Alexander Pope free essay sample

Alexander Pope Alexander Pope is the greatest poet of the neoclassical period. He is best known for his satirical verse and for his translation of Homer. He preached correctness in literary composition, the filling and polishing of phrases and lines until perfection is reached. An Essay on Criticism is one Pope’s first major poems written. It is written in the rhyming verse called heroic couplets. The favorite verse form for the neoclassical poets was the rhymed couplet, which reached its greatest sophistication in heroic couplet of Pope.At the time the poem was published, the heroic couplet style was a moderately new genre of poetry, and Popes most ambitious work. An Essay on Criticism was an attempt to identify and refine his own positions as a poet and critic. The poem was said to be a response to an ongoing debate on the question of whether poetry should be natural, or written according to predetermined artificial rules inherited from the classical past. The poem commences with a discussion of the rules of taste which ought to govern poetry, and which enable a critic to make sound critical judgments.Judgments are partial, and true taste is as rare as true genius, so Pope sets some rules to follow in order to reach perfection. The first rule is following Nature. Nature in the neoclassical theory means a rational and comprehensible moral order in the universe, demonstrating Gods providential design, and it is permanently true. First follow NATURE, and your Judgment frame By her just Standard, which is still the same: The second rule is to learn from the old, which means the precepts of poetry and criticism set down by the classical Greek and Roman authors or imitate their literature.Those RULES of old discoverd, not devisd, Are Nature still, but Nature Methodizd; This is typical to the neoclassical spirit; which sought to revive the ideals of the Roman and Greek originals. It is also typical with Pope’s fascination with the Gre ek, especially Homer. Hear how learnd Greece her useful Rules indites, When to repress, and when indulge our Flights: In it Pope comments, too, upon the authority which ought properly to be accorded to the classical authors who dealt with the subject. He also identifies the main flaws a critic is prone to, and therefore the greatest obstacles to good criticism.The first flaw is pride, which is considered to be the biggest pitfall. The second is the little learning which makes critics exposed to pride, by making them think they know more than they do. A little Learning is a dangrous Thing; Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian Spring Other flaws include: a love of parts, which means emphasizing one aspect of a poem at the expense of all others; love of extremes; judging authors according to the opinions of others rather than the merit of the work; and valuing only those works which agree with ones own point of view, are written by member of ones own party, are written by friends, etc.He concludes (in an ap parent attempt to reconcile the opinions of the advocates and opponents of rules) that the rules of the ancients are in fact identical with the rules of Nature: poetry and painting, that is, like religion and morality, actually reflect natural law. This work is thoroughly representative both of Pope and of his period. The substance of the poem is not original with Pope but is a restatement of the ideas of the Greek Aristotle, the Roman Horace, especially of the French critic Boileau, who was Popes earlier contemporary, and of various other critical authorities, French and English.Translations of the Iliad Pope had been fascinated by Homer since childhood. His translation of the Iliad appeared between 1715 and 1720. It was his greatest achievement as a translator. It was acclaimed by Samuel Johnson as a performance which no age or nation could hope to equal (although the classical scholar Richard Bentley wrote: It is a pretty poem, Mr. Pope, but you must not call it Homer. ) The Essay on Man is a philosophical poem, written, characteristically, in heroic couplets. It is a rationalistic effort to use philosophy in order to vindicate the ways of God to man†.The Essay consists of four epistles. Epistle I concerns itself with the nature of man and with his place in the universe; Epistle II, with man as an individual; Epistle III, with man in relation to human society, to the political and social hierarchies; and Epistle IV, with mans pursuit of happiness in this world. Considered as a whole, the Essay on Man is an affirmative poem of faith: life seems chaotic and patternless to man when he is in the midst of it, but is in fact a coherent portion of a divinely ordered plan. In Popes world God exists, and he is beneficent: his universe is an ordered place.This is typical with the neoclassical idea concerning nature: a rational and comprehensible moral order in the universe, demonstrating Gods providential design, and it is