ACL 1002
Studying Poetry and Poetics
Semester 2 2012
Footscray Park

Essay 1

Short Essay (20%)

John Keats' 'On the Sonnet'

If by dull rhymes our English must be chained,
And, like Andromeda, the Sonnet sweet
Fettered, in spite of painéd loveliness;
Let us find out, if we must be constrained,
Sandals more interwoven and complete
To fit the naked foot of poesy;
Let us inspect the lyre, and weigh the stress
Of every chord, and see what may be gained
By ear industrious, and attention meet;
Misers of sound and syllable, no less
Than Midas of his coinage, let us be
Jealous of dead leaves in the bay-wreath crown;
So, if we may not let the Muse be free,
She will be bound with garlands of her own.

In 600 words, compare and contrast John Keats' 'On the Sonnet' (above) with either stanza 7 (page 14) from Part 1 of Lisa Jacobson's The Sunlit Zone or

William Shakespeare's Sonnet 116

Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments. Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove:
O no! it is an ever-fixed mark
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wandering bark,
Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.
Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickle's compass come:
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom.
If this be error and upon me proved,
I never writ, nor no man ever loved.

Your essay will need to show an understanding of the formal elements and other aspects of poetry that have been introduced in the unit up to and including week four. You also need to show how these formal elements and other aspects contribute to your understanding of the poems. It is due in your tutorial in week 6.