THOMAS NELSON COMMUNITY COLLEGE
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English 244 D01, Spring 2010 |
Survey of English Lit. II |
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Professor: Michael Weiser |
Office: 867 Templin Hall |
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Phone: 825-3802 |
Online Office Hours: To Be Determined |
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E-mail: weiserm@tncc.edu |
QUICK LINKS TO SECTIONS OF COURSE DESCRIPTION
III. DISTANCE-LEARNING AND BLACKBOARD ISSUES
VI. PREPARATION AND PARTICIPATION
This course covers the literature of the British Isles and Colonies from the early 18th century up to the present day, from the Romantic Period, through the Victorian Age and the Twentieth Century, up to several contemporary authors. We will attempt to get a “feel” for each period in the literature as well as the social and historical situations in which particular texts were produced.
Our objectives are to understand and develop a critical (look the word up: it’s not primarily negative) awareness and appreciation of the works we’ll be studying. In order to achieve these objectives, we’ll be doing a great deal of reading, writing, and discussing. Because this is an online course, we’ll be doing of our writing in electronic form, and then posting it to Blackboard, and Blackboard (mainly Discussion Board) will be our primary form of communication.
NOTE: This is a cooperative learning course. This means that you’ll be working closely with your peers, and will be responsible for making sure (as far as this is possible) that everyone gets as much out of this course as s/he can and succeeds. We’ll be doing this in Reading Groups, which will remain stable throughout the course, and in which you will work closely with your peers in two primary ways:
Ø Making sure all members post work on time and offering members any advice or support they need in order to succeed. Each student will receive half a grade bonus if every member of her or his Reading Group succeeds (gets a B or higher in the course).
Ø Responding to each other’s posts on the assigned readings. 60% of the course grade is based on your responses to the readings and replies to others’ posts Each student is responsible for making sure that all members
1) Understand and can post INSIGHTFUL responses to the readings (See Reading Responses in the Course Description), and
2) Write or create an excellent Term Project.
[NOTE: Students with disabilities who will be taking this course and may need disability-related accommodations are encouraged to make an appointment with the office of Services for Students with Disabilities to register for support services if you have not already done so (Room #323 Hastings Hall; 825-2833 (V) 825-2853 (TDD)).]
II. TEXTS AND MATERIALS [BACK TO TOP]
You should also have, from ENG 111 or 112, The Little, Brown Handbook or another (perhaps smaller) grammar and style reference.
III. DISTANCE-LEARNING AND BLACKBOARD ISSUES [BACK TO TOP]
SOFTWARE
In addition to software and hardware that comes bundled with every computer these days (you should all have Windows Media Player and a working sound card), you’ll need to download and install RealPlayer and the latest version of Java.
Click here, or go to http://www.real.com, to download RealPlayer. ADVICE: Download the free version on the right side of the page. Unclick any additional services you do not want to install. Do the same when it begins to install, and deselect all items for which RealPlayer is set as the default player, EXCEPT FOR RealPlayer files (.ram, etc.).
Click here, or go to http://www.java.com/en/download/index.jsp, to download Java.
If you can’t see or hear ANY of the materials I put into or link to in Blackboard, let me know IMMEDIATELY.
You should only contact ME (do not e-mail classmates about course work) by e-mail to inform me
Ø of your inability to post work due to technical problems
Ø about family or other emergencies that will prevent you from posting work on time
Ø that you’re dropping the class (NOTE: The date to drop for a refund is January 26 at NOON); the last date to withdraw with a “W” is March 26)
Any questions you have about assignments should go into Discussion Board under QUESTIONS ABOUT COURSE (ASSIGNMENTS, ETC.); chances are that if you have a particular question, others will have the same question.
Be sure to include your name and course name/section number in any e-mails you send me.
ANNOUNCEMENTS
Be SURE to check Announcements DAILY—I’ll be using it to post supplemental instructions and to direct you to additional materials.
