Lyric poetry encompasses a wide range of styles and presentations, although it does prescribe certain guidelines. After familiarizing yourself with those guidelines and with the work of various lyric poets, compare Sara Teasdale's poetry to Walt Whitman's. How are they similar and how do they differ?

Read Ray Bradbury's short story, "There Will Come Soft Rains" and write an essay explaining why you think his interpretation of the world's future—in a science fiction sense—is more or less frightening than Teasdale's.

World War I was called "the war to end all wars." Why do you think this phrase came about, and how do you believe people interpreted it as the conflict was going on? Why did the First World War not end all others?

"Lost Generation" was the nickname of Americans in their twenties and thirties during the 1920s. In particular...