Annotation
OBJECTIVES
This is a close reading seminar. We shall concentrate on Donne?s secular as well as religious poems and discuss the complexities and anxieties that they reveal. No previous knowledge of Donne, seventeenth-century English poetry or contexts will be assumed. If there is enough time and students are interested, we shall also read selected poems by other ?metaphysical? poets, specifically George Herbert, Henry Vaughan, Richard Crashaw and Thomas Traherne.
MATERIAL
John Donne: from the Satires, Elegies, Songs and Sonnets and Holy Sonnets.
ASSESSMENT
Students will be required to read the appropriate extracts before they attend the class. They will be expected to write an essay on a relevant topic of their choice.