ENGLISH 350A, Seventeenth-Century British Literature I
Professor Kathy Acheson
HH 225, Wednesdays from 1:30 to 3:00 or by appointment
[email protected]
Welcome to English 350A, British Literature of the Seventeenth Century Part I. In this course we will
focus on poetry of the period, from the brilliant love lyrics and profound religious poetry of John Donne,
to the witty and brilliantly-crafted poems of Aphra Behn, the first English woman to earn her living by her
pen. We will also work on our writing, especially the research essay.
I have ordered the Broadview Anthology of Seventeenth-Century British Verse at the UW Bookstore. As in
other English courses, our writing style and documentation practices will be governed by the Little, Brown
Handbook, Canadian edition.
I have set up an ACE site for this course. You must use your UW email to communicate with me, and
within ACE.
Assignments
In general: for each class I will expect you to have read the poem assigned, and prepared some comments
on it and/or questions about it. I will give you a list of questions to follow as you do your reading, and
those will initiate our discussion in class. Your participation is essential to the success of this format.
Summaries (2 x 10%): You will be assigned responsibility for two class summaries, one on your own,
and one with a classmate. For the individual summary you are to write out a 500-word acount of the
class’s discussion of the poem for the day according to the following guidelines. (You may add or subtract
things as you wish, but don’t go over the 500 words):
•
•
•
Paragraph one: describe the poem any of the following that you think are important: genre,
feeling, vocabulary, images, and technical features.
Paragraph two: 2-4 of the most important features of the poem that were discussed in class
Paragraph three: relationships to other works, and avenues for further research.
For the pairs summary you will do the same, but you may use up to 750 words, and may divide any of the
paragraphs described above into more than one paragraph. For instance, you may wish to divide paragraph
2 into two or three separate paragraphs. You can also expect that as the course goes on the relationships
with other works will get more complex, and it is likely that you will want to separate that topic from
avenues for further research. You will work with your classmate on this assignment, and the mark earned
by the summary will be given to both of you. I expect you to make reasonable efforts to overcome
differences in experience, work habits, and writing abilities, but ask that you talk to me should those fail.
The summaries will be posted in ACE no more than four days after the class. They will be used by the
class as notes, and will guide me when I write the final exam. They will be graded as follows:
•
•
An excellent summary (A)
o reflects the best of the class discussion;
o organizes the observations into super paragraphs with beginnings, middles, and ends;
o is superbly written (paragraphing, sentence structure, spelling, grammar, and word
choice) (no more than one error)
o is delivered on time to everyone
A very good summary (B)
o
o
o
•
•
•
reflects the class discussion accurately;
organizes the observations well into paragraphs with beginnings, middles, and ends;
is very well written with few errors (five or fewer) in paragraphing, sentence structure,
spelling, grammar, and word choice;
o is delivered on time to everyone
An adequate summary (C)
o reflects the class discussion accurately;
o organizes the observations fairly well into paragraphs with beginnings, middles, and ends;
o is written fairly well, with some (fifteen or fewer) errors in paragraphing, sentence
structure, spelling, grammar, and word choice;
o is delivered on time to everyone
An inadequate summary (D)
o reflects the class discussion somewhat;
o does not organize well into paragraphs;
o is written with many errors (more than fifteen) in paragraphing, sentence structure,
spelling, grammar, and word choice;
o is delivered on time to everyone
A failed summary (F)
o does not meet the standards of an inadequate summary or
o is late without medical documentation
Research Essay (40%): Your main project for the term will be to write a research essay on some aspect of
seventeenth-century poetry. It is due on December 3. You must submit an electronic copy of the essay to
the drop box on ACE by midnight of that day, or suffer the late penalty described below. For the essay,
you may use any of the poems and authors in the anthology for your primary texts. Your final essay will
be 8-12 pages; it will have a solid argument that is about the poetry, and reflects your research in
secondary sources, including critical and historical works. We will work on the development of this essay:
I will lead a discussion on defining your research topic on September 26th, and another on locating and
using secondary sources on October 13th; I will also hold individual interviews with each of you on
October 29th, and will be available by appointment to speak with you at other times. You may also want to
look at Research Skills for English Studies, which is an online ‘textbook’ that I developed a few years ago
(http://arts.uwaterloo.ca/~rses/RSEShome.html). The demos are a bit out of date as the interfaces have
changed since they were made, but the basic information is solid.
Assessment of the research essay:
The thesis statement: 10%
The thesis statement should state the topic of the essay, outline the argument, and conclude with a
statement about why the argument matters.
The structure of the argument: 10%
The argument should be divided into equal components that are logically connected and that flow
from the opening toward the conclusion.
Quality of argument: 20%
The essay should have an argument that is helpful or interesting to readers. It should not
articulate something obvious or self-evident (e.g., that Donne’s poetry is about love). It should
articulate a valuable point-of-view for people interested in understanding and appreciating these
complex works of art. (One of the major reasons to read criticism is to get a sense of what is
obvious, what is whacky, and what is of interest to your reader).
Use of primary evidence: 25%
Your use of poetry as evidence for your argument should be accurate (that is, you should
understand the meaning of the passage), should support your argument, should be integrated
grammatically with your own sentences, and should be at least as good as any other example from
the poems with which you are dealing.
