| SES # | TOPICS | KEY DATES |
|---|---|---|
| The Scope of Reason: Moral and Intellectual Backgrounds | ||
| 1 | Introduction Graham, Jorie. Thinking. | |
| 2 | Plato. From Ion, Republic, and Phaedrus. | |
| 3 | Locke, John. Essay Concerning Human Understanding. Fox, Christopher. Defining Eighteenth-Century Psychology: Some Problems and Perspectives. | |
| 4 | Newton, Isaac. Opticks. Voltaire on Newton's Opticks Thomson, James. "To the Memory of Sir Isaac Newton." Bowden, Samuel. "A Poem Sacred to the Memory of Sir Isaac Newton." | |
| 5 | Pope, Alexander. Essay on Man. Books 1-2, and 4. | |
| 6 | Addison. The Spectator. Akenside, Mark. The Pleasures of Imagination. Book 1. | |
| 7 | Akenside, Mark. The Pleasures of Imagination. Books 2-3. | |
| 8 | Hartley, David. Observations on Man. Young, Edward. Night Thoughts. Book 1. | |
| 9 | Wilmot, John. A Satire on Reason and Mankind. Mettrie, Julien Offray de la. Man, A Machine. | |
| The Bounds of Reason: Melancholia and Madness | ||
| 10 | Cheyne, George. From The English Malady. Green, Matthew. The Spleen. | |
| 11 | Gray, Thomas. Ode on a Distant Prospect of Eton College, Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard. Warton, Thomas. The Pleasures of Melancholy. Collins, William. Ode on the Poetical Character. | First draft due (5-6 pages) |
| 12 | Smart, Christopher.Jubilate Agno. | |
| 13 | Blake, William. An Island in the Moon. "Mock on, Mock on..." "You Don't Believe I Won't Attempt to Make Ye" | |
| 14 | Blake, William. The Book of Urizen. | |
| 15 | Student Presentations and Evaluations | |
| The Scientific Poem and its Critique | ||
| 16 | Lucretius. De Rerum Natura. Books 1, and 4. | |
| 17 | Thomson, James. The Seasons, Summer. | |
| 18 | Armstrong, John. The Art of Preserving Health. Book 1, lines 1-63. Book 4 (online) | |
| 19 | Darwin, Erasmus. The Botanic Garden. Parts 1, and 2. Canning, George et. al. "The Loves of the Triangles." In The Anti-Jacobin. | |
| 20 | Darwin, Erasmus. The Temple of Nature. or, The Origin of Society. Cantos 1, and 3. | |
| 21 | Wordsworth. Lyrical Ballads. Preface "The Thorn" (with Note to "The Thorn") "The Idiot Boy" "Goody Blake and Harry Gill" "Simon Lee" "We are Seven" | |
| 22 | Wordsworth. Lyrical Ballads. (cont.) "Expostulation and Reply" "The Tables Turned" "Lines, Written a Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey" | |
| Keats, Medicine, and the Poetic Mind | ||
| 23 | Keats's Anatomical and Physiological Notebook Bell, Charles. Idea of a New Anatomy of the Brain. Keats. In drear-nighted December. | |
| 24 | Keats. "To My Brother George," Sleep and Poetry," and "Lamia." Hazlitt, William. "On Poetry in General." | |
| 25 | Keats. "Ode to Psyche," "Ode to a Nightingale," "Ode to Melancholy," and "Ode to Indolence." Sel. Keats Letters | |
| 26 | Student Presentations | Final paper due (12-15 pages) |