William and Dorothy Wordsworth

Claude Monet, The Thames at Westminster (Westminster Bridge)
1871

 We had a very productive discussion last week about the relationship between Dorothy Wordsworth’s journals and William’s poems. To further that discussion, let’s examine the sonnet “Composed upon Westminster Bridge” (pg 344). What favorite lines and important images did you take note of? How do you see this sonnet about an urban landscape connecting with other poems we have read by Wordsworth that celebrate the pastoral?

Compare the description of the same carriage ride in Dorothy’s journal (pg 413). What connections do you see between Dorothy’s journal and William’s poem?

Romanticism and Neoclassicism: What is Beautiful?

Transept of Tintern Abbey, by JMW Turner, (exhibited 1795)
In the collections of the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford
 www.tate.org.uk

In class today we discussed ideal landscapes, and what the landscape paintings of the Romantic and Neoclassical periods tell us about the differing views on beauty and nature people held.  What is your ideal landscape?  What about this place and the emotions it inspires make it so special?

Based on what you know about Neoclassical ideal beauty and the Romantic sublime, what aspect of this landscape "fill your mind with agreeable kind of horror" (to borrow Joseph Addison's phrasing) or has "the capacity to instill feelings of intense emotion" (to paraphrase Edmund Burke)?  Pictures please! (If it is not a picture you took yourself, please be sure to responsibly attribute the image.)

Blake: The marriage of image and text

For Thursday we are reading poems from William Blake (1757-1827). Visit the Metropolitan Museum of Art's webpage for more information about Blake and his life, and to see more examples of his artwork. http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/blke/hd_blke.htm

Below you will find a copy of the page for "Tyger" that is a good example of how the pages from Songs of Innocence and Experience looked. What do you make of the interaction between text and image here? How does the image contribute to the poem? Why do you think it was important to Blake that his poetry and engravings be considered together?

Explore the web for other examples of Blake's artwork. Can you find any examples that change your understanding of the poems you read? If so, share them here.

Songs of Innocence and of Experience: The Tyger (Plate 42), 1794/ca. 1825
William Blake (British, 1757–1827) metmuseum.org

Welcome to British 2

This is the first post of the semester, and a good way for us all to get to know each other a bit better.  First take a moment to look over the syllabus and schedule to consider the texts we will be studying and the assignments you will be doing.  Then in the comments section off this post, please answer these questions by Tuesday at midnight.

Name:

Hometown:

Major:

Aspect of class I'm most looking forward to:

Least looking forward to:

Goals for the class:

Goals for 2013:

One surprising thing about me:

For those of you who are interested, here is a link to an online version of the Proust Questionnaire: http://www.vanityfair.com/culture/features/proust-questionnaire