In the 1820s and 1830s, James Kendrew published a series of chapbooks for children. Most of these are stories about Simple Simon, or Jack Spratt, or Tom Thumb, but one is “The Little Maid and the Gentleman; or, We Are Seven.” Kendrew reprints Wordsworth’s poem, adding the new title and including woodcuts for each stanza.
What do a jeweler’s shop, a southern liberal arts college, and Disney World have in common? English Romantic poets, of course. The 19th century was a long time ago, England is far away, and poetry isn’t as popular as Youtube. Teaching the Romantic poets — or just about any author or artist who doesn’t publish
Last semester, in a seminar on Charles Dickens, I assigned students to update a Wikipedia page for a Dickens character. I briefly discussed the assignment on this blog in December, putting my own assignment in the context of other professors who have used Wikipedia in their classes in various ways. The exercise worked well for