Vöő Gabriella
Monday 8 – 10, A 425 (G/516)
ANG 071005, ANGA 052302
Fall 2008
Early and Romantic American Poetry
Discussion schedule and required primary readings
PRIMARY READING
Introduction to the course
CRITICISM
Anne Bradstreet: The Prologue, The Author to Her
Book, Before the Birth of One of Her Children, To
My Dear and Loving Husband, Upon the Burning of
Our House
Edward Taylor: Huswifery, Upon a Wasp Child
with Cold;
from Preparatory Meditations: Meditation 8
Phillis Wheatley: On Being Brought from Africa to
America, On Imagination, To S.M. A Young African
Painter, To His Excellency, General Washington
Philip Freneau: On the Emigration to America, The
Wild Honey Suckle, The Indian Burying Ground, On
Mr. Paine’s Rights of Man, On a Honey Bee, On the
Uniformity and Perfection of Nature
William Cullen Bryant: To a Waterfowl,
Thanatopsis, A Forest Hymn, To the Fringed
Gentian, The Prairies
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow: A Psalm of Life,
Nature, The Cross of Snow
Deadline for the short essay
Edgar Allan Poe 1: To Helen, “The Philosophy of
Composition” (essay); The Raven, Ulalume
F. Murphy: “Anne Bradstreet and Edward
Taylor”
Edgar Allan Poe 2: “The Fall of the House of
Usher” with The Haunted Palace; Ligeia with “The
Conqueror Worm”
Deadline for choosing an essay topic and
preparing a bibliography
Ralph Waldo Emerson: “The American Scholar,”
“The Poet” (essays); The Rhodora, Each and All,
Uriel
J. Meyers: “Edgar Allan Poe.”
Walt Whitman 1: the 1855 “Preface” to Leaves of
Grass, Song of Myself, Facing West from
California’s Shores, There Was a Child Went Forth,
Passage to India
Walt Whitman 2: Crossing Brooklyn Ferry, Out of
the Cradle Endlessly Rocking, When Lilacs Last in
the Dooryard Bloom’d
Deadline for the final draft of the research essay
(optional)
D. Pease: “Walt Whitman’s Revisionary
Democracy”
D. S. Reynolds: “Science, Philosophy, and
Religion”
M. Kinkead-Weekes: “Walt Whitman Passes
the Full-Stop by. . . .”
D. S. Reynolds: “Sex, Gender, and
Comradeship”
11.
24 Nov.
Emily Dickinson: selections
C. Griffin Wolff: “Emily Dickinson”
12.
1 Dec.
13.
8 Dec.
End-term test
1.
8 Sept.
2.
15 Sept.
3.
22 Sept.
4.
29 Sept.
5.
6 Oct.
6.
13 Oct.
7.
27 Oct.
8.
3 Nov.
9.
10 Nov.
10..
17 Nov.
Emily Dickinson: selections
Deadline for the research essay
F. Murphy: “Anne Bradstreet and Edward
Taylor”
C. Herron: “Early African American Poetry”
J. McWilliams: “Poetry in the Early
Republic”
T. Wortham: “William Cullen Bryant and the
Fireside Poets”
R. Von Hallberg: “Edgar Allan Poe, PoetCritic”
L. Buell: “The American Transcendentalist
Poets”
S. Juhasz and C. Miller: “Performances of
Gender in Dickinson’s Poetry”
Course Requirements
1. Primary Reading: Students are kindly requested to come to class having read and prepared the text(s) assigned in the
reading and discussion schedule. Also prior to the discussion of a given author or period, they are expected to read the
introductions to individual authors from the anthologies of American literature (Harper or Norton) as well as the section
introductions.
2. Criticism: Essays indicated in the “Critical reading” section are compulsory reading, class discussion will rely on
both primary and secondary material.
3. Test and essays: There will be an end-term test, a short essay (analysis of a poem) as well as a research essay of
about 3000 words length required for this course. The short essay is due by week 5 (29 October), the research essay by
week 13 of the semester (8 December), and will be devoted to some aspect of the authors and works discussed (titles
will be suggested along the discussions). Please note that your argument must be supported by at least 4 critical works,
which must be cited as references. You can use the critical material listed in the syllabus, or you may do some individual
research in the library or in the Literature Online (Chadwyck) database (‘Criticism and Reference’ section). All
reference material should be properly credited.
Format of the essay: MLA (please consult the MLA Style Crib Sheet
at:http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/557/01/ , http://www.docstyles.com/mlacrib.htm ,
http://www.arthes.com/composition/mla.html
Presentation: Each student must be actively involved in an in-depth discussions of an author, poem or theme.
Assignments will be given to students individually.
Grading will be based on students’ accomplishments in the test (40%), the essays and class work (30-30%).
Attendance: No more than two absences are acceptable without excuse.
Reference
Lee, Robert A. (ed.) Nineteenth-Century American Poetry. London: Vision and Barnes and Noble, 1985.
Ruland, Richard and Bradbury, Malcolm. From Puritanism to Postmodernism. A History of American Literature. New
York: Viking, 1992.
Vendler, Helen (ed.). Voices and Visions. The Poet in America. New York: Random House, 1984.
Anne Bradstreet, Edward Taylor
Murphy, Francis. “Anne Bradstreet and Edward Taylor.” Parini, Jay and Millier, Brett C. (eds.). The Columbia History of
American Poetry. New York: Columbia UP, 1993. 1-15.
Phillis Wheatley
Herron, Carolivia. “Early African American Poetry.” Columbia History. 16-32.
Philip Freneau
McWilliams, John. “Poetry in the Early Republic.” The Columbia Literary History of the United States. Ed. Emory
Elliott. New York: Columbia UP, 1987. 156-167.
William Cullen Bryant and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Meyer, Kinereth. “Landscape and Counter-Landscape in the Poetry of William Cullen Bryant.” Nineteenth-Century
Literature. Vol. 48, Nr. 2 (Sept. 1993). 194-211.
Wortham, Thomas. “William Cullen Bryant and the Fireside Poets.” Columbia Literary History. 278-88.
Edgar Allan Poe
Meyers, Jeffrey. “Edgar Allan Poe.” Columbia History. 173-202.
Von Hallberg, Robert. “Edgar Allan Poe, Poet-Critic.” Lee, Robert A. (ed.) Nineteenth-Century American Poetry.
London: Vision and Barnes and Noble, 1985. 80-99.
Weekes, Karen. “Poe’s Feminine Ideal.” Cambridge Companion 148-63.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Buell, Lawrence. “The American Transcendentalist Poets.” Columbia History. 97-119.
Walt Whitman
Pease, Donald E.: “Walt Whitman’s Revisionary Democracy.”Columbia History. 148-71.
Reynolds, David S. “Science, Philosophy, and Religion.” Walt Whitman. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2005. 76-100.
—. “Sex, Gender, and Comradeship.” Walt Whitman. 101-22.
Kinkead-Weekes, Mark. “Walt Whitman Passes the Full-Stop by. . . .” Lee, Robert A. (ed.) Nineteenth-Century
American Poetry. London: Vision and Barnes and Noble, 1985. 43-59.
Emily Dickinson
Griffin Wolff, Cynthia. “Emily Dickinson.” Columbia History. 212-47.
Juhasz, Suzanne and Christianne Miller. “Performances of Gender in Dickinson’s Poetry.” Cambridge Companion 10728.
The Chadwyck (Literature Online) database is a very useful resource. Students are kindly requested to use the
“Knowledge Notes” section as well as the Encyclopedia of American Poetry: The Nineteenth Century.