Read some of the prose from Lincoln’s Specimen Days (included in your text). Compare/contrast his poetry with his prose.
2. How reliable are the narrators in Poe’s, Irving’s, and Melville’s works (those assigned for this class only)? What do they have in common, and how does their reliability affect the works?
3. Read the excerpt from William Gilmore Simms’ preface to The Yemassee. In this selection, he is writing about his novel; however, on a broader level, he is defining Romance in a more specific manner than we have done so this semester. Find those defining factors of Romance in his preface–for example, he says “[i]t approximates the poem . . . and “hurries [individuals] rapidly through crowding and exacting events, in a narrow space of time” (1211)–and use those factors to show how one of Poe’s short stories fits Simms’ definition of Romance. Use only one of Poe’s stories that appears within your text.
4. Compare the depiction of Indians in earlier works by Mary Rowlandson, William Bradford, John Smith and others with how the Indians present themselves in the speeches and tales. How do you account for the different perspectives (beyond the obvious reasons)?
