British Poetry of the Later Romantic Period
English 4/802
Fall 2011
Stephen C.
Behrendt
1819 319 Andrews; 472-1806
office: 1230 - 200 TR
and by appointment
George Cruikshank, Victory at Peterloo
Tentative Schedule
readings (and page numbers) are from Mellor and Matlak, British Literature 1780 - 1830 unless otherwise indicated
Aug 23 T Introductory matters: The Romantic period in
history and literature: critical perspectives
Aug 25 R continued
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Aug 30 T Reading: Byron, Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage selection f rom Cantos 1, 2, 4, and canto 3 complete (888-95, 901-18, 947-53)
Internet Resources:
A good place to start with Byron.
For the full text of Don Juan, click here.
Sep 1 R Reading: “Prometheus” (920-21)
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Sep 6 T Reading: Don Juan, Canto 1 complete, selections from Cantos 2, 3, 4, 9, 13 (953-997, 999-1026)
Internet Resources:
For the full text of Don Juan, click here.
Sep 8 R Reading: Don Juan (continued)
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Sep 13 T Reading: Don Juan (continued)
Sep 15 R group summary: Byron
Reading: “The Vision of Judgment” (PDF)
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Sep 20 T Reading: Shelley, “Alastor” (1053-62)
Additional Reading: Marcet: excerpt from Conversations on Political Economy (99-101)
Cobbett: Cobbett's Poor Man's Friend (102-04)
Hazlitt: excerpt from Lectures on the English Poets (149-50), and from Table Talk (150-51)Internet Resources:
You'll find an excellent starting-point for anything relating to Percy Bysshe Shelley here.
Sep 22 R Reading: “To Wordsworth” (1062), “Mont Blanc” (1063-64), “Hymn to Intellectual Beauty” (1065-66)
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Sep 27 T Reading: Prometheus Unbound (1102-38)
Sep 29 R Reading: Prometheus Unbound (continued)
Internet Resources:
For the full text of A Defence of Poetry, click here
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Oct 4 T Reading: Adonais (1140-48)
Oct 6 R group summary: Shelley
Reading: “Ode to the West Wind” (1101-02)
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Oct 11 T Reading: Keats, “How many bards gild the lapses of time” (1257), “On First Looking into Chapman’s Homer” (1257)
excerpt from “Sleep and Poetry” (1257-61), “On Seeing the Elgin Marbles” (1261)
Internet Resources:
Starting-point for John Keats
And another for the Elgin Marbles (now in the British Museum)
Oct 13 R Reading: “La Bell Dame sans Merci” (1278-79, 1313-14), “The Eve of St. Agnes” (1279-84)
Additional reading: Lockhart::
"Cockney School of Poetry" (159-61)
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Oct 18 — FALL BREAK (M/T)
Oct 20 R Reading: Hyperion: A Fragment (1285-95), “The Fall of Hyperion: A Dream” (1314-20)
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Oct 25 T Reading: “Ode to Psyche” (1295-96) “Ode to a Nightingale” (1296-97), “Ode on a Grecian Urn” (1297-98)
“Ode on Melancholy” (1298), “Ode on Indolence” (1312-13)
Internet Resources:
For images of Keats and of his letters and manuscripts, go here.
Want to hear a nightingale? Click here.
Oct 27 R group summary: Keats
Reading: “To Autumn” (1308), “When I have fears that I may cease to be” (1312)
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Nov 1 T Reading: Hemans, “The Widow of Crescentius” (1180-88), “The Wife of Asdrubal” (1188-89)
Internet Resources:
Felicia Hemans starting-point.
For the full text of Hemans' Records of Woman (1828), click here.
Nov 3 R Reading: “The Graves of a Household” (1226), “To the Poet Wordsworth” (1226), “Casabianca” (1227)
“Evening Prayer, at a Girls’ School” (1227-28)
Internet Resources:
Here is an 1863 illustration for Hemans’ “Evening Prayer at a Girls' School”
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Nov 8 T Reading: “The Bride of the Greek Isle” (1229-32), “Prosperzia Rossi” (1232-34), “Indian Woman’s Death Song” (1236-37)
Internet Resources:
For the full text of Hemans' Records of Woman (1828), click here.
Nov 10 R Reading: “Madeline: A Domestic Tale” (1239-40), The Memorial Pillar” (1240-41), “The Homes of England” (1241-42),
“The Image in Lava” (1242)
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Nov 15 T Reading: “The Grave of a Poetess” (PDF), “Woman and Fame” (1247)
Nov 17 R group summary: Hemans
Reading: “A Spirit’s Return” (1243-45)
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Nov 22 T Reading: Landon, “Sappho’s Song” (1379), ”The Proud Ladye” (1379-80), “Home” (PDF)
Internet Resources:
Here is a link to "L. E. L." on Romantic Circles.
And here is a link for Fisher's Drawing Room Scrapbook for 1832 , which Landon edited
Nov 23-27 — THANKSGIVING HOLIDAY
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COURSE PROJECT DUE THIS WEEK — NO LATER THAN THURSDAY
Nov 29 T Reading: Erinna (1381-86), “Love’s Last Lesson” (1386-88), “Revenge” (1394)
Dec 1 R group summary: Landon
Reading: “Felicia Hemans” (1401-02) “Stanzas on the Death of Mrs. Hemans” (PDF)
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Dec 6 T Concluding matters. What did it all mean? Why is it still so meaningful?
— Final thoughts, Course Evaluations, Taking Stock, Tearful Farewells
Dec 8 R
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Final Examination: Wednesday, 14 December: 10:00 – noon