DISCUSSION BOARD
We’ll be using Discussion Board to
Ø Post Responses to readings, and Replies to other people’s responses
Ø Post and give/get Feedback to Term Projects (see VI. Below)
Ø Post to the appropriate forum any additional work I assign
When posting a response to my first message in any discussion thread:
1) Click on “Add New Thread.” Be sure to change the Subject line to reflect the focus of your post.
2) Once you’ve typed or inserted your message, click on Submit.
3) If you want to attach a file, before you click submit, click on Browse, select your file, and click on Open in the Choose File window;
4) Click submit.
NOTE: Because you cannot reply to my first posts, which contain introductory notes and the prompts, copy the notes and the prompt to which you’re responding into your own message; you can delete this when you’re done responding. Alternately, you can copy the introductory notes and prompts into a document, and print them out. You can also open Blackboard in two browser windows, and go back and forth between them.
When replying to others’ posts in Discussion Board, click on the link for the message (NOT the name of the poster--that will open an e-mail window) to which you're replying, and then click on "Reply." Type your message, and click Submit. Again, if you want, or in the case of Term Project Workshop, need to attach a file, before you click submit, click on Browse, select your file, and click on Open in the Choose File window; then click submit.
When attaching a document to a message in Discussion Board, be SURE to save it first as an .rtf file—otherwise, some will be unable to open it.
ASSIGNMENTS
We’ll only be using Assignments for a part of the Introduction to the course, for our Term Projects (draft for my feedback, and final draft), and for the final exam. When using the Assignments feature to submit work, click on the View/Complete Assignment link under the particular assignment, type a comment (good time to ask me for SPECIFIC feedback), click on Browse, select your file, and click on Open in the Choose File window; then click submit.
ADOBE CONNECT AND OFFICE HOURS
We’ll be using Adobe Connect for online office hours. YOU ARE REQUIRED TO ATTEND AT LEAST TWO OFFICE HOURS THIS SEMESTER. To get there, go to http://live.tncc.edu/weiser. If you have a microphone, we can talk live. If you have a webcam (optional), we can SEE each other, but we’ll all (including me) freeze these during meetings, as they REALLY slow things down (gobble up bandwidth). If you have neither, you and I will have to use a chat board, and I’m a lousy typist!
IV. READINGS & WRITINGS [BACK TO TOP]
Reading selections will come from the text. The ASSIGNMENT SCHEDULE indicates specific reading selections which we'll be discussing in Discussion Board. I expect you to have Readings & Writings done, and Responses and Replies (see below) on these Readings & Writings posted by the Wednesdays of the weeks they are due, to give everyone time to reply to others’ responses.
There are 45 topics for discussion, most with several options. For a B, you must submit thoughtful and well-developed responses to 50 prompts, as well as 2 replies to others on these (which means 100). For an A, you must submit responses to 70 prompts (your choice—except for those by which I put a double asterisk [**], but I’ve also put an asterisk [*] next to those which I think will prompt most lively discussions), and 120 replies to others. This might sound like a lot, but if you keep up with the readings, responses and replies, it should be quite manageable: for an A, you only need about 12 responses/replies per week. I’ve also provided, in the Assignment Schedule, estimated times for completion of these each week; the estimates, which are very liberal, cover the reading, as well as the responses and replies.
Annotated Example of a Thoughtful and Well-Developed Response
“Mutability” by Percy Bysshe Shelley
The speaker’s message in this poem is clear: The only thing constant is change. Our lives are as flimsy as a cloud, a dream, a thought. (A solid thesis statement about the poem/work)
He begins by a comparing us to clouds in the night sky: (From here to the conclusion, the writer INTRODUCES, QUOTES and DISCUSSES sections of the work in order.)
We are as clouds that veil the midnight moon:
How restlessly they speed, and gleam, and quiver,
Streaking the darkness radiantly!—yet soon
Night closes round, and they are lost for ever.
Mankind is as beautiful and temporary as the clouds that encircle the moon. Brilliant in our radiance like a candle flame, but destined to go out, as all lights must.
Continuing in the theme of the passing nature of humans, the speaker then utilizes a comparison with the wind harp:
Or like forgotten lyres, whose dissonant strings
Give various response to each varying blast,
To whose frail frame no second motion brings
One mood or modulation like the last.
