Assignments |
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| First Paper - A Close Reading of a Poem | |||||||||||||||||||
| This paper is a close reading of a poem. Choose one of the assigned poems by Donne or Herbert (one which we did not discuss in detail in class) and offer a line-by-line analysis of the poem. In your analysis, you should pay close attention to form (quatrain, octave, sestet, couplet; caesuras and line breaks; rhyme schemes; changing patterns of rhyme; pattern or shape); metaphor and conceit; word choice (adjectives; repeated terms; jargon; arcane terms; syllables; use the OED to round out your analysis); plays on words and puns; poetic traditions (Petrarchan sonnets; courtly love; English sonnets; Psalms and Proverbs); seventeenth-century history and literary context; different levels of meanings, etc. In short, bring everything you have learned about reading seventeenth-century poetry to bear on your reading of the poem. You may refer to other related poems if you wish, but the essay is to be a close reading of one poem. This is to be your reading; no outside sources are required. | |||||||||||||||||||
| Oxford English Dictionary (OED) Assignment | |||||||||||||||||||
| Many words have a number of connotations. Your assignment is to pick one of these words and discuss it in terms of the way it is used in the poem or prose you have selected, and in terms of the different definitions you find in the Oxford English Dictionary and in a late-sixteenth (1560s-1599) or seventeenth-century dictionary. | |||||||||||||||||||
| 1. Start by looking at the context in which your word first appears. Does it appear again? What does the word mean where it first caught your eye? What are its connotations? Does it mean something different in other appearances? What are the possible slants, or implications, or innuendoes of the word? How do the different meanings influence the way you read the passage or description? How does the word impact on/complicate a larger theme? How does the word embody/implode its meaning? | |||||||||||||||||||
| 2. Next, search for your word in the OED (if your word doesn't appear in the OED as it appears in your text, look for the word under its modern spelling). When using the OED on-line, select "single-term search" and limit your search by century (The OED cites examples of usage from the beginnings of modern English until now, and you can chart the interesting shifts in the meaning of words. The examples, as you will see, are often from authors you will be reading) and make sure you get all the appropriate meanings (definitions with examples only from the nineteenth century are not applicable). See Help for help or ask the people at the Butler Reference desk. (The OED is also available in book form in Reference). Print the definitions out, or take notes. Although you should certainly quote from the OED definitions/examples, dictionary definitions/print outs are NOT to be included verbatim in your written assignment; they are references. | |||||||||||||||||||
| 3. Look for the word you have chosen in a sixteenth- and/or seventeenth-century dictionary (use the EMEDD, but you may have to use microfilm). What are the definitions therein? Are they the same as the definitions in the OED? Are they expressed in a similar fashion? | |||||||||||||||||||
| 4. Finally, write up your observations about the meanings of the word, and about the meanings of the word in the context in which it was used, and discuss how these multiple meanings affect your reading of the line or passage in which the word occurs. Give one example for each connotation of the word, and include any reflections on etymology (what the word used to mean - where it comes from - and what it means now). | |||||||||||||||||||
| This assignment should be written in essay form and should be 2 pp. long. | |||||||||||||||||||
| Make sure that your analysis is not superficial ("Here it means x and here it means y"). Think about the meaning and symbolism and connotations; give an insightful and original reading. The exercise will be evaluated on the basis of its thoroughness and thoughtfulness | |||||||||||||||||||
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Some good words from John Donne:
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OBJECT/PLACE/PHENOMENON Assignment |
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| For this assignment, you should undertake research
in primary sources (sources dating from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries,
and dates close to the date of publication/circulation of your source text
- Donne, Lanyer, etc.) and from historical sources. You may use secondary
sources (e.g. MLA) but do so sparingly; the point of this assignment is
to do original research. Your subject of inquiry should have appeared in
one of the texts we have already read or will read this semester. Your focus
should be on the nature/significance/place of the object/place/phenomenon
in seventeenth-century culture and literature, but you should also think
about how its meanings and significance contribute to the text in which
you found it. The assignment should be 2 pp., but if you feel a real (i.e.
not verbose) need to say more, please do so within 3 pp. If you get interested
in your topic, do a lot of research; you will have the opportunity to use
this research in your final paper. The session on DATE AND TIME in 833 Butler Library, with Sarah Spurgin Witte, will introduce you to some ways to search for and find materials. If you cannot make the session, please ask at the Butler Reference desk for help. They will have a handout there, as well as helpful directives (please come with some sense of what you are looking for). All definitions are adapted from J. A. Cuddon, A Dictionary of Literary Terms (Penguin,1976). |
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