Alexander Pope: 1688-1744

Born in London - family relocates to comply with anti-Catholic statute.

Period of intense anti-Catholic sentiment in England forces Pope’s family to move to Berkshire.

Teaches himself Greek and Latin.

Biography cont’d.

At 12, develops TB of the spine – causes dwarfism and hunched back; is only 4ft. 6ins. tall.

Affliction of the spine caused him physical deformity, as Sir Joshua Reynolds described him as "very humpbacked and deformed."

Was said that Pope was "afflicted with constant headaches, sometimes so severe that he could barely see the paper he wrote upon, frequent violent pain at bone and muscle joints...shortness of breath, increasing inability to ride horseback or even walk for exercise...."

Biography cont’d.

Early literary allies were John Gay, Swift, Lord Bolingbroke – Sec. of State who suggested “Essay on Man”

Died at his villa in Twickenham

Alexander Pope: Major Works

1711 An Essay on Criticism 1712 The Rape of the Lock 1713 Windsor Forest 1715 Homer's Iliad 1717 Poems on Several Occasions 1725 The Works of Shakespeare

Collated and Corrected 1726 Homer's Odyssey 1728 The Dunciad: An Heroic Poem

(1743) 1733-34 An Essay on Man 1735 An Epistle to Dr. Arbuthnot 1738 Imitations of Horace

Background – “Rape of the Lock”

Focused on feud between three families – Fermors, Petres and Carylls – prominent members of great intermarried Roman Catholic families owning land and personal friends of the Pope

Around March 21, 1712, Lord Petre had cut off a lock of Arabella Fermor’s hair

John Caryll suggested to Pope that he should write a poem to heal the estrangement between the two families

Poem’s Background cont’d.

Poem states that the event occurred at Hampton Court – improbable but not impossible

Was Belinda to marry the Baron as the poem hints? Arabella may well have been considered the possible bride for Lord Petre.

By the time Pope revised the poem in 1717, the feud between the families was no longer particularly relevant.

Poem’s Format

Written in five cantos Is a mock epic – written in the grand epic

style of Iliad or Odyssey Is a long, humorous poem written in mock-

heroic style; a parody (treats a minor subject seriously) of the epic form in poetry

Poem’s Format cont’d.

Recalls parallel situations of tragic or heroic importance in famous epic poems BUT trivializes the subject (satire – type?)

Uses technique of ridicule: inflates triviality by elevating it to grandeur

Pope maintains just the right degree of sympathy with his characters while at the same time poking fun at them and the event

Poem’s Background cont’d.

CANTO I – opens with formal statement of the theme – “what mighty contests rise from trivial things” – invokes the Muse to inspire the poet.

Belinda, heroine of the poem, is visited by the sylph Ariel, who warns her that some dread fate hangs over her head.

CANTO II – Belinda, in a pleasure boat on the Thames, is being conducted with other young fashionables to the palace of Hampton Court.

Poem’s Background cont’d.

CANTO II cont’d. - An adventurous baron, admiring two of Belinda’s curls, is determined to obtain them.

Belinda’s protecting sylph Ariel exhorts a host of other airy beings to come to Belinda’s defense.

Literary Style – Poetic Form

The Heroic Couplet The heroic couplet’s rhyme scheme was

ordinarily closed, rhymed couplets. The meter was Iambic Pentameter. The couplets often contrasted opposing

ideas in an epigrammatic manner.“Know then thyself, presume not God to scan;

The proper study of mankind is man.” (93)

Additional Info./Analysis

According to Swift, Pope’s special gift was the ability to use the balanced structure of the rhymed couplet to convey a rich complexity of meaning

Pope joins the important with the trivial to suggest that statecraft (government) and interior decoration are equally important to his somewhat frivolous characters

Additional Info./Analysis cont’d. Pope imitates Homer’s poetic way of stating the time of

day as connected to a specific job Pope commands a range of diction Pope uses idioms - an expression, word, or phrase

whose sense means something different from what the words literally imply such as kick the bucket  or hang one's head

Contemporaries admired him above all else because he knew how to capture the entire range of experience in the formal structure of the heroic couplet