| Professor Gilbert
L. Gigliotti 304 Willard Hall 860/832-2759 gigliotti@ccsu.edu |
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Purpose of the Course:
In Eng 500, “The Connecticut Wits”,
students examine the theory and practice of poetry in the Anglo-American colonies
during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries and its culmination in the revolutionary
circle of American poets commonly known as the Connecticut, Wicked, or Hartford
Wits, who first consciously sought to fashion a distinctly American verse.
Course Requirements:
Paper: a scholarly (dare I say “publishable”?)
treatment of a specific aspect of the Connecticut Wits, either as a group or
as individual writers. The paper will be evaluated using the Diederich Scale
(see attached). 60%
Prospectus: a concise statement with preliminary documentation of your thesis
and critical approach. 10%
Presentation #1: a critical discussion of the verse by one of the “Minor”
or “Representative” poets included in the anthology, American Poetry
of the Seventeenth Century. 10%
Presentation #2: a critical reading of a single poem (not discussed in class)
by one of the Wits ‹ Barlow, T. Dwight, Humphreys, Trumbull, Alsop, Cogswell,
Hopkins, Th. Dwight, Smith. 10%
Presentation #3: a summary of your research and conclusions. 10%
Readings:
John Cotton, “Preface” to
the Bay Psalm Book
Cotton Mather, “On Poetry and Style”
Michael Wigglesworth, The Day of Doom
Anne Bradstreet, selections
Edward Taylor, selections
Ebeneezer Cook, “The Sot-Weed Factor”
Richard Lewis, “Journey from Patapsko to Annapolis, April 4, 1730”
Phillis Wheatley, selections
Philip Freneau, selections
William Dowling, Poetry and Ideology in Revolutionary Connecticut
John Trumbull, “Lines Addressed to Dwight and Barlow” 1775
“The Genius of America” 78-’79
The Progress of Dulness ‘73
Timothy Dwight, “Columbia” 78-79
Conquest of Canaan ‘85 (selections)
“Triumph of Infidelity” ‘88
“Greenfield Hill” ‘94
David Humphreys, “A Poem on the Industry of the United States of America”
94
The Wits, The Anarchiad 86-’87
Joel Barlow, “The Hasty Pudding” ‘96
“Advice to a Raven in Russia”