Brandeis University
Spring semester, 2003
ENG 171A: History of Literary Criticism
Miles Rind
March 21, 2003

ASSIGNMENT FOR TUESDAY, MARCH 25

        Reading: (1) Percy Bysshe Shelley, A Defense of Poetry (CT, 516–529)
        (2) John Stuart Mill, What Is Poetry? (CT, 551–556)

        Question: According to Shelley, “A man cannot say, ‘I will compose poetry’” (CT, 527a). Why not? How does Shelley account for poetic compositions that appear to be products of deliberate labor?


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