Course Syllabus--Spring 2008

Eng 337: Nineteenth-Century English Literature

-----Poetry in an Age of Prose

Professor: D. F. Felluga
Office Hours: T, Th 1:30-2:30
HEAV 430; telephone: 43770
Class: T, Th 12:00-1:15; HEAV 102
E-mail: felluga@purdue.edu

Course Description

Is life worth living without an appreciation of that within life that is poetry? This is one insistent question that will pursue us throughout this course, as it did the Romantics and Victorians throughout the nineteenth century. Other questions we will pursue include: can poetry survive in our modern age? What effect does a mass market have on poetry? What are the generic parameters of poetry as a form of expression? What debt do we owe to the poetry of the nineteenth century? In the course of responding to such questions, this class will come to understand the development of literature and culture from the eighteenth and into the twentieth century; indeed, the class is organized by date rather than by author to ensure we keep the historical situation of these authors in mind as we proceed through the semester. The class will also seek to understand and appreciate poetry: how does one read poetry? How does one analyze verse form? How does one make sense of poetic "license"? As a result, a significant part of many classes will be spent analyzing individual poems, particularly shorter lyrics. By the end of this course, students should gain both an understanding of nineteenth-century verse forms and a facility in analyzing those forms. They will also learn about the major social, cultural, and historical developments of the nineteenth century.

Students can learn about significant terms and concepts at the following Guide to Terms : http://web.ics.purdue.edu/~felluga/guide337.html.

REQUIRED BOOKS
Class CD with Readings . Available from Prof. Felluga.
Aurora Leigh (Oxford UP—0-19-283653-6), by Elizabeth Barrett Browning. Available at Von's Books.

WEEK ONE: 1789-1794
In every voice, in every ban,/ the mind-forg'd manacles I hear.

Tuesday, January 8

• Introductions and Pope's Essay on Man (published 1733-34)

Thursday, January 10: Introduction to Romanticism—Culture

• Images, architecture and music presented in class
• Introduction to William Blake
• William Blake, "The Little Black Boy" (published 1789)
• William Blake, "The Chimney Sweeper" (published 1794)
• William Blake, "London" (published 1794)
• William Blake, "The Tyger" (published 1794)

ADDITIONAL MATERIAL

• The Romantic Chronology, by Laura Mandell and Alan Liu
• Keynote Lecture on Romanticism and Culture
  

WEEK TWO: 1794-1800
all good poetry is the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings

Tuesday, January 15: Introduction to Romanticism—Philosophy

• Introduction to Samuel Taylor Coleridge
• Samuel Taylor Coleridge, "The Eolian Harp" (written 1795, published 1796)

Thursday, January 17: Introduction to Romanticism—Revolution

• Anonymous, "The Age of War" (published 1798)
• Samuel Taylor Coleridge, "Frost at Midnight" (written Feb. 1798, published 1798)
• Introduction to William Wordsworth
• William Wordsworth, "Lines Written a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey" (written July 1798, published 1798)
• William Wordsworth, "A slumber did my spirit seal" (written 1799, published 1800)
• William Wordsworth, "Lucy Gray" (written 1799, published 1800)
• William Wordsworth, Preface to the Lyrical Ballads (published 1800; revised and expanded in 1802 and 1805)

ADDITIONAL MATERIAL

• Keynote Lecture on Romanticism and Philosophy
• Keynote Lecture on Romanticism and Revolution

WEEK THREE: 1800-1804
nothing can bring back the hour/ Of splendour in the grass, of glory in the flower

Tuesday, January 22: Introduction to Romanticism— Milton, Napoleon, and the Satanic Hero

• Samuel Taylor Coleridge, "Kubla Kahn " (written 1797-98; published 1816)
• Samuel Taylor Coleridge, [The Satanic Hero], Statesman's Manual (published 1816)
• William Wordsworth, "London, 1802" (written Sept. 1802, published 1807)
• William Wordsworth, "Composed on Westminster Bridge" (written 1802, published 1807)
• William Wordsworth, "The world is too much with us" (written 1802-04; published 1807)

Thursday, January 24

• William Wordsworth, "Ode: Intimations of Immortality" (written 1802-04; published 1807)
  

ADDITIONAL MATERIAL

• Rush, "Xanadu"
• Keynote Lecture on Milton, Napoleon, and the Satanic Hero

WEEK FOUR: 1804-1808
That huge fermenting Mass of human-kind

Tuesday, January 29

• William Wordsworth, Prospectus to The Recluse (written 1798-1814, published 1814)
• William Wordsworth, The Prelude, Books I, VI and VII (written 1798-1839, published 1850)

Thursday, January 31: Introduction to the Napoleonic Wars I

• Introduction to Sir Walter Scott
• Sir Walter Scott , Marmion (written 1806-08; published 1808)
  

ADDITIONAL MATERIAL

• Keynote Lecture on the Napoleonic Wars (1804-08)

WEEK FIVE: 1808-17
War, war is still the cry, 'War even to the knife!'

