Choose one of the following topics for your writing assignment:
Topic 1:
With close reference to any text (poem or prose) studied in the course of the semester, discuss how the industrial Revolution is represented in literature. (You may want to comment on the feelings about the Industrial Revolution which can be encountered in certain texts.)
Topic 2:
Both William Wordsworth and Percy Shelley were romantic writers: while Wordsworth saw positive power and inspiration in nature, Shelley sometimes depicted Nature as violent and destructive. Compare their respective approaches, paying special attention to selected poems by Wordsworth and Shelley. (You may also discuss the representation of nature in the work of any individual poet whose work has been studied in the course of the semester.)
Topic 3:
With specific reference to Mathew Arnold's poems, show how the poet sees himself as a sick man in a sick society. (Comment on his understanding of "sickness". You may also want to pay special attention to Arnold's description of "isolation".)
Topic 4:
Concentrate on any text discussed in class and explain how it criticizes contemporary society. (You may want to devote special attention to how a particular text criticizes poverty or slavery.)
Topic 5:
"One topic that links Victorian poets is love, for love, is as prominent in Victorian poetry as it lad been in the time of John Donne".
Discuss the above statement with reference to representative poems of the Victorian era.