Poetry Analysis Ages 15-18: Tolkien, the Romantics, & Poetry of the Sea

Imram is an Irish word for an ancient genre where a hero goes on a sea voyage, experiences various trials, and returns home to tell his or her tale. Often, such heroes journey to a mythic or spiritual otherworld, full of fantastic surroundings and creatures. This genre has a long association with myth, mystery, and mysticism. Its emphasis on the natural world appealed to the romantic poets, who prized emotional experience and saw nature as its gateway.

In the context of this class, the terms myth, mystery, and mysticism have the following meanings:
•	Myth=a set of stories and concepts that a people uses to make sense of the world and humanity's place in it. This definition draws on Tolkien’s own and says nothing about whether that system is factual. It includes mythologies traditionally understood, such as Greek myth, but also belief systems such as Christianity and Hermeticism.
•	Mystery=the unknown; that which inspires fear, wonder, and/or awe; also, spiritual paradoxes that inspire contemplation of the divine or otherworldly.
•	Mysticism=contemplation of the divine or otherworldly; a practice common to many belief systems and traditions.

J.R.R. Tolkien, author of The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and The Silmarillion, has strong connections with romanticism, though he is notoriously difficult to classify as a writer. The sea haunted his imagination. Much of his poetry deals directly with the imram genre, and his Middle-earth writings are intensely concerned with otherworld as the home of the immortal Elves.

In this class, we will read poetry concerning voyages to otherworld: some by romantic poets and some by Tolkien. We’ll examine what each has to say about otherworld, imagination, morality, and mortality.

Prior knowledge of Tolkien’s Middle-earth writings is not required, but it is helpful, and there will be spoilers. Neither is knowledge of the imram genre, the Romantic Movement, or poetry analysis.

Before class, students will complete required readings and discussion questions (see the Homework section). Class will consist of discussion and my explanations using slides. I will also display short sections of text for close reading as a class. After class, I will post the coming week's discussion question in the classroom. Students will write a response to this question and post it as a reply to the prompt before the next meeting.

Schedule
This is an ongoing class, so learners can join at any time. We will cover a different poem each week, and I have enough poems lined up to work with the same student for half a calendar year, should one want to. I will post where to find the coming week’s poem after class, at the same time as the discussion question. This schedule is subject to change, especially if students want to jump ahead to a certain poem.

Updated 5 Sep 2024:
Week of Sep 9—The Rime of the Ancient Mariner (Parts I-IV), by Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Week of Sep 16—The Rime of the Ancient Mariner (Parts V-VII), by Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Week of Sep 23—The Whale, by Unknown
Week of Sep 30—Natura Fastitocalonis, by JRR Tolkien
Week of Oct 7—Fastitocalon, by JRR Tolkien
Week of Oct 14	—The Death of St. Brendan, by JRR Tolkien
Week of Oct 21—Imram, by JRR Tolkien
Week of Oct 28	—The Seafarer, translated by Ezra Pound
Week of Nov 4—Éalá Éarendel Engla Beorhtast, by JRR Tolkien
Week of Nov 11—Errantry, by JRR Tolkien
Week of Nov 18—The Song of Eärendil, by JRR Tolkien
Week of Nov 25—Ulysses, by Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Week of Dec 2—The City in the Sea, by Edgar Allan Poe
Week of Dec 9—The Man Who Dreamed of Faeryland, by William Butler Yeats
Week of Dec 16—Namárië, by JRR Tolkien
Week of Dec 30—Galadriel’s Song of Eldamar, by JRR Tolkien
Week of Jan 13—To the Sea! To the Sea!, by JRR Tolkien
Week of Jan 20—Bilbo’s Last Song, by JRR Tolkien
Week of Jan 27—Into the West, by Annie Lennox
Week of Feb 3—The Ocean Strand, by CS Lewis
Week of Feb 10—Break, Break, Break, by Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Week of Feb 17	—Ode to a Nightingale, by John Keats
Week of Feb 24	—The Poet and the Sea and Shore, by Walt Whitman
Week of Mar 3—The Sound of the Sea, by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Week of—Mar 10	Mythopoeia, by JRR Tolkien
Week of Mar 17—Looney, by JRR Tolkien
Week of Mar 24—The Sea-Bell, by JRR Tolkien
Week of Mar 31—Firiel, by JRR Tolkien
Week of Apr 7—The Last Ship, by JRR Tolkien
Week of Apr 14	—Harp Song of the Dane Women, by Rudyard Kipling
Week of Apr 21—The Ent and the Entwife, by JRR Tolkien
Week of Apr 28—Lament for Boromir, by JRR Tolkien

Keywords: literature; literary analysis; high school; figurative language; fantasy; writing; English; religion; spiritual; medieval; Middle Ages