Topics for Paper 2

This paper requires you to do some very basic research and to write on one of the topics below in such a way as to integrate at least one secondary source into an original argument of your own. There are numerous ways in which to use secondary sources appropriately. Be sure that, however you use the prior critic's argument, you use it to advance an interpretation of your own. Some of the most common ways to use a secondary source appear below:

• acknowledgement of a critic's prior argument to support a local premise in your own argument. This is probably the most common use of a secondary source, and in some ways the easiest. Let's suppose that you are trying to prove claim X, and proving X requires that you prove claims A, B, and C. And suppose that you find an article which says B. Since the critic who wrote the article got to the claim first, you need to give credit to that author. Such uses of secondary sources often take the form, "As [critic name] says in [article title],..." followed by the claim (usually quoted, and usually, though not always, following your own statement of the claim).
  NOTE: you still need to prove claim B with evidence from the text, because even published critics can be wrong. You're giving credit for an idea, not using a prior argument as proof.
  NOTE ALSO: your main claim or conclusion, what I've called X above, cannot be taken from another critic. Your paper must offer an original argument.
• use of a critic's prior argument as a springboard for your own. This is a more complex use of a source, but potentially more fruitful, if you get a good claim. Normally, this will entail disagreeing with, qualifying, or extending the critic's argument, not just agreeing with it. For example, suppose that you find a critic who says A, but you think that you can prove that A is wrong. You could then use your demonstration that A is wrong and that what's actually true is B.
  NOTE: If B is not an interpretive claim, i.e. it does not show what the poem means, then you might need an extra step: Critic X says A, here's evidence to show that A is wrong and B is right, B leads to interpretive insight C.

Please cite both your primary and secondary sources in correct MLA format, and attach a photocopy of the article(s) or section(s) of the book you use to your paper. Attach also any notes, drafts, and bibliographic information you have accumulated in writing the paper.

I will grade the paper on the same criteria as the first paper (thesis and structure, evidence, interpretation), with the addition of the following:

USE OF SECONDARY SOURCE(S). Does your paper use at least one secondary source in an appropriate way? Does your use of the source demonstrate that you have an accurate understanding of the prior critic's argument? If necessary, do you summarize enough of the prior argument so that a reader who has not read the critical article or book chapter can understand it? Is the source integrated smoothly into your argument? Do you cite your sources in correct MLA format?

Topics

1. Wordsworth's "Expostulation and Reply" and "The Tables Turned" appear to argue against books in favor of nature. What then is the purpose of poetry, which presumably falls under the category of books? (If you wish, you may use the Preface to Lyrical Ballads in addition to one or both of these poems to answer this question.)
2. In the last section of "Tintern Abbey," the speaker addresses his sister. How does doing so contribute to the meaning of the poem as a whole? (Needless to say, you have to say what the poem as a whole means, and prove your argument to that effect, before or while you prove your argument about the address to the sister.)
3. Barbauld's "The Rights of Woman" offers a critique of Wollstonecraft's feminism, yet "Washing-Day" offers a very sympathetic portrait of women and their day to day activities. What is Barbauld's position on women?
4. Coleridge's "Kubla Khan" purports to be a mere fragment of a much larger poem, yet many critics argue that Coleridge's introduction to the poem is simply part of the fiction and that the poem is in fact complete. If you agree that the poem is complete, what is the point of the poem and how does presenting the poem as a fragment serve to make that point?
5. How do the marginal glosses in "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" contribute to the meaning of the poem? (Here too, you have to say what the poem means, and prove your argument to that effect, before or while you prove your argument about the glosses.)
6. In Keats' "The Eve of St. Agnes," we learn that Porphyro is perceived by Madeline's family as an enemy. Despite this Romeo-and-Juliet setup, however, there is never the slightest bit of conflict between Porphyro and Madeline's family: the family never sees him (unless you count the beldame as a member of the household and thus of the family), much less confronts him. What is the point of this unused subplot in furthering the meaning of the poem? (Again, you have to prove your argument about what the poem means before or while you prove what the family subplot means.)
7. What does the nightingale in Keats' "Ode to a Nightingale" represent, and what is Keats' point in addressing it?
8. How does the relatively positive and optimistic ending of Johnson's "The Vanity of Human Wishes" follow--if it does--from the lengthy and comprehensive demonstrations of the vanity of human wishes that comes before? If it doesn't follow, what's the point of all that grimness to support the affirmation of the ending?
9. Gray's "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard" appears to be about the rural poor, but the last section of the poem is comprised of a description of the poet/speaker by the hoary-headed swain and the poet/speaker's epitaph. Presumably the poet is not a member of the rural poor (he must at least be educated). What's the point of including this last section in a poem about the rural poor? Or--if you don't think that the poem is really about the rural poor but about something else--what's the point of including all the verses on the rural poor in a poem about whatever you take the poem to be about?
10. Choose a matched pair of poems from Blake's Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience and show how the meaning of the two poems together exceeds the meaning of either poem alone. Do not choose a pair we discussed in class unless you can take the argument in a radically different direction from the way we went in class. (If you aren't sure whether two poems are part of a matched pair, confer with me.)
11. What do the following lines from Blake's The Marriage of Heaven and Hell mean within the context of the poem as a whole? (If appropriate, and it probably is, take into account who says the lines.)
    "How do you know but ev'ry Bird that cuts the airy way,
    Is an immense world of delight, clos'd by your senses five?"
12. Book 5 of Elizabeth Barrett Browning's Aurora Leigh articulates a theory of poetry, much as Pope's "Essay on Criticism" or Wordsworth's Preface to Lyrical Ballads does. What is her argument about poetry? (If there is more than one, choose the most interesting or important one.)
13. Robert Browning's "Andrea Del Sarto" and "Fra Lippo Lippi" are both in part about realism in art: the artists in both poems are especially good at representing the world accurately. Yet both artists are flawed, and in at least one one of the artists gets into some trouble for being so accurate. Browning can be seen as something of a realist himself, in that much of the power of his dramatic monologues arises from his ability to describe a scene with vivid, lifelike detail. What is Browning's position on realism in art? (You may use either or both poems in your answer.)