The Early Romantics:

Questions to Post on the Class Email List

9/8: Based on the poems you read for today's class, especially Eighteen Hundred and Eleven, what does Barbauld think about how politics and imagination are connected?
9/15: The poem "Kubla Khan" describes the Romantic poet--not Coleridge personally, but anyone with poetic genius. What is that poet like and what does he or she do?
9/22: In the Preface to the 1800/1802 editions of the Lyrical Ballads, what does Wordsworth say about the connection between poems he writes and the natural world?
10/6: DO THE ASSIGNMENT FOR GROUP 2, DUE ON 10/8
10/13: All groups do a Special Assignment due anytime during the week. Click here to get to that assignment.
10/20: In Act II, Scene II, the Duke and Gauriecio discuss the Duke's political schemes and his political problems. The Duke's "northern subjects" threaten unrest because of all the debt and work that the Duke has imposed upon them (lines 88-124; notice that Guariecio's speech about all that the Duke has "given" to these northern subjects is a bit ironic). Look at the Duke's response to the people's demands, lines 132-142: who does the Duke resemble of the three people who participated in the Revolution Controversy, Burke, Paine, or Wollstonecraft?
10/27: NO LIST ASSIGNMENT--HAPPY HALLOWEEN!
11/3--Short Assignment / 1-2 paragraphs: How does Ann differ fundamentally from her father, Elizabeth, and Mary?
For optional questions from 11/3 on, go to ALL GROUPS below.

9/10: Based on the works by Coleridge that you read for today, what kinds of fears and anxieties do Coleridge's poems portray?
9/17: What kind of relationship does Dorothy Wordsworth have with nature? That is, what does she do in it? How does she feel about it? Does she see any spiritual truths in it?
9/24: In "Michael," to what extent does Wordsworth enact the philosophy of writing poetry that he develops in the Preface to the Lyrical Ballads?
10/8: Does the fact that Hannah More comes from an aristocratic background and Ann Yearsley from a poor one make a difference in the way they see slavery?
10/15: All groups do a Special Assignment due anytime during the week. Click here to get to that assignment.
10/22: We read the three participants in the pamphlet war over the revolution: Burke, Paine, and Wollstonecraft. Who of those three does Count Basil resemble? You may wish to focus on Basil's speech to the wounded old soldier Geoffrey, who has received no pension for his courageous efforts because of court intrigue. See Act III, scene i, lines 126-148.
10/29: NO LIST ASSIGNMENT--HAPPY HALLOWEEN!
11/5--Short Assignment / 1-2 paragraphs: What does Frederick Wentworth feel about Anne, since she has rejected him?
For optional questions from 11/3 on, go to ALL GROUPS below.

9/12: Argue for or against the proposition that The Rime of the Ancient Mariner is really a poem about relationships, about love, even though it presents its ideas about those things in fantastic forms.
9/19: William Wordsworth has been absent from "Tintern Abbey" for some time. How has he changed between the time of his first visit and now, the time of his second visit?
9/26: Cleanth Brooks thinks that Wordsworth's Intimations Ode fails in some way. How does it fail for Brooks, and do you agree?
10/10: FALL BREAK--Because of the length and complexity of your previous assignment, you do not have to do another list question this week.
10/17: All groups do a Special Assignment due anytime during the week. Click here to get to that assignment.
10/24: NO CLASS, but your list assignment is due anyway! What tactics does Basil use in his speech to the soldiers to subdue their mutiny? For instance, how does he position himself in relation to them, and how do they react to his positioning? See Act IV, scene ii, lines 1-174.
10/31: NO LIST ASSIGNMENT--HAPPY HALLOWEEN!
11/7--Short Assignment / 1-2 paragraphs: Captain Wentworth seems at times to be comparing Louisa Musgrove, his potential bride, to Anne. Which is better, according to him, and why?
For optional questions from 11/3 on, go to ALL GROUPS below.

Week of 11/10--Short Assignment; 1-2 paragraphs: Compare Mr. Elliot to Frederick Wentworth.
Week of 11/17 (Mellor and Matlak 608-10; HO: "The Glad Preamble"; 624-35): What is Wordsworth trying to do by writing The Prelude?
Week of 11/24: What does Blake's Visions of the Daughters of Albion argue about the connection between revolution and sex?
Week of 12/1: Does Blake advocate seeing the world from the perspective of innocence, from the perspective of experience, or from some third state that is better than either of those two points of view?

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Laura Mandell, Dept. of English, Miami University, Oxford, OH 45056