It is interesting to note that in comparing mankind to the wind harp, there are two comparisons in one: we are as the wind and the music that a harp brings.
The sound of the following stanza feels linear, cause and effect like, giving power to the argument that all beginnings have an end:
We rest.—A dream has power to poison sleep;
We rise.—One wandering thought pollutes the day;
We feel, conceive or reason, laugh or weep;
Embrace fond woe, or cast our cares away:
No matter what happens in life, no matter the mood, one event or thought has the power to change it all.
Bringing all of his profound insights together, the last stanza says that no matter what happens today, tomorrow will be different:
It is the same!—For, be it joy or sorrow,
The path of its departure still is free:
Man’s yesterday may ne’er be like his morrow;
Nought may endure but Mutability.
“Nought may endure but Mutability,” is profound in recognizing that the only thing mankind can rely upon is change—ironic. (Concluding statement that restates the original thesis, and adds something to it; here, the irony of the poem’s message.)
A good (substantive) response to this could either question or affirm (or both) the response, like this:
Jane (DO use the NAMES of the people to whom you respond),
I agree that the poem’s message is that nothing is constant but change, and I like the way you show how it builds up to this. I only think you might say more about the LANGUAGE of the poem—like the “speed, gleam and quiver” and “streaking . . . radiantly” in the first stanza, the “mood or modulation” in the second, “poison” and “pollutes” in the third. Like Mr. Weiser said, we should be looking at the LANGUAGE of the poetry, since poetry is MADE of language.
John (Also SIGN your replies)
As I said above, you’ll be doing a Term Project this semester.
If you choose to do a research paper, it will be a minimum of 7 pages long, typed and double-spaced. The project, whether or not it’s a paper, must be approved by me before you begin, for which purpose you will submit a Term Project Proposal, which is available to download and print at in Course Documents, where you'll also find a list of topics for term papers and ideas for projects.
The paper or project will go through at least three versions: a first (which should not be confused with a rough version), which you will share with your group; a second, which will be a revision based on group feedback, which you’ll submit for my feedback; and a “final” (no piece of writing or art is ever finalized; it’s only abandoned), which you’ll revise in response my feedback and turn in at the end for a grade.
VI. PREPARATION AND PARTICIPATION [BACK TO TOP]
You are required to access the course at least 3 times per week, though I recommend that you do so at least once every day. If I don’t see something from you for more than 3 days, I’ll send you an email, advising you of this. If you don’t post something to Discussion Board in more than a week, I’ll send you an email recommending that you drop the course/
If, for any reason, you’re unable to post to Blackboard for more than 3 days, I expect you to contact me--preferably BEFOREHAND--by e-mail. You are responsible for making up all missed work. I do not excuse extended failures to post, except in the case of a) family emergencies, or b) medical emergencies or hospitalization. (If you experience an extended internet outage, I expect you to access the course on another computer—perhaps at your local library.) You must send me an email, as soon as is possible, advising me of such events.
Since the course is cooperative by nature, your individual participation in discussions and group workshops is required--I expect you to share your ideas and your work with your classmates. Much of what you gain from this course depends on your willingness to get involved.
Because, as I said above, discussion (responses and replies) takes the place of quizzes in this course, they will account for 60% of your grade. The paper or project counts 30%. There will be a final exam, but if you keep up with the readings, responses and replies, it will be quite easy, and it will count 10%.
This schedule is subject to change, which is why it's important to check Announcements on a regular basis.
Readings MUST be done BEFORE we discuss the assigned readings in Blackboard. Initial posts, except where indicated, should be up by Wednesday of each week AT THE LATEST, and initial replies must be posted as soon as possible after that to allow for extended discussion—this is where the REAL learning happens.
I also require you to read the introduction to each author (and, where provided, work), and try to apply these in responding to that author’s work, but keep in mind that our focus is on the literature. Particular prompts for discussion are in Discussion Board under each week/topic.