permanently true. The limited intellect of man can perceive only a tiny portion of this order, and can experience only pa rtial truths, and hence must rely on hope, which leads to faith. Man must be aware of his rather insignificant position in the grand scheme of things: those things which he desires most — riches, power, fame — prove to be worthless in the greater context of which he is only dimly aware.In his place, it is mans duty to strive to be good, even if he is doomed, because of his inherent frailty, to fail in his attempt. This goes with the neoclassical view of man as being imperfect, inherently sinful, with limited potential. The â€Å"soul’s calm sunshine† that Pope describes allows man to transcend his earthly prison and look â€Å"through nature up to nature’s God,† allowing man to pursue â€Å"that chain which links th’immense design, / Joins heav’n and earth, and mortal and divine† (332) The Rape of the lockThe Rape of the Lock is a mock-heroic narrative poem . It is humorous indictment of the vanities and idleness of 18th-century high society. Basing his poem on a real incident among f amilies of his acquaintance, Pope intended his verses to cool hot tempers and to encourage his friends to laugh at their own folly. Pope, in his The Rape of the Lock, is Horatian in tone, delicately chiding society in a sly but polished voice by holding up a mirror to the follies and vanities of the upper class. Repeatedly invoking classical epic devices to establish an ironic contrast between its structure and its content, it functions at once as a satire on the trivialities of fashionable life, as a commentary on the distorted moral values of polite society, and as an implicit indictment of human pride, and a revelation of the essentially trivial nature of many of the aspects of human existence. The proud inhabitants of this pompous artificial society assume that they are something more than human, but Pope shows the readers how fragile their pretended perfection and their isolation from reality make them.Despite the likeness to historical epic pieces, this work displays a light and playful tone, which illuminates the nature of the poem’s central conflict, the Baron stealing, or â€Å"raping†, Belinda’s illustrious lock of hair. The meeting Points that sacred Hair dissever From the fair Head, for ever and for ever! Then flashd the living Lightnings from her Eyes, And S creams of Horror rend th affrighted Skies. (Pope 153-156). This embellished and exaggerated quotation is representative of the fundamental elements of Horatian satire used in this mock epic.The Rape of the Lock expresses Pope’s profound dissatisfaction with his society. Underneath the enlightenment ideals of rationality, order and knowledge, society embraced a pervasive obsession with â€Å"decorum,† a facade of established traditions and vanities, as well as an innate sense of moral and political supremacy. Epic Conventions Because a mock-epic parodies a classical epic, it uses the same conventions, or formulas, as the classical epicbut in a humorous way. Following are examples of the epic conventions that Pope parodies. Such conventions imply thon Pope. Invocation of the Muse: In ancient Greece and Rome, poets had always requested â€Å"the muse† to fire them with creative genius when they began long narrative poems, or epics, about godlike heroes and villains. In The Rape of the Lock, Pope does not invoke a goddess; instead, he invokes his friend, John Caryl who had asked Pope to write a literary work focusing on such a trivial event (the snipping of a lock of hair) that turned the members of two families into bitter enemies. Cary ll thought that poking fun at the incident would reconcile the families by showing them how trivial the incident was. WHAT dire Offence from amrous Causes springs, What mighty Contests rise from trivial Things, I sing This Verse to Caryl, Muse! 2- Division of the Poem into Books or Cantos: The traditional epic is very long. Dantes Divine Comedy, for example, contains 34 cantos. The Rape of the Lock is divided into 5 cantos. Such structure helps Pope demonstrate the smallness or pettiness of the behavior exhibited by the main characters in the poem. 3- Descriptions of Soldiers Preparing for Battle: In the Iliad, Homer describes in considerable detail the armor and weaponry of the great Achilles, as well as the battlefield trappings of other heroes.In The Rape of the Lock, Pope describes Belinda preparing her self with combs and pins and put on her full arms. Here Files of Pins extend their shining Rows, Puffs, Powders, Patches, Bibles, Billet-doux. Now awful Beauty puts on all its Arms; The Fair each moment rises in her Charms, Repairs her Smiles, awakens evry Grace, And calls forth all the Wonders of her Face 4- Descriptions of Heroic Deeds and battles: While Homer describes the exploits of his heroes during the Trojan War, Pope describes the exploits of Belinda and the Baron during a card game called Ombre.