We had a good class today. I enjoy starting my teaching day with this class. Thinking about complex pieces of literature is a wonderful way to wake up our minds.
This semester, we will spend two weeks on poetry. This week we covered some Romantic poetry; next week is Victorian poetry. Poetry can be hard to understand. It takes a lot more read and digest a piece of classic poetry. Today, we read two of Blake's poems, "The Chimney Sweeper" from the Songs of Innocence and "The Chimney Sweeper" from the Songs of Experience. Both were sad poems that dealt with the themes of injustice, religion, and poverty.
We also read Byron's "She Walks in Beauty," a poem depicting the almost perfected beauty of a young lady as she is compared to various aspects of Nature.
Our final poetry selection is one of my favorites, John Keats's "Ode on a Grecian Urn." I felt we ran out of time, but we were able to make it all the way through it. The poem is an artful paradox of the human figures carved on an ancient piece of pottery: they are both free from time and frozen in time. The poem then makes these figures live again through the words. I've included a couple of links to some further analysis of the poem. Personally, I think life is richer when you take the time to think deeply about this poetry,
Assignments for Next Week:
-- Read the Victorian poetry handout. We will especially be discussing:
Tennyson's "The Lady of Shalott"
Browning's "My Last Duchess"
Carroll's "Jabberwocky"
Hopkins' "Pied Beauty" and "God's Grandeur"
Links for This Week
Class Notes
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