The Term Project must be posted (or otherwise made available) to me and your group mates) when DUE.
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Week |
Topic |
Estimated Time |
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1 January 11-17
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Introduction to course and self; Questions about Course Description; Responses and Replies to Intro to the Romantic Period (Vol. D, pp. 1-24) |
7-10 hours |
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2 January 18-24 |
Responses and Replies to William Blake, Songs of Innocence and Experience, pp. 81-97 and “The Marriage of Heaven and Hell,” pp. 111-120, and letter to John Trussler, pp. 126-128.
For a break from Blake’s visionary work (and also because his birthday is this week), also read and respond to Robert Burns, “Green grow the rashes” (pp.131-2), “To a Mouse” (pp. 135-136), “Auld Lang Syne” (pp. 137-8) and “Song: For a’ that and a’ that” (pp.146-147). |
9-12 hours |
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3 January 25-31
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Responses and Replies to William Wordsworth, “We are Seven” (pp. 248-9), “Expostulation and Reply” and “The Tables Turned” (pp. 250-252), “Lines Composed a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey” (pp.258-62), Preface to Lyrical Ballads” (pp.262-274), the Lucy poems (pp. 274-77—NOT “Lucy Gray”), “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud” (along with this, read his sister Dorothy’s Grasmere Journal entry for April 15, 1802, on pp. 396-7) and “My Heart Leaps Up” (pp. 305-6), “Ode: Intimations of Immortality” (pp. 306-312), “Composed Upon Westminster Bridge” (p. 317), The Prelude, Book First, lines 301-647 (pp. 331-338), excerpts from Books the Seventh through Book the Twelfth (pp. 365-81) and Book the Fourteenth (pp. 385-89)
Samuel Taylor Coleridge, “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” (pp. 430-446), “Kubla Khan” (pp 446-7), “Frost at Midnight” (pp. 464-6), and Biographia Literaria (pp. 474-484).
The Gothic and the Development of a Mass Readership, pp. 577-9. Horace Walpole The Castle of Otranto excerpt (pp.579-582), Ann Radcliffe The Mysteries of Udolpho excerpt (pp.594-5), Anonymous “Terrorist Novel Writing” (pp. 600-2). |
12-15 hours |
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4 February 1-February 7
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Responses and Replies to George Gordon, Lord Byron, “She Walks in Beauty” (p.612), “When We Two Parted” (pp.613-14), “So, we’ll go no more a-roving” (p. 616), Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage, Canto 3, stanzas 113-118 (pp. 634-5), Don Juan, Canto I (pp. 669-697), “January 22nd: Missolonghi” (p.735).
Percy Bysshe Shelley, “Mutability” and “Wordsworth” (pp.744-45), “Stanzas Written in Dejection” (pp. 769-70), “Mont Blanc” (pp. 762-66), “Ozymandias” (p. 768), “Men of England” and “England in 1819” (pp.770-1), Adonais, stanzas 1-6 & 48-55 (pp. 822-824 & 834-35) and “A Defence of Poetry (pp.837-50).
John Keats, “on First Looking into Chapman’s Homer” (pp.880-81), Endymion excerpt (pp.883-887), “The Eve of St. Agnes” (pp.888-98), “La Belle Dame sans Merci” (pp.899-900), “Ode on a Grecian Urn” (pp. 905-906), “Ode on Melancholy” (pp. 907-8), “This Living Hand” (p. 939), Letters (along with intro) to Bailey (pp. 940-42), George and Thomas Keats (pp. 942-3), John Taylor (pp. 944-5), and Richard Woodhouse (pp.947-8).
Romantic Review |
12-15 hours |
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5 February 8-14
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Responses and Replies to Intro to the Victorian Age (Volume E, pp. 979-1001).
Thomas Carlyle, Past and Present excerpts (pp. 1024-33).
John Henry, Cardinal Newman, The Idea of a University excerpts (pp. 1035-42).
