I feel that this expresses that his intent was to preface his poetry, providing some sort of warning or explanation for the reader, allowing them to shift their expectations before reading the works this writing introduces.

This point being made is an extension of the idea that, according to Wordsworth, his time period was shifting toward an era of instant gratification. He means to say that his era is beginning to becoming used to being pleased quickly but also they are growing accustomed to being pleased and satisfied in a similar way repetitively. So Wordsworth believes that this old poetry style is a style that has people entrapped in their traditions, a pattern that can be seen in all forms of art across all time (film, paintings, sculptures...) as well as in every aspect of culture and tradition. Today in 2017 a major cultural change is the shift to using technology for information and reading. While books of old still exist and are used and retained primarily by the older generation, the new era of having technology fill this need is becoming more and more prevalent. Thus the theme that Wordsworth introduces here is not only relevant in his time but topical today as well.

Dr. Samuel Johnson was a critic and poet who dominated poetry in the time that Wordsworth wrote and while he did subscribe to a need for a break from traditional poetry in terms of diction and style (he believed it should be less 'lofty') he also still maintained that all poetry should still be somewhat more decorated and fancy than prose writing.

Wordsworth means to challenge other writers and their authenticity in their writing of a pompous and more "sophisticated" manner; he intends to propose that to be authentic to one's self in their writing is to be honorable and is in itself indicative of a true poet.

Wordsworth believed his poems were special and superior in a way because he believed they had "purpose". How could his ideas of himself and the quality of his own writing have colored his opinions of the value of his poems and the inferiority of the poems of others?

Donne wrote sonnets about complex ideas, often religious.

Wordsworth's motive was to defend his choice of language. He knew his style was different from that of those to which the public was accustomed, but he believed the style was necessary to accurately portray the everyday situations.

Here are my annotation instructions again from the "how things work" / syllabus page:

1) informational/contextual notations: These sorts of notations are “footnotes”: providing a chunk of information that furnishes helpful context for readers. Different printed editions of texts have different styles of footnotes; I expect that you will make annotations of this sort primarily for your own purposes, or to fill in gaps in the context I’ve provided for you (and I’ll be making these annotations on texts myself!)

2) rhetorically focused notations: Here we’ll be focusing on what the author is doing and why they are doing it: annotating to enhance our understanding and build a foundation for engaging with the author's argument.

3) interpretive/analytical notations: Here we get to the kind of thing that might happen in an online “discussion forum.” You will be making claims; offering contexts to show why those claims matter; analyzing texts, events, and ideas to generate evidence to support those claims...

My instructions for your annotations on this text are as follows. I've provided annotations in category #1; I want you each to make three annotations, one for each category. For #2, I'd like you to comment on some aspect of WW's thesis/motive, since those are the first "Elements of the Essay" I've introduced in our class. For #1 and #3, you have free rein. (An often misused idiom: the metaphor involves horses, monarchs...) Please set your annotations to private until the start of class Tuesday!

Link your annotation to the specific word/phase/sentence you're commenting on. This is a "page note": don't reply to it, unless you have a question about these instructions.

Lyrical Ballads first appeared in 1798, without a preface. The volume was a co-production of William Wordsworth and his friend Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Our text of WW’s “Preface” combines the 1800, 1802, and 1805 versions. The “Preface” was added in 1800 and revised significantly in 1802: I indicate the major 1802 edition with a black underline. (If you simply skip the addition, the sentence picks up in paragraph 22 where it leaves off in paragraph 13—this is how the text looked in 1800, and this is what I want us to focus on!.

Neither of the two WW poems we have read were included in Lyrical Ballads, but they were part of the same period in WW's career. (They were composed slightly later, in 1804/5; both first appeared in book form in 1807.)

WW’s “Preface” is important because in many senses he is “ahead of his time”: he anticipates a perspective that has become our modern perspective. By 1800, a mass, literate public existed and was growing rapidly. What relationship should the ancient traditions of art, particularly literature, have to this rapidly growing audience? How would this public come to understand its own life in and through reading imaginative writing? Discussions of literature around this time (and ever since!) tend to focus on language because literature is made out of language, and language is something used by everybody for many non-artistic reasons all the time. (This makes literature different from classical music, or painting.) And different kinds of language, historically, are associated with different groups of people. Thus, arguments about literary language (“what language should be used?” are always associated with arguments about society (“whose language should be used?”).

Moreover, Wordsworth’s “Preface” is important because the terms it which defines poetry are terms that would prove hugely influential in the developing understanding of what poetry should do–an understanding we now capture with the term “lyric” poetry.

