Week 4 This week we are looking at science and nature. Our main text is "Spring" from James Thomson’s long poem "The Seasons" (we have already read a brief extract from "Summer" in week 1). What does Thomson do with his descriptions of the natural world? What does he think his readers will want to know and how does he direct our visual attention? Is the landscape portrayed differently from that of Windsor Forest? The poem is in the anthology but there isn't a quick way to download it. In cases like this, you can access the LION database of English Poetry through the library and download it that way. Thomson constantly revised “The Seasons” so texts may vary considerably—if you can photocopy the anthology that would help.

Our comparison text is Book 1 of Mark Akenside's "The Pleasures of Imagination". Just read through it quickly and concentrate on the extract in the ALG task below. What is "the imagination" for Akenside? Also take a look at the opening verse paragraph: how does this differ from the way Pope opens ‘Windsor Forest’? It's in the anthology, or there’s an unannotated version in this folder. It’s important to make sure you have the same text as the one in the anthology. You can also download it from ECCO (via the library) but make sure you have the 3rd edition of 1744)

ALGs: Bossy Roots: Main presentation on science. I suggest you concentrate on the way interest in physics changes ideas about observation. It would be fine to base your presentation on Newton and his ideas about light. You might also mention developments in scientific instruments that enabled people to see the material world in new ways, or interest in botany or perhaps Carl Linnaeus and his system of taxonomy (very slightly later than Thomson but still relevant).

Starting points include Marjorie Hope Nicolson, Newton Demands the Muse, chapter 2; and Pat Rogers, The Eighteenth Century, pp.163-72.

Finny People: Discuss James Thomson, 'Spring' ll.186-221. thinking especially about its interest in science and observation. We will use this to introduce the discussion.

Woolly Tribe: short e-mail presentation on the extract from Akenside, 'The Pleasures of Imagination' in the anthology, ll. 437-566. What is different in Akenside from Thomson's description of nature and what does he mean by ‘mind’? Does the poem construct a different view of the individual? The intro in the anthology is especially helpful for this poem.

Week 5

This week we hit the mid-18th century and we will look at two developments in poetry: a new interest in Britain and its ancient origins, and a freeing up of verse forms together with a new expressiveness in poetry, with a focus on death and mourning.

When reading the poems, think about the relation of history to the sense of the nation? What sort of history is being evoked? Is English history in the ‘Elegy’ different from the Welsh/Scottish history in the other poems? What is the relation of poetry to these versions of history?

All this week's poems are in the Anthology, but the Gray website (link in this folder) is useful in itself. We will look at 'The Bard' and (more briefly) 'Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard". You might also find a quick read through 'The Progress of Poesy' helpful, but we will concentrate on the other two. It’s especially important this week to get a good overview of the poems in advance, so we can use this to inform our close readings in the class.

I have put up a copy of the Fragments of Ancient Poetry (those of you who did SL2 should already have this in your anthology). The extracts in the anthology are fragments 7 and 8, but please could everyone also read the Preface.

ALGs: Woolly Tribe: Presentation on Britishness and Nationalism. What cultural ideas were used to form a sense of Britishness? What was the relation of England to Scotland, Ireland and Wales? How did an imaginary ancient past come into play? How was myth used in relation to national history? Starting point: chapter 3 of Linda Colley, Britons.

Bossy Roots: Discuss 'The Bard' stanzas 1 , 2 ,and 3. Note down what seems to be new as the subject of poetry (that is, in the speaking voice and what that voice is speaking about). How has the landscape changed from our earlier poems?

Finny People: Short e-mail account of extracts from Macpherson's 'Fragments of Ancient Poetry' (7 and 8). How is Macpherson representing ancient Celtic Scotland? In what way could this be called 'history'? What kind of language does he use to convey the voice of an ancient, lost past?