Week 2 Ideas for your Literature Journal

The weeks are already flying past and we are into week 3 next week. Thank you everyone for making the start so enjoyable. I think we are all flying with Wordsworth and or Shakespeare!

For my second year nineteenth century group I have a couple of ideas for your WordPress Literature Journal this week.
1/ If you are feeling creative, how about thinking back to a special moment in your own childhood (one of Wordsworth’s so-called “spots of time” (check out http://blog.granneman.com/2006/01/31/wordsworths-spots-of-time/) and see if you can write a poem or short prose piece that brings that moment to life for you.
2/ What do you think personally about Wordsworth’s amazing views on the value and power of the leech-gatherer in his life? Can you relate to such an experience?
3/ Do you think the representation of Dorothy Wordsworth in “Pandaemonium” is an exaggeration – based on what you have seen of her in her own journals?

For my third year Shakespearian Scholars how about any of the following (and please invent your own topic if none of these suit):
1/ Describe your response to Shakespeare’s eroticism. Did it surprise you that someone “back then” could be so graphic in their description of such events?
2/ Take any four stanzas of “Venus and Adonis” and see if you can imitate their content and their style using experiences and illustrations from you own current experience.
3/ What you have found most interesting so far about the ideas and issues of the Renaissance period surrounding Shakespeare? Does anything from this period strike you as still relevant today?
For further ideas on Shakespeare’s erotic landscape have a look at http://www.jstor.org/stable/450101 .You can also find this on the university Library web site databases under jstor.