FOR REY WRITER ONLY

The paper, due 12.9.17, should be around 1750 words. You should concentrate on texts we’ve read after 10.18 but you may draw upon the earlier readings. You should incorporate into your paper some research —not unprofessional sources but scholarly sources from books, articles, and approved on-line sites. Late papers will be penalized. If you want to revise the topic or invent one on your own, discuss it with me first. If you get the rough draft to me well before the deadline, I will offer constructive criticism.

Valuable on-line sites for research in the Romantic and Victorian periods: Romanticism and Victorianism on the Net, Blake Archive, BRANCH, and Romantic Circles.

TOPIC: Compare and contrast two sonnets or lyrical poems.

Guide for the papers.

I. Content

* The idea development should be clear, well organized, coherent, logical and persuasive. You must work with the topic, refine it, impose your own ideas on it.

* The paper should be rich in content--with ideas, argument, evidence.

* You should have a strong grasp of the details of the text you're discussing. Summarize and refer to details; use some quotations of important words and phrases, perhaps a few sentences if necessary, but avoid lengthy quotations. Make sure that your key terms are clearly explained.

* Your intended audience is someone who has read the text under consideration and who is also interested in understanding its meaning. Accordingly, extensive plot summary is not appropriate.

* How to get content? You have to think hard about the topic, review key passages in the text, anticipate objections, pursue ideas to their logical conclusions, and work through contradictions and difficulties. Make connections between the parts and the whole.

II. Form

* Content development is by far the most important aspect of the paper, but you cannot present your content effectively unless the form of the paper is adequate. Accordingly, here is a checklist to assist you:

* Paragraphing: does each paragraph have a topic idea? Is each idea developed adequately? Is the sequence of paragraphs logically coherent?

* Phrasing: be concise, direct, and precise; proofread for wordiness, vagueness, and awkwardness.

* Mechanics: proofread for typos, misspellings, incorrect punctuation, and grammatical errors.

*References to the text (or texts): When you use critical commentary for your paper, use MLA Style of documentation. When quoting poetry, be sure to quote exactly, retaining line breaks: “Mary had a little lamb, / Its fleece as white as snow.” Four or more lines of poetry should be block quoted—again, exactly reproduced.

*Proofreading: it is quite apparent whether you have proofread your paper carefully or not. A paper with numerous mechanical errors will not receive a high grade; if the errors are too numerous, the paper will not receive a passing grade.

The Ruined Maid

BY  THOMAS HARDY

"O 'Melia, my dear, this does everything crown! 

Who could have supposed I should meet you in Town? 

And whence such fair garments, such prosperi-ty?" — 

"O didn't you know I'd been ruined?" said she. 

— "You left us in tatters, without shoes or socks, 

Tired of digging potatoes, and spudding up docks; 

And now you've gay bracelets and bright feathers three!" — 

"Yes: that's how we dress when we're ruined," said she. 

— "At home in the barton you said thee' and thou,' 

And thik oon,' and theäs oon,' and t'other'; but now 

Your talking quite fits 'ee for high compa-ny!" — 

"Some polish is gained with one's ruin," said she. 

— "Your hands were like paws then, your face blue and bleak 

But now I'm bewitched by your delicate cheek, 

And your little gloves fit as on any la-dy!" — 

"We never do work when we're ruined," said she. 

— "You used to call home-life a hag-ridden dream, 

And you'd sigh, and you'd sock; but at present you seem 

To know not of megrims or melancho-ly!" — 

"True. One's pretty lively when ruined," said she. 

— "I wish I had feathers, a fine sweeping gown, 

And a delicate face, and could strut about Town!" — 

"My dear — a raw country girl, such as you be, 

Cannot quite expect that. You ain't ruined," said she. 

Punishment

By Seamus Heaney

I can feel the tug of the halter at the nape of her neck, the wind on her naked front.

It blows her nipples to amber beads, it shakes the frail rigging of her ribs.

I can see her drowned body in the bog, the weighing stone, the floating rods and boughs.

Under which at first she was a barked sapling that is dug up oak-bone, brain-firkin:

her shaved head like a stubble of black corn, her blindfold a soiled bandage, her noose a ring

to store the memories of love. Little adulteress, before they punished you

you were flaxen-haired, undernourished, and your tar-black face was beautiful. My poor scapegoat,

I almost love you but would have cast, I know, the stones of silence. I am the artful voyeuur

of your brain’s exposed and darkened combs, your muscles’ webbing and all your numbered bones:

I who have stood dumb when your betraying sisters, cauled in tar, wept by the railings,

who would connive in civilized outrage yet understand the exact and tribal, intimate revenge.