Course Description
Major English poets of the period, such as Donne, Jonson, Herbert, and Marvell.
Additional Requirements for Graduate Students:
In addition to fulfilling all the undergraduate requirements
for the class, graduate students will:
1. Develop a familiarity with appropriate secondary material,
and demonstrate this expertise in different ways (for example,
through the construction of annotated bibliographies, through
in-class presentations, or through the development of
pedagogical tools for undergraduates)
2. Become aware of professional issues within the scholarly
field (for example, by reading book reviews or attending
conferences in the field)
3. Draft, write, and revise (in consultation with the
instructor) a 20pp. essay with the potential for publication
Athena Title
17th Century Poetry
Prerequisite
Two 2000-level ENGL courses or (one 2000-level ENGL course and one 3000-level ENGL course) or (one 2000-level ENGL course and one 2000-level CMLT course)
Semester Course Offered
Offered every year.
Grading System
A - F (Traditional)
Course Objectives
At the end of the course, students, having read a substantial body of literature, will be able to discuss the assigned works (orally and in writing) with a considerable degree of critical sophistication, to reread them with pleasure, to read and enjoy other works from the period, and to converse with fellow students about texts and issues related to the subject matter of the course.
Topical Outline
The choice and sequence of topics will vary from instructor to instructor and semester to semester. The topics will consist of selected works by various authors, to be read outside of class and discussed in class, examined individually and comparatively in the context of the times and the circumstances of their composition. Periodically during the semester, students will perform a number of graded tasks, including some combination of tests and out-of-class papers. A possible series of topics and assignments might resemble this: > John Donne > Ben Jonson > Robert Herrick > Thomas Carew > George Herbert > Richard Crashaw > Lesser religious poets > Lesser secular poets > Andrew Marvell