John Stuart Mill, “What is Poetry?” (3 paragraphs from the first full one on p. 1048 through the first full one on 1049), On Liberty excerpts (pp. 1051-60), The Subjection of Women excerpts (pp. 1060-70), and Autobiography excerpt (pp.1070-77). |
12-15 hours |
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6 February 15-21 |
Responses and Replies to Alfred, Lord Tennyson, “Mariana” (pp.1112-14), “The Lady of Shallot” (pp.1114-18), “Ulysses” (pp. 1123-25), “Tithonus” (pp. 1125-26), In Memoriam, from opening through section 19 (pp. 1139-48), sections 28-30 (pp. 1152-54), sections 50-56 (pp. 1157-1159), section 70 (p. 1162), sections 78-83 (pp.1164-66), section 95 (pp. 1172-74), sections 104-108 (pp. 1177-80), sections 119-120 (pp. 1182-83), and sections 126 through Epilogue (pp. 1184-88), “The Charge of the Light Brigade” (pp.1188-89), and Idylls of the King excerpts (pp. 1189-1211).
Robert Browning, "Porphyria's Lover" (1252-3), "Soliloquy of the Spanish Cloister" (1253-4), "My Last Duchess" (1255-6), "Fra Lippo Lippi" (1271-80), and "An Epistle Containing . . ." (1289-96).
Elizabeth Barrett Browning, "The Cry of the Children" (pp. 1079-82), Sonnets from the Portuguese, number 42 (p. 1085), "The Runaway Slave at Pilgrim's Point" (pp.1085-92), and Aurora Leigh Book 5 excerpt (pp. 1104-1106). |
9-12 hours |
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7 February 22-28
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Responses and replies to Matthew Arnold (Poetry): "Isolation: To Marguerite" and "To Marguerite--Continued (pp. 1354-56), "Memorial Verses" (pp. 1358-60), "Dover Beach" (pp. 1368-69), and "Stanzas from the Grande Chartreuse" (1369-74). Matthew Arnold (Prose): "The Function of Criticism at the Present Time" (pp. 1384-97), excerpts from Culture and Anarchy (pp. 1398-1404), and epigram (opening quote) to “The Study of Poetry” (p. 1404). Also read Thomas Henry Huxley's "Science and Culture" (pp. 1429-35) and THEN Arnold's "Literature and Science" (pp. 1415-27). |
12-15 hours |
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8 March 1-7 |
SPRING BREAK!!!!
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9 March 8-14 |
Responses and Replies to:
John Ruskin (pp. 1217-34).
Dante Gabriel Rossetti, "The Blessed Damozel" (pp. 1443-47).
Christina Rossetti, “After Death” (p. 1461), “In an Artist’s Studio” (p. 1463), & "Goblin Market" (pp. 1466-78).
William Morris, "The Defense of Guenevere" (pp. 1483-91) and “How I Became a Socialist” (pp. 1491-94).
Algernon Charles Swinburne, “Hymn to Proserpine” (pp. 1496-98).
Water Pater, The Renaissance excerpts (pp. 1507-13).
Oscar Wilde, “The Critic as Artist” excerpt (pp. 1689-98). |
12-15 hours |
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10 March 15-21
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Term Project Proposal DUE in Discussion Board by 12 A.M. on March 21 (Midnight of the 20th)
Responses and Replies to Gerard Manley Hopkins, "God's Grandeur" (p. 1516), "The Windhover" (p.1518), "Pied Beauty" (p. 1518), “Binsley Poplars” (pp. 1519-20), "Spring and Fall" (p. 1521), “Thou art indeed just, Lord” (p. 1524), and Journal entries for May 3, 1866 (pp. 1524-5) & May 18, 1870 (pp. 1525-6) & August 10, 1872 (p. 1526).
Victorian Issues: Evolution (pp. 1538-55) and Industrialism: Progress or Decline? (pp. 1556-80). |
12-15 hours |
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11 March 22-28 |
The Victorian Novel. Dickens Hard Times.