WW’s prose style is fairly complex–these sentences are longer than modern sentences! The reading will be slow for that reason. I will mention two other possible difficulties: First, the problem of context. WW makes reference to various writers of his own time and of previous eras. It’s not necessary that you know these writers (you’ll all know Shakespeare!), but the best place to start if you want to know a little more is the Wikipedia. (Generally speaking, the more controversial a subject, the less reliable the Wiki entry; I’ll be saying more about this when we start to discuss research methods.) Second, the problem of old-fashioned or complex vocabulary. Here, the Oxford English Dictionary will be your best friend (see our writing “links”).

Why is it called Hypothesis?

Will our essay prompts all be focused around authenticity and keeping it real? Will there be a single prompt or are there usually multiple options?

Will you make exceptions for extenuating circumstances such as prolonged illness? I know that is an unlikely situation, but I was just wondering.

Will you make sure that all arguments are treated equally, even if (or especially if), they are less popular?

I think I may be misreading this. Why are there two "makes"? Also, I'm sorry, but I couldn't find anything else within the syllabus to ask about.

Will we have assignments where we will revise our classmate's essays?

What do you mean by this? How does this work?

When discussing this in class, I took the stance that "beyond fake" referred to the point where what we do becomes who we are. Essentially, we fake something for so long that we become that thing, making it real. I still feel this is true; however, the thought that one can "break free of the real/fake binary", as Turner put it, is a fascinating idea. There could definitely be a state completely separate from either realness or falseness. I do not know what that state might be.

I found Turner's thoughts about questioning your authenticity to be very interesting. If you think about what you are (real or fake), you would have to have some definition of what is real and what is fake as they pertain to you. In that case, you could in fact cause yourself to be more real by thinking about it, especially if you know that something you are doing is fake. However, I can certainly imagine instances where Turner's concerns are realized. Worrying about how authentic you are will change your attitudes and behaviors, causing you to change.

Ultimately, I would like to focus on the ideas of movement and exclusion in this quote. On the one hand, my initial reaction to this quote was to view it as a transition in thought and focus as one ages and matures, showing a shift from trying to truly know thyself to attempting to apply that knowledge by being thyself.

However, as we discussed in class, this quote also implies an entire separation of the two ideas, and was intended to convey a true shift in the thought of an entire time period. While I can understand this point, I think it is only one way of thinking about this concept. I feel that even in the "new age" it is necessary to know oneself before it is possible to BE oneself.

When I analyzed this quote in class, I said that I thought it was referring more to the process of growing up and learning what a woman should be in order to fit into society's mold of a woman. Upon reflecting further, I think that this quote is not only discussing the process of a woman herself adjusting her life to fit the stereotypes but also the world around her beginning to treat her as a woman. One "becomes a woman" not only in her own actions, but in the actions of others and how others perceive her.

In this way, one is not born a woman because the pressures of the outside world have not yet reached her, and she has not yet learned what she is supposed to be. As time goes on, both personal and societal actions cause her to become a woman.

Are these the aforementioned readings I highlighted above?

How many units will there be in total?

Will the topic of the paper also be provided or will have some to chose from?

Will you be able to go over our essays with us one on one at anytime? Like office hours or such?

even Thanksgiving???

After our in-class discussion, I remembered that some philosophers believe that humanity does not have free will. (Summarized) The argument is that once we are born, we are being constantly shaped by both our internal and external surroundings, so much so that we are completely at the mercy of said environment. Now, I am neither a philosopher nor do I want to debate the idea at the moment, but what if this is true? That suggests that we are molded by what's around us. In other words: We are molded into copies. So, if this idea regarding free will is correct, then the answer to this question is that we are shaped into copies simply by existing.

Through all of these quotes I am reminded of the word fake. It seems like the word fake is echoed in this quote as well. When I think of the word fake I remember the book Catcher in the Rye. The other of this quote is asserting that he is different and original. In fact the author infers that he or she is of a higher quality because of his or her quirkiness. I think these speaks numbers to the fact that every other quote was mentioning fakiness being associated with similar to others. People play a part to fit in and be a part of society. The author contends that since he or she is unique they are better than other people thus exhibited in his work.

While my partner took the side of nature in the age-old question of nature vs nurture, I chose nurture as I believe we are born Originals or blanks slates in that people are influenced by their environment. I don't think a child can be born racist, but is raised in such ways by racist guardians or parents. To die as Copies, one must emulate the thoughts and actions of another which can happen through teachings and interactions of peers and elders. It can be nearly impossible for someone to be wholly original in today's world due to the fact that we intake information from people and formulate it into an identity. I am who I am because of teachings from school, relationships with friends, and morals from my family, so I can't necessarily say I'm my own self. What does it mean to be original in this modern world? It's hard to claim ideas which have never existed before or aren't similar to any others.

Would it be possible for you to provide more detail regarding how this process will work? Will there be three conferences per paper? Thank you!