Fall 2001

Robert Pierce

English 207 (4124)

Rice 106, (440) 775-8583

W, 7:00-10:00 pm, King 241
E-mail: Robert.Pierce@oberlin.edu

Office hours: MWF, 2:30-3:20
& Tu, 1:30-3:00

SIXTEENTH- AND SEVENTEENTH CENTURY POETRY

TEXTS (Bring the relevant text or texts to each class):
Clements, Arthur L., ed. John Donne's Poetry. 2nd ed. New York: Norton, 1992.
DiCesare, Mario A., ed. George Herbert and the Seventeenth-Century Religious Poets. New York: Norton, 1978.
MacLean, Hugh, ed. Ben Jonson and the Cavalier Poets. New York: Norton, 1974.
Shakespeare, William. The Sonnets. Ed. William Burto. Rev. ed. New York: Signet, 1988.
Shakespeare, William. "Shakespeare's Sonnet 60" at my homepage

ASSIGNMENTS (Poems listed are for especially close study):

Sept. 5

Sept. 12

Sept. 19


Sept. 26

Introduction

Shakespeare, Introduction, Sonnets 1-77; Sonnets 15, 20, 60, 71

Sidney handout; "When Nature made her chief work," "With how sad steps," "Leave me, O love"; memorize Shakespeare sonnet and perform

Shakespeare, Sonnets 78-154; turn in journal

Oct. 3

Oct. 10


Oct. 17

Oct. 31

Donne, pp. 3-48, 60-62; "Woman's Constancy," "The Sun Rising," "The Ecstasy"

Donne, pp. 72-75, 98-129; "At the round earth's," "Good Friday, 1613," "Hymn to God my God, in my Sickness"; poemweb due

Jonson, pp. 3-45; "On My First Son," "Songs to Celia" (V and IX), "To Heaven"

Jonson, pp. 46-93; Herrick, 103-35; "Though beauty be the mark of praise," "To the Memory of Mr. William Shakespeare," "Queen and huntress," "Still to be neat," "Delight in Disorder"; turn in journal

Nov. 7

Nov. 14

Nov. 21

Nov. 28

Herbert, pp. 3-38; "Affliction (I)," "Prayer (I)," "Jordan (I)"

Herbert, pp. 38-70; "The Pilgrimage," "The Flower," "Love (III)"

No class; individual appointments to discuss paper drafts; bring the draft to your conference

Vaughan, pp. 139-80; "Regeneration," "The World," "The Night"

Dec. 5

Dec. 14

Marvell, pp. 93-117; "On a Drop of Dew," "The Garden," "An Horatian Ode"; paper due

Marvell, pp. 117-37; Cowley, pp. 343-47; turn in journal

COURSE REQUIREMENTS:
Attendance and class participation
Memorizing and performing Shakespeare sonnet
Participation in group presentation of a poet
Reading journal
Two papers 7-10 pages each

GROUP PRESENTATIONS:

The class will be divided into groups who will choose another poet from the period to present to the rest of the class. Your job will be to choose two or three poems either from our texts or to hand out to the class; give them as a reading assignment in class the previous week; then lead the class for 35 to 40 minutes on the day assigned. Your aim should be to make the poet as interesting as possible and to help us to understand the poems; and you may use whatever methods will contribute to those goals, including lecture, discussion, performance, and creative techniques. I expect each group to consult at least briefly with me in advance.

READING ASSIGNMENT AND JOURNAL:

For each class you should prepare in three parts, spread out over the week. First, read the body of poetry assigned for that week and write a page or so in your journal responding to one or more of the poems. Second, read a critical or scholarly essay (either from the text or from elsewhere), and write a page or so of response. Third, re-read the specifically listed poems with special care and write a page or so on one of them. In addition you should write a page or so of response soon after each class. You may choose to focus on one topic or several. Indicate if you are including anything you do not want the rest of the class to hear. Note that I will ask to see your journals three times during the semester, on September 19, October 17, and December 12. I will return them promptly with my comments.

PAPERS:

The first paper, due October 10, is to a be a poemweb on one of the poems studied so far. The web either may be an Internet page on the model of the web for Shakespeare's Sonnet 60 linked to the course syllabus online or may be print pages in a similar format. Be sure to include a bibliography with both your print and electronic sources, and document any direct quotations. The second paper, due December 5, may either compare two poems from the course or use a specific body of non-literary material to shed light on one poem. Thus you might use the Augustinian idea of illumination for Vaughan's poem "The Night" or Machiavellian ideas of statecraft for Marvell's picture of Cromwell in the "Horatian Ode."

The suggested length of seven to ten pages is only a guide; your paper should be long enough to get to the end and should then quit. Papers will be marked down for lateness unless you get an extension in advance or have a medical or similar emergency. If you are having problems with the paper, feel free to consult with me, and I would be glad to look at drafts.

Nature never set forth the earth in so rich tapestry as divers poets have done; neither with so pleasant rivers, fruitful trees, sweet-smelling flowers, nor whatsoever else may make the too much loved earth more lovely. Her world is brazen, the poets only deliver a golden.

--Sir Philip Sidney, The Defense of Poesy