Victorian Review. |
12-15 hours |
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12 March 29- April 4 |
Responses and Replies to Intro to the Twentieth Century and Beyond (Volume F, pp. 1827-50)
Thomas Hardy, "Hap" (pp. 1868-9), "Neutral Tones" (p. 1869), "The Darkling Thrush" (p. 1871), "The Ruined Maid" (p. 1872), "Channel Firing" (pp. 1877-78), "The Convergence of the Twain" (pp.1878-79), "Ah, Are You Digging on My Grave" (pp. 1879-80), and "In Time of 'The Breaking of Nations'" (p. 1884).
Voices from World War I: Rupert Brooke, "The Soldier" (pp. 1955-56); Siegfried Sassoon, "'They'" (pp. 1960-61), "The Rear Guard" (p. 1961), "Glory of Women" (p. 1962), and excerpts from Memoirs of an Infantry Officer (pp. 1963-64); Isaac Rosenberg, "Break of Day in the Trenches" (p. 1967) and "Dead Man's Dump" (pp. 1969-70); Wilfred Owen, "Anthem for Doomed Youth" (pp. 1971-72), "Dulce Et Decorum Est" (p. 1974); "Disabled" (pp. 1977-78), excerpts from Letters to His Mother (pp. 1979-80) and “Preface” (p. 1980). |
12-15 hours |
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13 April 5-11
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Responses and Replies to Yeats: "The Lake Isle of Innisfree" (p. 2025), "Who Goes with Fergus?" (p. 2026), "No Second Troy" (p. 2029), "Easter 1916" (pp. 2031-33), "The Wild Swans at Coole" (p. 2033), "The Second Coming" (pp. 2036-37), "Leda and the Swan" (p. 2039) and "Under Ben Bulben" (pp. 2047-50) [NOTE: When we get to W.H. Auden's "In Memory of W.B. Yeats," reread this.
Virginia Woolf: “The Mark on the Wall” (pp. 2082-87) and "A Room of One's Own" (pp. 2092-2152). |
12-15 hours |
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14 April 12-18 |
Responses and Replies to James Joyce: "The Dead" (pp. 2172-99) and excerpts from Ulysses [Proteus] (pp. 2200-2213). Also try reading the excerpt from Finnegan’s Wake (pp. 2239-43) along with the recording of Joyce reading it.
T.S. Eliot: "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" (pp. 2289-2293), "The Waste Land" (pp. 2294-2308), "The Journey of the Magi" (pp. 2386-7) [look back at the Browning and Swinburne poems about the advent of Christianity], and "Tradition and the Individual Talent" (pp. 2319-2325). |
12-15 hours |
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15 April 19-25 |
Term Projects (or links thereto) DUE in Discussion Board by 12 A.M. on April 24 (midnight of the 23rd)
Samuel Beckett: Endgame (pp. 2393-2420) |
9-12 hours |
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16 April 26-May 2 |
Responses and Replies to Auden: "Musee des Beaux Arts" (pp. 2428-29),”In Memory of W.B. Yeats" (2429-31), “The Unknown Citizen” (pp. 2431-32) and "September 1, 1939" (pp. 2432-43).
Dylan Thomas: "The Force That Through the Green Fuse Drives the Flower" (pp. 2445-46), "Poem in October" (pp. 2447-48), "Fern Hill" (pp. 2448-50) and "Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night" (p. 2450).
Henry Reed, Lessons of War, “I. Naming of Parts” (pp 2455-56).
Philip Larkin, “Church Going” (pp. 2566-68).
Ted Hughes, “Pike” (pp. 2595-96).
Seamus Heaney, “Digging” (pp.2824-25).
Eavan Boland, “That the Science of Cartography is Limited” and “The Dolls Museum in Dublin” (2849-51).
Salman Rushdie, “The Prophet’s Hair” (pp. 2854-63).
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9-12 hours |
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17 May 3-9 (EXAM WEEK) |
Term Project and Final Exam DUE (in Assignments) by 12 A.M. on May 9 (midnight on May 8) |
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Last Day to Add or Make Schedule Changes (by noon) |
January 19 |
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Last Day to Drop for Refund (by noon) |
January 25 |
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Last Day to Withdraw with a grade of "W" |
March 25 |