Poetry Exam and Friday

REMEMBER: If you missed the Exam today (Wednesday), you have to take the Poetry exam below.  Read this carefully and let me know if you have any questions.  I'll give you until WEDNESDAY, FEBUARY 25th since the in-class exam was postponed to recite it.  However, if you miss this deadline you will receive a zero for your first exam.

Come to class on Friday to learn about the history of Grimm's Fairy Tales and European Nationalism before we start reading our third book.  

Exam #1: Poetry Option

The First Exam (given in class next Monday) will consist of a few short answer questions along with one longer essay question.  Bring both of your books—Candide and English Romantic Poetry—to the exam since I’ll ask you to quote lines from each in support of your answers.  HOWEVER, if you would rather not take the traditional exam, I have a more challenging option available: you can memorize lines from one of the following poems in our English Romantic Poetry Books and recite them in my office:

• Blake, “The Tyger” (at least 3 stanzas)
• Blake, “London” (at least 3 stanzas)
• Blake, “The Garden of Love” (the entire poem)
• Wordsworth, “We are Seven” (at least 4 stanzas)
• Wordsworth, “My heart leaps up” (the entire poem)
• Wordsworth, “Composed upon Westminster Bridge” (the entire poem)
• Wordsworth, “Ode: Intimations of Immortality” (any 10 lines)
• Keats, “Ode on a Grecian Urn” (at least 1 complete stanza)
• Keats, “The Eve of St. Agnes” (any 2 stanzas)

Once you’ve memorized these lines, make an appointment to recite them in my office (or come during my office hours), and I’ll follow along in the book.  As long as you get the poem 95% correct (you can flub a little), you’ll get full credit for the recitation.  IN ADDITION to the memorization, you must turn in a 2-3 page, double-spaced “close reading” analysis of the lines, explaining how you read and understand the metaphors, images, and ideas you’re reciting.  Consider how learning the lines by heart affects what you hear/feel as you read them.  How does a poem change when you are forced to create its internal music? 

DUE DATE: The recitation is due no later than 2 weeks from today, or Wednesday, February 25th by 3pm (when I leave the office).  If you intend to do the recitation, you do not have to show up for the exam, though that also means that you have to show up for the recitation.  If you miss both the exam and the recitation, you will get a 0 for your first exam, so be careful!