For Monday: Hardy, Selected Poems, pp.49-70

Read all or as many of the poems that remain in the book, and answer only ONE question using 1-2 poems in your response:

Q1: Most of the poems in this section were written and published between 1914-1917, just a little over 100 years ago. That means these poems are the first poems written squarely in the 20th century, and were written in the context of the first cars, planes, and modern warfare (WWI). What makes this poems seem more 'modern' than others, or suggests that Hardy is expressing or saying something new in his poetry? Obviously many of his themes echo earlier Romantic ones (Wordsworth, Keats, Browning), but where do we see ideas, scenarios, or expressions that could never have been written earlier? In other words, which of these poems incontestably carry the stamp of 20th century poetry?

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For Monday: Short Lecture on Colonialism and Mansfield

As a way to introduce you to some of the themes we'll be exploring with our last two books, I've recorded a short lecture (about 18 min.) that I would have discussed with you in class if we were still meeting. I know 18 minutes is a lot to watch in a single stretch, so feel free to start and stop, or simply leave it playing in the background. However, I think it will help you see and understand some of the larger ideas going on behind the scenes in Mansfield's stories. AFTER you watch the video, answer the following question as a COMMENT below: "Since many women in the early 19th century tried to hide their identity as a woman by adopting a male name, or writing more 'male' stories, how do you think colonial writers did the same? That is, how did they hide their colonial identity in writing to sound more 'English'? What might they have had to hide, or ignore, or not reveal as a writer? (This will count toward your participation grade, since I can...

Short Lecture on Being "Weak" in Mansfield's Stories

Before we race to the end of Mansfield's stories, I wanted to discuss some of the major themes we've encountered in several of them, particularly "Daughters of the Late Colonel," "The Life of Ma Parker," "Mr. and Mrs. Dove," and "Marriage a la Mode." Watch the video to hear some of my thoughts on these stories, most of which are drawn from your responses to the reading questions. It's a little longer than the last one, but still only about 25 minutes (sorry)! After you finish, answer the following question as a COMMENT on the blog. Q: Talking about emotions, love, death, or otherwise being "weak" was very taboo in British society at this time. What subjects or relationships do you feel are taboo in our own society? And I don't just mean awkward subjects (abortion, politics, etc.), but what emotions or experiences would you have trouble discussing with your parents, your siblings, your friends, and even your sig...

For Friday: Wordsworth, "Ode: Intimations of Immortality"

“Ode: Intimations of Immortality from Recollections in Early Childhood” (pp.51-57): read the entire poem, but the questions will only focus on Stanzas 1-7 NOTE: This is a longer poem, though it’s broken up into short stanza chapters. Read it slowly, and focus on each stanza as an individual poem. Then consider how each one develops a general ‘story’ or narrative about Wordsworth’s life. Consider this, too, as a kind of mid-life crisis poem: Wordsworth feels himself pulling away from the innocent joys he used to experience in life, and the poem is an attempt to find himself—and to convince other readers to find themselves in the thickets of adulthood. Answer TWO of the following... Q1: According to Stanzas 1-4, what causes the poet to feel distanced from the natural world? What has come between him and his imagination/emotions? In Stanza 2 he writes that “But yet I know, where’er I go,/That there hath past away a glory from the earth...

British Literature from 1800, "The Mythmakers"

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