Training in writing expository prose. Instruction in expository writing in conjunction with reading literature. Satisfies the first half of the Reading and Composition requirement.

What’s right for bringing abundance to the fields; Under what sign the plowing ought to begin, Or the marrying of the grapevines to their elms; How to take care of the cattle and see to their breeding; Knowing the proper way to foster the bees As they go about their work; Maecenas, here Begins my song. —Virgil’s Georgics What should we make of a poem that proposes to instruct its readers on the proper methods for manufacturing cider? Or on how to care for one’s sheep or cultivate sugarcane on a colonial plantation (and presumably, grow wondrously rich off of slave labor)? What, in short, should we make of poems that seek to impart knowledge about the “science” of agricultural labor? Are such poems simply agricultural almanacs in verse? And if not, what kinds of aesthetic experience do such poems provide? How seriously should we take their didactic aims? We’ll begin the course by reading selections from Virgil’s Georgics, a classical poem that announces itself as a song specifically about agriculture and rural occupations. We’ll then turn to 18C-British adaptations of Virgil’s poem, including John Dyer’s The Fleece (1757) and John Grainger’s The Sugar-Cane (1764). Attending to 18C poems about labor, cultivation and commerce, we'll explore how poets in the period accounted for the ongoing transformations in rural and urban life occasioned by agricultural and industrial “improvement”, imperial expansion and global trade. A substantial portion of our reading will be devoted to the work of laboring-class poets such as Stephen Duck, Mary Collier, Ann Yearsley and Robert Bloomfield.

Requisites

• Satisfaction of the Entry Level Writing Requirement

Repeat Rules

Course is not repeatable for credit.

Requirements class fulfills