Opinion Piece
Analyze one of the assigned poems, paying
particular attention to language and metrical
structure (rhyme, etc.), figures of speech
(metaphor, personification), and themes.
What is your own response to this poem? 19th-cent. Romantics. Reading: William Blake’s “The Lamb,” “The Little Black Boy,” “The Chimney Sweeper” and “The Tyger,” William Wordsworth’s “Tintern Abbey” and “Westminster Bridge,” John Keats’ “Ode on Grecian Urn,” “Ode to a Nightingale.” (Norton, Vol. 2, pages 574-577, 582, 586, 592-596, 611-613.
opic: Postwar African literature; (post)colonial literature; elements of the novel.
Reading: Chinua Achebe, Things Fall Apart
(published 1959) (Chapters 1-13, Norton critical edition,
pages vii-74)
Critical Response/Discussion Board: How does the epigraph by W.B. Yeats relate to the novel? Why does Achebe show life in Umuofia before the arrival of colonizers? What kind of man is Okonkwo? Discuss foreshadowing, symbol in the novel.
All essays must be typed, doubled-spaced, using a 12-point font and following MLA style. Discussion Board/Critical Responses: the length is at least 300 words. Support your comments with evidence/quotes from the text. You don’t need outside references for these assignments—they are your own interpretations of the readings. The Blackboard posting window will close at 9 a.m.
