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Burke and Wollstonecraft (and/or Paine). These authors offer widely disparate views on the French Revolution. Why do Wollstonecraft and Paine think the Revolution is such a positive thing, and why do they find Burke’s opinions about the Revolution (and, more generally, about the past—about custom and tradition) so despicable? Are they fair to him, or is there more to his arguments than they allow? Who do you think is closer to the truth about the Revolution, and why?

Burke and Wollstonecraft (and/or Paine) + Carlyle. Similar to the topic above except that one of your authors might be Carlyle, whose brief selection from The French Revolution I haven’t assigned. Carlyle’s retrospective on the Revolution would be a fine complement to one or two of the earlier authors’ “ground zero” look at the same event—what value does the later author find in the Revolution? What warning does it constitute? What does it teach us about our own relation to history—how we understand it and how we represent it to an audience?

Romantic Poetry: Blake, the Wordsworths, Coleridge, Shelley, Keats, Robinson, Smith. These are the authors we might classify as “romantics.” Develop a paper around the characteristic qualities of expression and representation in any two of these authors (or write at length about one). For example, what significance does “nature” take on in Blake’s poetry, as opposed to that of, say, Wordsworth or Coleridge? Or how does the way Wordsworth represents and relates to nature differ from Coleridge or Shelley’s or Keats’ way of doing those things? Which do you prefer, and why? Here are some things to consider about the way any poet deals with the natural world:

A. Many poets either tend towards treating nature as something sublime or as more accessible. They can all do either, but they often show a decided preference. Blake, for example, generally favors the exalted and sublime aspects of nature, while Wordsworth, who is capable of appreciating sublimity—witness his “sense sublime of something far more deeply interfused” in “Tintern Abbey”—prefers the gentler aspects of nature. A difference like this tells us a lot about the poet’s preferred relationship between humanity and nature, and indeed about human nature itself. That’s why this question, though a well-traveled one, is worth reflection.

B. Either the poet has little trouble with the idea that nature can be “used” as a vehicle for exploring (“expressing”) states of mind and feeling, or resists that kind of usage as disrespectful or otherwise undesireable for reasons you can derive from the poetry. A good example would be the contrast between Keats and Coleridge or Wordsworth. We know what Keats says about Wordsworth’s “egotistical sublime”—there’s too much of the man’s personality and ego in his poetry, and not enough…well, not enough what, exactly? How does a poem or two by Keats show what he thinks poetry is supposed to do—how it should deal with nature, how it should deal with the speaker’s desires or ego, and how it should put these two things together, if in fact it should do that at all?

C. Poets such as Wordsworth apparently see nature as more than just a place of individual healing; they claim for it broad powers (along with poetry itself) to heal society’s divisions. But perhaps that statement is putting words in the poet’s mouth—the romantics have sophisticated things to say about the relationship between poets, poetry, nature, and the readership. Explore what any one or two of our assigned poets say about some of these relationships without jumping to conclusions about their final view on the matters you explore. In other words, don’t presume that “romantic poets” have to follow the script in all its programmatic particulars (poetry as expression, poets as prophets, nature as a healing site, etc.). Just attend to what their poetry and/or prose says and to what you believe they imply but don’t state outright. This approach might lead to fresh results.

Jane Austen’s Persuasion. One of the things I find most interesting about Austen is how wary she is of condemning even characters you or I find it easy to condemn. Why is this caution so necessary to Austen’s success as a novelist? Choose one or more “flawed” characters and follow out Austen’s portrayal of them. What do we know about such characters’ actions or motives and when do we know it?” How, in Jane Austen’s world, do we find out what a person is “really like,” for better or worse? That in itself might be the topic of an entire paper about any set of characters in Persuasion.

Carlyle’s Past and Present. Carlyle's style is designed to compete with his modernizing era’s many voices and to connect with a diverse, skeptical readership, and that’s especially true of Past and Present. Explore the stylistic features you find most interesting in our selection from this text—how does Carlyle’s handling of the tumultuous present (the 1840’s) and the medieval past help him establish his authority on the moral issues he explores? In particular, what attitude does his narrator show towards his subject matter and towards the conjectured readership?

Carlyle’s Sartor Resartus. Carlyle’s achievement in Sartor Resartus is to make his “Editor” (the narrator) present the fictional German Idealist Professor Teufelsdröckh in a manner that neither dismisses the Professor’s High Romantic strivings nor sets them forth as prescriptions for the present. Identify some elements of Carlyle’s style that allow him to arrive at this balanced presentation of Teufelsdröckh, and explore the message that emerges from the Professor’s spiritual and philosophical difficulties.

J.S. Mill’s Autobiography. In his Autobiography, J.S. Mill deals with the influence of Benthamite principles on the development of his character from childhood to his breakdown as a young man. What inadequacies does Mill, thanks to subsequent reflection, find in his education and his early utilitarianism? What specific events and texts help him to recover, and how does Mill explain their beneficial effect? If you want to bring On Liberty into the picture, you might conclude with reflections on how its “updating” of basic utilitarianism stem from Mill’s youthful period of depression. To what extent do you think his new ideas alleviate the problems he has identified in the “Benthamite” version of utilitarian philosophy?

Christina Rossetti. Examine a few of her poems in light of her connection to the Pre-Raphaelite movement. Explore the ways in which Rossetti's concerns and interests lead her away from easy acceptance of Pre-Raphaelite themes and conventions as you identify them. What most strongly characterizes the independent voice she establishes? How does she resist the usual ways in which men represent women in their poetry?

Alfred Tennyson. In Memoriam A.H.H. traces the speaker's attempt to deal with grief over the early death of a friend. Explore the poetic strategies of interest to you. A few prominent ones would be the speaker's dramatization of his struggle to generate language adequate to his emotional states, and his rhetorical strategies in conveying a movement from near despair towards optimism and faith.

Gerard Manley Hopkins. Explore one or more poems by Gerard Manley Hopkins in light of romantic poetics (expressive theory, the significance of nature, etc.). To what extent would you argue that Hopkins is, as some critics have called him, a "late romantic"? To what extent would you characterize him differently, and why?