Ode on a Grecian URL

...and so it begins! Today was all about establishing the goals and standards of the course, but on Thursday we get to dive directly into some of the most influential poetry in the history of English literature. I'm not sure whether Prof. Ortiz-Robles plans on focusing Thursday's lecture on "Tintern Abbey" or the "Preface," but we will be returning to both these texts in class this week, next week, and often thereafter.

For those of you waiting for your copies of the Norton Anthology 2A: The Romantic Period to arrive from Amazon, say, there are Bartleby versions of this week's Wordsworth reading online: "Tintern Abbey" and "Preface to Lyrical Ballads."

If you want a sense of the countryside Wordsworth (or his speaker) inhabits in "Tintern Abbey," you might want to browse the Flickr tinternabbey and wye tags. Here are some particularly impressive photographs ~


Tintern Abbey by Kittenry. (You might also want to look at Simon Harb's impressive photograph of the Abbey from above.)


The River Wye by SKW.


The Wye River valley by BabyDinosaur.

You can also take a Flickr tour of Wordsworth's life: Dove Cottage by Miyoko, Wordsworth's writing bower at his summer home by Johnnone, Wordsworth's grave by Ennor.