Tuesday, February 5: Introduction to the Napoleonic Wars II

• Introduction to Lord Byron
• Lord Byron, Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, Canto I (published 1812)

Thursday, February 7: Introduction to the Byronic Hero

• Lord Byron, Manfred (written 1816-17, published 1817)

ADDITIONAL MATERIAL

• Keynote Lecture on Byron and the Napoleonic Wars (1809-12)
• Keynote Lecture on the Byronic Hero and the Napoleonic Wars (1813-1815)

WEEK SIX: 1817-19
I fall upon the thorns of life! I bleed!

Tuesday, February 12

• Introduction to Percy Bysshe Shelley
• Percy Bysshe Shelley, "To Wordsworth" (written 1814-15, published 1816)
• Percy Bysshe Shelley, "Hymn to Intellectual Beauty" (written 1816, published 1817)
• Percy Bysshe Shelley, "Mont Blanc" (written in 1816, published in 1817)

Thursday, February 14: Introduction to Radical Unrest in England
NOTE: FIRST ESSAY DUE

• Percy Bysshe Shelley, "Lift Not the Painted Veil" (written in 1818, published in 1824)
• Percy Bysshe Shelley, "England in 1819" (written 1819, published 1839)
• Percy Bysshe Shelley, "Ode to the West Wind" (written 1819, published 1820)
• William Hone, The Political House that Jack Built (published 1819)
• Samuel Bamford, "Touch Him!" (published 1819)
  

ADDITIONAL MATERIAL

Keynote Lecture on 1819 and Radical Unrest

Examples of 'A' Papers in Response to the First Essay Assignment

• Fall 1998
• Fall 2000

WEEK SEVEN: 1819-1823
Beauty is truth, truth beauty

Tuesday, February 19

• Introduction to John Keats (Reader)
• John Keats, "Ode to a Nightingale" (written May 1819, published 1819)
• John Keats, "Ode on a Grecian Urn" (written 1819, published 1820)
• John Keats, "La Belle Dame Sans Merci" (written April 1819; published 1820)
• John Keats, "Ode on Melancholy" (written 1819, published 1820)
• John Keats, "Sonnet to Sleep" (written April 1819, published 1838)
• John Keats, "To Autumn" (written July-August 1819, published 1820)

Thursday, February 21

• Lord Byron, Don Juan, Canto IX (published 1823)

WEEK EIGHT: 1823-1834
the game of push-pin is of equal value with the arts and sciences of music and poetry

Tuesday, February 26—Introduction to the Victorians: History and the Reform Act

• Introduction to Alfred Lord Tennyson
• Jeremy Bentham, "The Rationale of Reward" (published 1825)
• Thomas Babington Macaulay, "Milton" (published 1825)
• Alfred Lord Tennyson, "Mariana" (published 1830)
• Alfred Lord Tennyson, "Supposed Confessions of a Second-Rate Sensitive Mind" (published 1830)
• Alfred Lord Tennyson, "The Poet" (published 1830)
• Alfred Lord Tennyson, "The Poet's Mind" (published 1830)
• Arthur Hallam, "On Some of the Characteristics of Modern Poetry" (published 1831)

Thursday, February 28—Introduction to the Victorians: The Victorian Dialectic

• Alfred Lord Tennyson, "Lady of Shalott" (written 1831-32; published 1832)
• Alfred Lord Tennyson, "To —. With the Following Poem" (published 1832)
• Alfred Lord Tennyson, "The Palace of Art" (published 1832)
• Alfred Lord Tennyson, "Ulysses" (written 1833; published 1842)
• John Stuart Mill, "What Is Poetry?" (published 1833)
• Sir Henry Taylor, "Preface to Philip Van Artevelde" (published 1834)

ADDITIONAL MATERIAL

• Keynote Lecture on Historical Events (1819-32) and the Reform Act
• Loreena McKennitt, "The Lady of Shalott"
• Check out The Romantic Chronology again, specifically the years 1830-1837 and 1838-1851
• The Victorian Web, by George Landow at Brown University

WEEK NINE:
True genius, but true woman!

Tuesday, March 4

• Introduction to Robert Browning
• Robert Browning, "Porphyria's Lover" (written 1834; published 1836)
• Robert Browning, "My Last Duchess" (written 1842; published 1842)
• Dante Gabriel Rossetti, "The Blessed Damozel" (written 1846; published 1850)

Thursday, March 6

• Introduction to Elizabeth Barrett Browning
• Elizabeth Barrett Browning, "To George Sand," both "Desire" and "Recognition" (published 1844)
• Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Sonnets from the Portuguese (written 1845-47; published 1850)
• Elizabeth Barrett Browning, "The Runaway Slave at Pilgrim's Point" (written 1845-47; published 1850)

WEEK TEN: MARCH BREAK
We have had enough of action, and of motion we

WEEK ELEVEN: 1834-1847
'Que sçais-je?'

