Unit VII: New Directions
Week 29
Please read:
Historical background, pp. 627-631.
After you have finished reading the historical survey, please take the background quiz for the unit.
Thomas Hardy
- "The Darkling Thrush", p. 633.
- "The Man He Killed", p. 633.
- "Ah, Are You Digging My Grave?", p. 634.
- "In Time of 'The Breaking of Nations'", p. 634.
Gerard Manley Hopkins
- "Pied Beauty", p. 637.
- "God's Grandeur", p. 638.
- "Spring and Fall: To a Young Child", p. 639.
- "Thou Art Indeed Just, Lord", p. 640.
- "The Windhover: to Christ our Lord". Hopkins considered this poem to be his best, and, of the ones I have read myself, I would have to agree. It is dense with imagery, laced with Hopkins' own peculiar sounds and vocabulary, and pulls together quite remarkably. Read it carefully and aloud; go over it several times to see what you can get out of it. Don't be afraid to use a dictionary.
- If you're interested in reading more of Hopkins' poetry, look at the selection at the Bartleby site. It's quite impressive.
A. E. Housman
- "When I Was One-and-twenty", p. 725.
- "Loveliest of Trees", p. 726.
- "To an Athlete Dying Young", p. 726.
- "Terence, this is stupid stuff." (from A Shropshire Lad) This is perhaps Housman's most famous poem, and a kind of poetic manifesto. What is he saying about the function of poetry in his life, and those of his hearers?
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