ENGLISH 207

SIXTEENTH- AND SEVENTEENTH CENTURY POETRY

SPRING 1999

MR. PIERCE

TEXTS:

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.

Duncan-Jones, Katherine, ed. Sir Philip Sidney. New York: Oxford, 1989.

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.

ASSIGNMENTS (Poems listed with asterisk after page assignments will be emphasized):

Feb. 9	Introduction
Feb. 11	Philip Sidney: Astrophil and Stella *1, 7, 31, 41
Feb. 16	Philip Sidney: A Defense of Poesy *69, 71, Sonnet: "Leave me, O love"
Feb. 18	William Shakespeare: Sonnets 1-65; Nowottny, pp. 227-36 *15, 35, 49, 60, 64, 65
Feb. 23	William Shakespeare: Sonnets 66-126; Smith, pp. 222-26 *71, 73, 90, 106, 116
Feb. 25	William Shakespeare: Sonnets 127-52; Vendler, pp. 237-44 *128, 129, 130, 138, 152
Mar. 2	John Donne: "Song--Go and catch a falling star," "Woman's Constancy," "The Indifferent," "Love's Alchemy," "The Bait," "The Flea," "To His Mistress Going to Bed," Satire III; Hunt, Redpath, pp. 203-27 *"Woman's Constancy," "The Bait," "The Flea"
Mar. 4	John Donne: "The Good-Morrow," "The Sun Rising," "The Canonization," "Love's Growth," "A Nocturnal upon St. Lucy's Day," "A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning," "The Ecstasy," "The Relic"; Brooks, pp. 195-203; Clements, pp. 231-42 *"The Canonization," "The Sun Rising"
Mar. 9	Donne: more on Group Two poems; poemweb due *"The Ecstasy"
Mar. 11	"An Anatomy of the World," pp. 98-108; Holy Sonnets and Divine Poems, pp. 112-29 *"An Anatomy of the World," "Good Friday, 1613," "Hymn to God my God, in my Sickness"
Mar. 16	Jonson, pp. 5-11, 20-43; pp. 401-20 *"On My First Son," "Epitaph on Elizabeth, L. H.," "To Penshurst," "To Celia," "To Celia" (the other one), "To Heaven"
Mar. 18	Jonson, "A Celebration of Charis in Ten Lyric Pieces," "Though beauty be the mark of praise," "To the Immortal Memory and Friendship," "To the Memory of . . . Mr. William Shakespeare," songs pp. 90-93; Summers, pp. 454-65; journal due at end of class *"Though beauty be the mark of praise, "Queen and huntress," "Still to be neat"
Mar. 30- Apr. 8	Other authors: poems as presented in class by groups
Apr. 13	George Herbert: pp. 4-29; Low, pp. 221-32 *"The Altar," "Redemption," "Easter," "Affliction (I)," "Jordan (I)"
Apr. 15	George Herbert: pp. 29-56; Summers, pp. 255-70 * "Church Monuments," "The Windows," "Virtue," "The Pearl," "The Pilgrimage," "The Collar"
Apr. 20	George Herbert: pp. 57-70 *"The Flower," "Aaron," "The Elixir," "Love (III)"
Apr. 22	Henry Vaughan: pp. 139-52; Ellrodt and Pettet, pp. 337-53 *"Regeneration," "The Retreat," "The Morning Watch"
Apr. 27	Henry Vaughan: pp. 152-65; Sandbank, pp. 354-64 *"The World," "I walked the other day"
Apr. 29	Henry Vaughan: pp. 165-80 *"They are all gone," "Cock-crowing," "The Night"
May 4	Andrew Marvell: pp. 93-106; criticism, pp. 310-20 *"On a Drop of Dew," "The Nymph Complaining for the Death of her Fawn," "To His Coy Mistress"
May 6	Andrew Marvell: pp. 106-14; criticism, pp. 295-307, 326-37 *"The Mower Against Gardens," "The Garden"
May 11	Andrew Marvell: pp. 114-37 *"An Horatian Ode Upon Cromwell's Return from Ireland"
May 13	Abraham Cowley, "To the Royal Society," in Jonson, pp. 343-47; paper and journal due

COURSE REQUIREMENTS:

Attendance and class participation

Leading class on a poem

Participation in group presentation of a poet

Reading journal

Two papers 7-10 pages each

PAPERS:

The first paper, due March 9, is to a be a poemweb on one of the poems studied so far. The web may be either 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 similar format. Be sure to include a bibliography with both your print and electronic sources, and document any direct quotations. The second paper, due May 13, 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."

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. No work can be handed in after May 18 without an official Incomplete.

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.