Select one of the topics below and write an essay in response to it; your finished paper should be at least 3-4 pages long and should contain a clear thesis which you develop and support with examples and discussion. The paper should be typed, double-spaced, following MLA format. If you refer to any sources outside of our textbook, be sure to properly document your material using MLA documentation format.
1). Examine one pair of companion poems from Blake’s Songs of Innocence and Experience (for example, the two “The Chimney Sweeper” poems). Analyze each poem and compare and contrast them in order to point out the difference between “innocence” and “experience.”
2). Discuss Blake’s belief that “Without Contraries is no progression.” Explain what Blake means by “contraries” and support your discussion with specific references to his work.
3). Select several of your favorite “Proverbs of Hell” from Blake’s The Marriage of Heaven and Hell. Discuss the proverbs and relate them to the theme expressed in The Marriage.
4). Discuss Burns’ “To a Mouse”; in what way are the fates “of mice and men” similar, according to Burns? In what way do they differ?
5). Examine Wollstonecraft’s Vindication of the Rights of Women. What ideas form the basis of her argument for the equality of women and what complaints does she have about the role of women in society. Are any of these issues still relevant today?
6). Discuss the audience addressed by Wollstonecraft and examine the way in which this audience is reflected her essay.
7). Discuss Wordsworth’s theory of nature as expressed in his poetry, especially the elements of pantheism that are present in poems such as “Tintern Abby” and his sonnets.
8). Wordsworth’s “Preface to Lyrical Ballads” explains his new approach to poetry. Discuss the most important of his ideas and relate them to his poetry.
9). Discuss “Ode: Intimations of Immortality” and relate its theme to Wordsworth’s ideas about man’s relationship with Nature.
10). Analyze the use of Platonic elements in Romantic poetry by discussing Wordsworth’s “Intimations” and/or Keats’ “Ode on a Grecian Urn.”
11). Compare and contrast the ideas about poetry expressed in Wordsworth’s “Preface,” Coleridge’s Biographia Literaria, and /or Shelley’s “Defense of Poetry.”
12). Compare and contrast the themes of any of the following poems: Wordsworth’s “Tintern Abbey,” Coleridge’s “Eolian Harp,” and Shelley’s “Mount Blanc.”
13). Analyze the character of the narrator in Coleridge’s “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner.” What happened to him and why? Why does he have to tell the Wedding Guest his story? What do you think he learned from his experiences?
14). Coleridge claimed that the “Ancient Mariner” had “too much” of a moral, or point, to it. What, in your opinion, is the poem’s moral? Do you agree that it is “too much?” Why or why not?
15). Examine the way in which Coleridge’s “Ancient Mariner,” which is supposed to describe the workings of supernatural agents in the world, can be read as an allegory of Christian experience. Can these two different themes be reconciled, and if so, how?
16). Discuss the personality of the narrator of Byron’s Don Juan as revealed in the poem.
17). Explain the concept of the “Byronic hero” and relate it to Don Juan; do either the narrator or Juan himself contain elements of this personality type?
18). Analyze Hazlitt’s discussion of “gusto” in his essay and apply his definition to several of the writers in this section. What is gusto? Who has it, and who doesn’t, in your opinion?
19). Explain Shelley’s thoughts regarding the role that poetry plays in human morality as revealed in “Defense of Poetry.”
20). Discuss the use of the Prometheus myth in the Romantic era. Why does this seem an especially important symbol at this time? What does it tell us about the Romantic conception of mankind?
21). Explain what Keats meant by the phrase “Vale of Soul-Making” and relate it to his poetry.
22). What is “Negative Capability?” Which of the poets we read seem to exhibit it? Which do not? Why?
23). Analyze and explain the message of the urn in Keats’ “Ode on a Grecian Urn.”
24). And now, the $64,000 question: “What is Romanticism?”
