10 Years After

I was looking forward to British Literature this morning. I knew we would be receiving the new topics for our paper and get further into Shelley. However, a string of interruptions have assailed this class. Friday there was the advisor assessment for the University which took time away from the lecture and today it was Homecoming Proclomation which truncated off over a half hour of class time. Instead of ending at 11:20, class ended at 10:50. What a shame. We were getting into the biography of Percy B. Shelley. Besides the topics for our second paper the professor also returned our revisions of the first paper. For grades on these we received either a check, check plus for major revisions, or a check minus for insufficient revisions. (If one didn't turn in a revision they received the "dreaded X.") I received a check. Since I received an A on the paper itself and the only comments noting suggestions for change were grammatical, I didn't re-write any passages.

Here are the paper topics :

1. Byron as a Traveler. (Using several travel poems, such as "Written after Swimming from Sestos. . .," "So, we'll go nmo more a raving," and "Childe Harold," Cantos 3-4, comment on what travel meant to Byron. Be analytical.)
2. Byron as a Letter Writer (Using several of Byron's letters, account for Byron's reputation as a great correspondent. Why would it have been a pleasure to hear from him?)
3. Adonais as a Brilliant Memorial to John Keats (What are some of Shelley's effective strategies and central points about the loss of Keats?)
4. Shelley and the Political Statement (Using Shelley's biography and poems like "Ozymandias," "A song:'Men of England,' " and "England in 1819," comment on Shelley's politics.)
5. Keats as a Poet of Excitement (Trace this theme in "On First Looking. . . ," "On Seeing the Elgin Marbles," and "Bright Star"; why did he often find things "awesome"?)
6. The Meaning of "Ode to a Nightingale" or Ode to a Grecian Urn" (Explain the poem, giving its main ideas.)
7. The Richness of "The Eve of St. Agnes" (Comment on the ways Keats embellishes the romance of Madeleine and Porphyro.)
8. The Meaning of Keat's "Lamia" (What are the key passages that suggest what this tale may mean?)
9. Carlyle's Portrayal of the French Revolution (Strategies Carlyle uses for vividness and emphasis in his account.)
10. Presiding Ideas in John Henry Cardinal Newman's Religious Opinions (React to Newman's ongoing religious convictions.)
11. John Stuart Mill on the status of Women in 1869 (Discuss some of Mill's main points. Are they familiar to our day? How much have things changed?)
12. Elizabeth Barett Browning Love Sonnets (Comment and analyze two of her Sonnets from the Portuguese.)

The fourth, Shelley and the Political Statement, sounds most interesting to me. Of course, we've only covered Byron, Shelley, and Keats in class so far. I would like to be able to write a paper that brings combines the philosophic views of the era with the poets we are reading. While reaserching my previous paper, Wordsworth's Philosophy of Nature, I was able to do this to some degree. Perhaps topics 9 or 10 would justify some research into how these later Romantics were influenced by philosophers. What would be really grand would be to write about Keat's letters and negative capability. However, I don't think a week and a half would be enough time to research and write such a paper.