English 314: Paper #1 Topics

You are welcome to choose one of the topics suggested below.  Remember: these are just springboards for developing a paper; it is your responsibility to create a sustained, coherent argument and make clear the implications of your reading.  You are also welcome to come up with your own topic.  If you choose the latter option, you might find it useful to run your idea by me before beginning.
 

1. Explore what is being said about artistic creation and artistic permanence in Shelley's "Ozymandias" and Keats's "Ode on a Grecian Urn."  Questions to consider: to whom are the poems addressed?  Who are the speakers in the poems?  Do the poems come to a convincing closure?  What is the relationship between the form of the poem and its content?  Are the poets using irony, and if so, to what end?
2. Challenge one of the arguments about poetry presented by one of the Romantics (don't forget their letters as a possible source!).  You might choose to use one of his own poems to refute part of his argument; you might also look at internal inconsistencies, or philosophical/political problems with his claims.  As with any other paper, you'll need to make clear why your argument matters.
3. Several of the poems we have examined so far have had ambiguous endings.  Examine one or two poems closely and explore how the ending of the poem(s) affects your interpretation of the rest of the poem.  Look closely at content (including individual word choice) but also form (meter, rhyme, stanza breaks, etc.) as you compose your argument.
4. Examine the rhyme scheme of one of the poems (such as Wordsworth's "Ode: Intimations of Immortality")  we have read this semester.  How does the rhyme scheme help to create meaning for the poem?  You might look not only at what rhymes but what doesn't rhyme; consider, too, the rhyme scheme as a whole.
5. Is Wollstonecraft's Vindication of the Rights of Women at odds with any of the central tenets of Romanticism?  Can one accept both Romanticism's critique of the centrality of reason and Wollstonecraft's feminist appeal to it?
6. Examine closely some of Blake's plates.  What is the relationship between the plate and the poem?  How does the visual support or contradict the verbal?  Please do not discuss "The Tyger."