Engl 41701 / 52701: early 17th-century english poetry

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We’ll read selections from several poets, the non-canonical as well as the traditional, from the reign of James I to slightly after the Restoration (1603-1667). Although we'll spend a bit more time on John Donne, Ben Jonson, George Herbert, Andrew Marvell, and John Milton, we will also study poets such as Robert Herrick, Thomas Carew, Edmund Waller, Richard Lovelace, Aemilia Lanyer, and Katherine Philips. We'll devote the last month of the course to Paradise Lost. We'll  investigate trends in seventeenth-century English history: the reigns of James I, Charles I, Charles II, and James II; Oliver Cromwell and the English Revolution; religion and society.

Sir Herbert Grierson, ed. Metaphysical Lyrics and Poems of the Seventeenth Century (1921)

Dr. Johnson, Life of Cowley (1784)

T. S. Eliot, Review of Grierson ["The Metaphysical Poets"] in TLS  1921

Seventeenth-century timeline (BBC)

Paradise Lost guide

Magnificent Paradise Lost in medias res chart

Grandmother Eve and  Prelapsarian  Sexuality

Seventeenth-Century English women writers (Wiki)

Office: LA 233   Hours: please contact me

stapletm@pfw.edu

shakespeareinyourface.blogspot.com

Texts:  Rumrich and Chaplin, eds.,  ed., Seventeenth-Century British Poetry: 1603-1660: A Norton Critical Edition (ISBN: 0393979989) .

Teskey, ed., Paradise Lost: A Norton Critical Edition (ISBN: 0393924289)

Introductions, Stuarts, neoclassicism, baroque, mannerism, Puritans, Anglicans; 

Ben Jonson,  "On Something That Walks Somewhere"; "On My First Daughter"; "On My First Son"; "Inviting a Friend to Supper"; "Why I Write Not of Love"; "To Penshurst"; "Shakespeare"

John Donne, "The Sun Rising";  “The Flea”; “The Apparition”; “A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning”; “The Ecstasy”; “Elegy: On His Mistress Going to Bed”; [“At the round earth’s imagined corners”]; [“Death be not proud”]; [“Batter my heart”]; “Good Friday, 1613: Riding Westward”  

George Herbert, “The Altar”; “Redemption”; “Easter [I]”; “Easter-wings [I]”; “Affliction [I]”; “Jordan [I]”; “Jordan [II]”; “The Collar”; “Love [III]”

Robert Herrick,  “The Argument of His Book”; “Dreams”; “Delight in Disorder”; “To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time”; “His Prayer to Ben Jonson”; “The Bad  Season Makes the Poet Sad”; “Upon Julia’s Clothes”;  Thomas Carew, "Song: Persuasions to Enjoy"; Richard Lovelace, "Love Made in the First Age: To Chloris"; Edmund Waller, “The Story of Phoebus and Daphne Applied”; “Song [Go, lovely rose]”; Sir John Denham, Cooper's Hill ;  Katherine  Philips,  “To  Mrs.  M.  A.  at  Parting”

ANALYTICAL ESSAY DUE FRIDAY, 15  October ,  11:59  p.m.  via  Brightspace

stapletm@pfw.edu 

NO  CLASS  TUESDAY  19  OCTOBER

Andrew Marvell, “An Horatian Ode Upon Cromwell’s Return from Ireland”; “The Nymph Complaining for the Death of Her Fawn”; “To His Coy Mistress”; “The Definition of Love”;   Aemelia Lanyer, Salve Deus Rex Judaeorum 

FIRST EXAM DUE FRIDAY 29  October,  11: 59  pm.  via  Brightspace

stapletm@pfw.edu 

Milton, Lycidas,  sonnets,  Paradise  Lost

2 November: sonnets

"How soon hath Time"; "When I consider"; "Methought I saw"

4 and 9 November: Lycidas

11 November-9 December: Paradise Lost

The poem is hard going for the novice. It helps to listen as your eyes run over the words.

You can hear it at this LibriVox link, read by Thomas A. Copeland.

11 November: Book I (Abigail); Book II.1-628 (Madi K.) Book II.629-1050 (Maddy L.)

18 November: Book III (Jacob); Book IV (Erin)

30 November: Book V (Liam); Book VI (Novella); Book VII (Josiah)

2 December: Book VIII (Savannah and Emmalee)

7 December: Book IX (Doc)

9 December:  Book X (Beth); Books XI and XII (Doc)

SECOND EXAM DUE  WEDNESDAY  15  DECEMBER   11.59 p.m. via Brightspace 

stapletm@pfw.edu 

NO  CLASS  TUESDAY  16  NOVEMBER

 You are allowed five (5) absences for any reason you choose. Students who miss more than this will fail the course, without exception, regardless of circumstances. I do not distinguish between “excused” and “unexcused” absences, nor am I responsible for material that you miss because you are absent. Students who miss the attendance call (the first five minutes of class) will be marked absent; students who get up and leave in the middle of class will be marked absent. Please take care of your rest room issues BEFORE class. If you must leave, give us the high sign. 

NOTE: if you signed up for the class, it is understood that you can attend it regardless of family or employment obligations. If you have emergencies, this is why you have absences allowed.

Your paper and take-home exams are due on the scheduled non-class dates by 11:59 p.m. via Brightspace. Late papers = 0. No exceptions. These will be short, 4-6 pp. for undergrads, 10-15 pp. for grads. Your paper and first exam may be revised after meeting with the instructor in the office or Zoom and discussing your plans. 

 it should go without saying that students are also expected to do their own work; indebtedness to secondary materials (either printed or electronic) must be clearly indicated so as to avoid plagiarism: 

—(piecemeal) using someone else’s words and phrases as if they were your own, not pararphrasing or summarizing properly, even with proper documentation;
—(grotesque) using someone else’s ideas as if they were your own, without proper documentation;
—(more grotesque) allowing someone else to write your paper for you.    

 The course grade will be determined by a rough averaging together of your essay on an assigned topic, take-home midterm, and take-home final exam.  I reserve the right to take into additional factors into account; improvement, class participation, and, of course, attendance. Grades are not negotiable, personal, or subject to the influence of extracurricular academic factors. 

We grade on the usual 100 pt. scale: 90s =  A, 50s = F

 You may email me at any time. I will usually get back to you quickly: stapletm@pfw.edu