Tuesday, March 18

CLASS CANCELED

Thursday, March 20

MID-TERM EXAM: be sure to purchase and bring exam booklets (blue books)

ADDITIONAL MATERIAL

• Sample Mid-Term Exam (without poetry analysis)
• Sample Mid-Term Exam from Fall 1999 (with poetry analysis)
• Example of an 'A' Response to the Fall 2000 Mid-Term Exam (with poetry analysis)

WEEK TWELVE: 1847-1853
the dialogue of the mind with itself has commenced

Tuesday, March 25

• Robert Browning, "Essay on Shelley" (published 1852)
• Robert Browning, "Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came" (written 1852; published 1855)
• Robert Browning, "Fra Lippo Lippi" (written 1853; published 1855)
• Robert Browning, "Andrea Del Sarto" (written 1853; published 1855)

Thursday, March 27

• Introduction to Matthew Arnold (Houghton 404)
• Matthew Arnold, "Resignation" (published 1849)
• Matthew Arnold, "Dover Beach" (written 1851; published 1867)
• Matthew Arnold, "Empedocles on Etna," Empedocles' final speech, starting p. 437 with the line "And lie thou there" (published 1852)
• Matthew Arnold, Preface to 1853 Poems (published 1853)
• Matthew Arnold, "The Scholar Gypsy" (published 1853)

WEEK THIRTEEN: 1853-1856
I am a coward, and know it

Tuesday, April 1

• Introduction to Arthur Clough
• Arthur Clough, "Recent English Poetry" (published 1853)
• Arthur Clough, Amours de Voyage (published 1855)

Thursday, April 3

• Coventry Patmore, Angel in the House excerpt (published 1854-62)
• Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Aurora Leigh, Books 1-3 (published 1856)

 

ADDITIONAL MATERIAL

• Keynote Lecture on Historical Events: 1848-49
• Keynote Lecture on Historical Events: 1850-55
• Sample Mid-Term Exam from this semester's exam

WEEK FOURTEEN: 1856-1862
Eat me, drink me, love me

Tuesday. April 8
NOTE: SECOND ESSAY DUE

• Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Aurora Leigh, Books 4-9 (published 1856)

Thursday, April 10

• Introduction to Christina Rossetti
• Christina Rossetti, "After Death" (written 1849; published 1862)
• Christina Rossetti, "Dead before Death" (written 1854; published 1862)
• Christina Rossetti, "In an Artist's Studio" (written December 24, 1856; published 1896)
• Christina Rossetti, "Winter: My Secret" (written 1857; published 1862
• Christina Rossetti, "Goblin Market" (written April 1859; published 1862)

WEEK FIFTEEN: 1862-1870
A Sonnet is a moment's monument

Tuesday, April 15
NOTE: SONNET DUE

• Introduction to George Meredith
• George Meredith, Modern Love (published 1862)

Thursday, April 17—Introduction to the PRB and the Aesthetic Movement

• Introduction to Dante Gabriel Rossetti
• Dante Gabriel Rossetti, The House of Life (written 1848-80; published 1870 and, expanded, in 1881)
• Dante Gabriel Rossetti, "The Orchard-Pit" (written 1869; published 1886)
• Dante Gabriel Rossetti, "Jenny" (published 1870)
  

ADDITIONAL MATERIAL

• Keynote Lecture on the Pre-Raphaelites and Victorian Medievalism
• A Reading of Rossetti's "The Sonnet"
• Henry Wallis' "The Death of Chatterton" (Meredith as model, 1856)

WEEK SIXTEEN: 1870-1899
I am the love that dare not speak its name.

Tuesday, April 22

• Introduction to Gerard Manley Hopkins
• Gerard Manley Hopkins, "God's Grandeur" (written 1877; published 1918)
• Gerard Manley Hopkins, "As Kingfishers Catch Fire" (written 1877; published 1918)
• Gerard Manley Hopkins, "Spring" (written 1877; published 1918)
• Gerard Manley Hopkins, "The Windhover" (written 1877; published 1918)
• Gerard Manley Hopkins, "Carrion Comfort" (written 1885; published 1918)
• Gerard Manley Hopkins, "No Worst, There is None" (written 1885; published 1918)

Thursday, April 24—Introduction to the Decadent Movement

• Introduction to Oscar Wilde
• Oscar Wilde, "Impression du Matin" (published 1881)
• Oscar Wilde, "Symphony in Yellow" (published 1889)
• Ernest Dowson, "Non Sum Qualis Eram Bonae Sub Regno Cynarae" (published 1891)
• Ernest Dowson, "To One in Bedlam" (published 1892)
• Ernest Dowson, "O Mors!" (published 1892)
• Arthur Symons, "The Decadent Movement in Literature" (published 1893)
• Lord Alfred Douglas, "Two Loves" (published 1894)
• Ernest Dowson, "Villanelle of the Poet's Road" (published 1899)

ADDITIONAL MATERIAL

• Sample Final Exam
• Emily Allen's Keynote Lecture on the Decadent Movement
  

EXAM WEEK
"all/ Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know."

Wednesday, April 30

FINAL EXAM (1:00-3:00pm): be sure to purchase and bring exam booklets (blue books)

Assignments

Course Policies

Guide to Terms

Guide to Critical Theory

Last Revised: April 28, 2008

Paintings courtesy of
Carol L. Gerten-Jackson

Morris prints courtesy of
The William Morris Gallery