If you fail to bring your poem to class for discussion on the 14th, the final grade on the poem will be lowered one full level (e.g., a "B" would become a "C"). You will hand in a revision of your poem on Tuesday, 19 October.
--If your poem meets all the above criteria, it will earn at least a B+. If it has exceptional grace, wit, charm, power, or cleverness, it will be graded higher.
--If the poem basically meets the above criteria, but (for example) doesn't maintain iambic pentameter as required, or fails to construct unified couplets, the grade will be somewhere between C+ and B.
--Poems that fail to meet several or many of the requirements listed above will earn lower grades.
Paper No. 3: 750-1000 words, due Monday, 6 December. Distribute it via email to the ENTIRE CLASS no later than 12 p.m.
You all must read the papers before class on Tuesday, 7 December. There you will vote for the three proposals you find most interesting, and the top two proposals will be assigned on the last two days of class. The authors of the proposals will be expected to take a leading role in discussion of the poems they recommended.
This paper asks you to do two things: first, to step back from the poets and poems we are reading in the course and examine the historical "narrative" and the literary "canon" that my syllabus constructs for you; and second, to expand your reading outside the works that I chose to assign.
You should begin by browsing through other poetry from the period 1660-1800. In addition to the Norton and Blackwell anthologies, consult the anthologies on reserve in Shain library (one of seventeenth-century verse, including the Restoration period, and three of eighteenth-century verse). Other sources not on reserve include the series Poems on Affairs of State (Restoration political poetry) and the works of individual poets.
Your goal is to find a poem or group of poems that you think should be included on the syllabus of the course, and to write a paper in which you argue for their inclusion. In doing so, you need to consider the following questions:
1. According to the present syllabus for ENG 308, what is important about Restoration and eighteenth-century verse? Does the syllabus have an overall argument or goal? Does it have any limitations or gaps?
2. Is there any author or topic that requires more attention?
3. How will the class's understanding of eighteenth-century poetry be improved by adding the poems that you propose? Will our interpretation of any other poems or authors change as a result of the readings you recommend? (For example, you might propose to include a poem that specifically attacks, imitates, parodies, or otherwise comments on a poem we've studied. Or you might suggest a poem that treats a topic we've studied in a different way.)
4. If the poems are by an author we're already studying, how will reading this new work change or enhance our understanding of his or her work? If by a new author, what makes him or her valuable to the course?
For an overview of some ways to think about organizing a survey of the period, consult the introductions to the anthologies (the Norton is very traditional; Lonsdale is idiosyncratic, etc.). You also may need to read criticism on the work or author, especially if the material is unfamiliar to you. Bear in mind, however, that a paper arguing in a vacuum for the importance of a particular poem or author will be less successful than a paper that shows how the poem will fit into the course. Poems need not be works of genius to merit inclusion for other historical or theoretical reasons.
You may propose a single poem, a group of poems by one author, or a related group of poems by different authors. Like all expository essays, your paper should have a clear thesis and well-focused argument. Be sure to include a list of Works Consulted and, if the poem is not included in the Norton or Blackwell anthologies or available on the web, provide a copy (if it's too long to type at the end of your paper, leave 10 photocopies in the bin on my office door).
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- Related Links:
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Prof. Berglund's Home Page
English Department Home Page
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