Divided: A Comparison Of Hardy and Hopkins
For this assignment, you will write a thoughtful essay of 1500 words and incorporate information from at least four scholarly, outside sources (this means sources other than the course texts).
It is often said that, unlike Walt Whitman or Emily Dickinson, the modernist poet is caught between two worlds, “one dead and one powerless to be born.” In a carefully argued and well-documented essay,
demonstrate this “divided” modern sensibility at the crossroads, glancing backwards toward the monuments of the past and looking forward toward an ambivalent future in the poetry of any TWO early Modernist poets.
Your essay must be a comprehensive and detailed discussion of the poets and include major works. The interpretations that characterize the writer’s speaking voice as “caught between two worlds,” or as various gradations of traditional or futuristic, should be substantive and supported by specific examples from the readings. The discussion should be informed (aware of the major motifs of modern poetry) and consider both the content and the form of the poems.
The two poets I have chosen for this assignment are Gerard Manley Hopkins and Thomas Hardy.
