In this course we will study a variety of poems written in 17th century England.
The main text books will be the Norton Anthology of English Literature Volume 1 (7th Edition) and Brother Anthony's Literature in British Society: Part 2 The Renaissance (Sogang University Press). (The pages listed below are from The Renaissance.) All students are expected to have access to the World Wide Web and to know how to explore it for useful resources. Brother Anthony's Home Page offers a list of some of the main sites for Renaissance literature and culture.
If you have questions you may write
emails to Brother Anthony or visit him in his office (X109)
Course Outline
Week 1 Introduction to the period (pages 177-187)
Week 2 Shakespeare's Sonnets
Week 3 John Donne (pages 189-211)
Week 4 (No class Good Friday) John Donne
Week 5 (No class Friday) George Herbert (254-263)
Week 6 George Herbert
Week 7 Ben Jonson (pages 213-234)
Week 8 Mid-term Exams
Week 9 Poems by Herrick, Carew, Suckling, Lovelace, Waller,
Denham, Cowley (274-294)
Week 10 Poems by Herrick, Carew, Suckling, Lovelace, Waller, Denham,
Cowley
Week 11 Andrew Marvell (294-301)
Week 12 Milton : Early poems (303-325)
Week 13 Milton : Early poems
Week 14 Paradise Lost
Week 15 Paradise Lost
Graham Parry. The 17th Century: The Intellectual and Cultural Context.
Longman, 1989.
Roger Pooley. English Prose of the Seventeenth Century. Longman,
1992.
George Parfitt. English Poetry of the 17th Century. Longman,
2nd edition 1992.
The Cambridge Companion to English Poetry, Donne to Marvell.
Thomas N. Corns ed. Cambridge, 1993.
The Midterm paper will compare the main themes and styles of two of the poets studied in the 1st part of the semester.
The final paper will discuss the poetry of John Milton compared to the other poets in his time and in the history of English literature.