Is there anything about Duck that you wanted to say but didn't have a chance to in class today? Say it here. Cite some text to support your claims.
Deadline: start of class Wednesday (11/4).
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George Stubbs, 1795
Welcome to the course blog for English 206/CWL 257: Enlightenment Literature and Culture. This is where you will find course documents, background information on the reading, and an opportunity to discuss the course material outside of class.
The Haymakers
George Stubbs, 1795
Final Exam
Past Readings
ECCO Assignment
Second Assignment
Course Information
First Assignment
Leading Discussion
Absalom and Achitophel
Contributors
- Alonzo Rico
- Andrew Rockway
- Beau
- Brian Radzevich
- Cameron.
- Cara Leo
- Craig
- Don Tucker
- Eddie
- Eduardo Patino Jr.
- Eric Johansen
- Esquire S.
- Frank Calace
- Geoffrey Magon
- Ian Cottle
- Jill T
- Julia
- KW
- Katie Hess
- Lauren Whalley
- LaurenBurke
- Michael Kim
- Ryan Johnson
- Stephen Black
- TKim
- Taylor Pinion
- Tim Anderson
- Tom Kluza
- Whitney
- Will Xiao
- Xiu Ling
- eoneal
Posts
Blog Archive
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2009
(129)
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November
(37)
- For Credit: Making Up for Cancelled Class
- Endnotes!
- Class Cancelled Today (Monday)
- For Credit: What is a sentimental journey?
- For Credit: Sterne's Sentimental Journey
- Happy Thanksgiving!
- For Credit: Representations of Enlightenment Subje...
- Second Paper Assignment Update
- For Credit: A Segue to Post-Thanksgiving Reading (...
- Spectator No. 11
- The Plan for Wednesday...
- For Credit: Britannia, Tyrants, Commerce, and the ...
- Debriefing: Class Online
- Monday Online Discussion 2: What Exactly Does Bri...
- MONDAY ONLINE DISCUSSION 1: Why a Dying Indian?
- For Credit: "The Dying Indian" AND "Rule Britannia"
- For Credit: Rule Britannia! (UPDATED and deadline ...
- For Credit: The Dying Indian
- Virtual Class: The Plan For Next Week
- GEO Strike Called for Monday
- For Credit: Thesis Statements (last chance to post...
- For Credit: Challenges of the ECCO Assignment
- For Credit: Montagu on Education
- Lady Mary Wortley Montagu: Turkish Embassy Letters
- For Credit: Lady Mary Wortley Montagu
- For Credit: Writing Issues Revisited
- For Credit: Reading Gray's Elegy Against the Grain
- For Credit: The Poet and the Poor
- For Credit: Writing Issues (Last Chance to Post fo...
- For Credit: The Short and Simple Annals of the Poor
- For Credit: Problems with the ECCO assignment?
- Entire Duck/Collier Reading Now Available
- Connecting Duck and Collier
- For Credit: Difference?
- For Credit: Duck Debriefing
- For Credit: What Does Duck Want?
- About the Reading for Monday
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November
(37)
4 comments:
Duck seems to speak from a very misogynistic viewpoint. I wonder what Queen Caroline, the woman who provided him with all of his monetary resources, would have thought about this poem. How did Duck get away with writing this poem even though he was funded by a female?
Good question! Short answer: class trumps gender. Queen Anne (and other upper-class women readers, including the wife of Rev. Stanley, who asked him to write the poem) probably would not have seen any connection between Duck's disparaging remarks about the haymakers and themselves as women.
It is interesting how Duck presents laborers as Roman Gods heading into the battle field where their superhuman strength will endure the pain that the sun lovingly provides. However, the text undermines this parallel illusion. The laborers are always under the command of the "master". The laborers may have the power that surpasses Hercules', but the master controls the power that the laborers possess. For example, "Before our master call us forth again; / And says, "For harvest yourselves prepare; / The ripened harvest now demands your care. / Get all things ready, and be quickly drest; / Early morn I shall disturb your rest"(698). The master demands the workers like slaves when he should treating them as free individuals. It is also interesting how the laborers remain, knowingly, under the tyranny of the master, who seductively beguiles the workers into his world. The laborers, unfortunately, are incapable of ever escaping.
I was really interested by what came up in class about how there is not a cycle of birth and death, rather just death over and over again. But in the end of the poem Duck refers to "the year's revolving course (Line 281)." I was curious as to how any of his readers found this sad life that he portrays as wonderful literature. Is this because his audience is of the middle class and finds solitude in this complaining poem? It's so incredibly melodramatic, I don't see how he can be taken so seriously especially by the queen, as ruler over the working class.
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