Use of secondary evidence, including documentation: 25%
Your use of secondary evidence for your argument should also be accurate, should support your
argument, should be integrated grammatically with your own sentences, and should be at least as
good as any other example from the secondary literature that you can be expected to deal with. I
do not expect your knowledge of secondary materials to be exhaustive, and I will consult with you
during your interview about the best works for your purposes. I do expect the works you use will
be up-to-date, will be good arguments themselves, and will be readily accessible to your readers.
I will deduct one or two marks for each documentation error that misrepresents, in any way, the
source material.
Writing: 10%
One point for each error in spelling, grammar, or punctuation will be deducted up to 10.
Final exam (40%): The final exam questions will be drawn from our discussions. To prepare for it, focus
on re-reading the poems, going over your own notes, and reviewing the summaries prepared by you and
your classmates. The exam will ask you to write three short essays (approximately 3-6 pages, doublespaced and handwritten, although people’s handwriting varies so much that I will say 400-1000 words) in
response to questions. Two questions will be worth 10 marks each, and will ask you to analyze a poem
that will be reproduced for you on the exam. The other question will be broader, and will ask you to
compare works; it will be worth 20 marks. You may write on any of the works that you have summarized,
or that you have written your essay about.
Schedule
Date
09/08
09/10
09/12
09/15
09/17
09/19
09/22
09/24
09/26
09/29
10/01
10/03
10/06
10/08
10/10
10/13
10/15
10/17
10/20
10/22
10/24
10/27
10/29
Author
Introduction
John Donne
Title
“The Sun Rising”
“A Valediction Forbidding Mourning”
“Elegy VIII The Comparison”
Holy Sonnet XIV
Ben Jonson
“Inviting a Friend to Supper”
“To the Memory of…Mr William Shakespeare”
“The Praises of a Country Life”
The Research Essay I: defining your topic and its scope
“To Penshurst”
Aemelia Lanyer
“The Description of Cooke-ham”
CLASS CANCELLED
Robert Herrick
“Corinna’s Going A Maying”
“A Thanksgiving to God, for his House”
“Delight in Disorder”
THANKSGIVING MONDAY
The Research Essay II: doing and handling research
George Herbert
“Church Monuments”
“The Collar”
“Love (III)”
Gerrard Winstanley
“The Diggers’ Song”
Lucy Hutchinson
“’All Sorts of Men’”
INTERVIEWS about your research essay
Page
41
47
50
59
67
79
77
68
33
102
112
102
133
143
146
341
317
10/31
11/03
11/05
11/07
11/10
11/12
11/14
11/17
11/19
11/21
11/24
11/26
11/28
12/01
12/03
John Milton
“L’Allegro”
“Il Penseroso”
“Lycidas”
Sonnet 19
Andrew Marvell
“To His Coy Mistress”
“The Nymph Complaining for the Death…”
“The Garden”
The Research Essay III: writing the essay
John Dryden
“Mac Flecknoe”
“Junvenal’s Sixth Satire”
Margaret Cavendish
“The Hunting of the Hare”
Aphra Behn
“On a Juniper Tree, Cut Down to Make Busks”
“The Disappointment”
“To the Fair Clarinda”
ESSAY DUE
187
190
193
199
324
328
345
401
416
377
451
453
459
Policies
Late policy: I will not penalize you for lateness caused by documented medical reasons. Otherwise the
late penalty for essays is 2% per day, including weekends, for a maximum of one week. After that, I will
not accept the essay. For summaries, the penalty is 10% a day, or one mark of the possible 10, for a
maximum of three days; after that, you get 0. Should there be a problem that affects one member of the
pair doing the second summary, you should contact me. I will likely ask for the unaffected member to
submit his or her 500-word version, and deal separately with the affected member of the team.
The Faculty of Arts at the University of Waterloo requires that I include the following information on the
course outline:
Academic Integrity: in order to maintain a culture of academic integrity, members of the University
of Waterloo community are expected to promote honesty, trust, fairness, respect and responsibility.
Grievance: A student who believes that a decision affecting some aspect of his/her university life has
been unfair or unreasonable may have grounds for initiating a grievance. Read Policy 70 - Student
Petitions and Grievances, Section 4, http://www.adm.uwaterloo.ca/infosec/Policies/policy70.htm
Discipline: A student is expected to know what constitutes academic integrity, to avoid committing
academic offenses, and to take responsibility for his/her actions. A student who is unsure whether an
action constitutes an offense, or who needs help in learning how to avoid offenses (e.g., plagiarism,
cheating) or about “rules” for group work/collaboration should seek guidance from the course
professor, academic advisor, or the Undergraduate Associate Dean. When misconduct has been found
to have occurred, disciplinary penalties will be imposed under Policy 71 – Student Discipline. For
information on categories of offenses and types of penalties, students should refer to Policy 71 Student Discipline, http://www.adm.uwaterloo.ca/infosec/Policies/policy71.htm
Appeals: A student may appeal the finding and/or penalty in a decision made under Policy 70 Student Petitions and Grievances (other than regarding a petition) or Policy 71 - Student Discipline if
a ground for an appeal can be established. Read Policy 72 - Student Appeals,
http://www.adm.uwaterloo.ca/infosec/Policies/policy72.htm