English 440: Studies in Verse

Winter 2002 --- Seamus Cooney --- Mon and Wed, 12:00 - 1:50 p.m. in 2012 Brown Hall

This is the central or home page of a group of many linked pages, containing course information, policies, and relevant texts for study, as well as advice on how to do assignments.

General

• The syllabus (old version) and an updated version (in progress) here.
• Index of poem texts, etc. Contains links to texts of poems for reading, working on, and also to other materials relevant to the work of the course (as well as some stuff just there for amusement).
• Index of other materials, including exemplary writing about literature. Be sure to read the samples of good literary criticism.
• At some point during the semester try this self-administered quiz to test your knowledge of some basics about meter. Let me know if you find it useful or if you find errors or confusions in it.
• Some notes on the grammar of the language of Shakespeare and older poets . When to use "thou" vs. "you", how to conjugate verbs in the second person singular, etc.
• Some remarkably bad poems Isn't our appreciation of what's good helped by deciding what's bad?
• Advice on writing papers about literature -- important! For self protection, you should know your instructor's pet peeves!

Paraphrase:

• Paraphrase: definition and instructions.
• Sample full paraphrase of Donne's "The Sun Rising."

Imagery:

• Basic definitions and examples of metaphors and similes with a link to some further analysis.
• More advanced notes on imagery
• Sample questions on imagery prepared for my Lit. Interp. class.

Models:

• A commentary on Shakespeare's Sonnet 138 ("When my love swears")
• A similar commentary on Sonnet 65 ("Since brass nor stone")
• For advanced students Shelley and Shakespeare -- close reading of two passages by the critic F. R. Leavis.

Miscellaneous: