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    Alexander Pope As A Poet

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    Sana Noor
    Pope was the most influential poetic figure of the early 18th century in England. His poetry was intellectual, didactic, and satirical in nature, nearly always written in heroic couplets. Though not the highest class of poetry, it was unrivaled in its technical mastery of form and style. Pope's poetry reflected the spirit of his age through its appeal to the mind over heart with wit, epigrams, and memorable quotable lines. His masterwork, The Rape of the Lock, was a social satire that effectively ridiculed the follies and vanities of high society through humor and parody. While a master of verse, some limitations of Pope's poetry included its superficiality, narrow

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    Alexander Pope As A Poet

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    Sana Noor
    1K views2 pages
    Pope was the most influential poetic figure of the early 18th century in England. His poetry was intellectual, didactic, and satirical in nature, nearly always written in heroic couplets. Though not the highest class of poetry, it was unrivaled in its technical mastery of form and style. Pope's poetry reflected the spirit of his age through its appeal to the mind over heart with wit, epigrams, and memorable quotable lines. His masterwork, The Rape of the Lock, was a social satire that effectively ridiculed the follies and vanities of high society through humor and parody. While a master of verse, some limitations of Pope's poetry included its superficiality, narrow

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    Pope was the most influential poetic figure of the early 18th century in England. His poetry was intellectual, didactic, and satirical in nature, nearly always written in heroic couplets. Though not the highest class of poetry, it was unrivaled in its technical mastery of form and style. Pope's poetry reflected the spirit of his age through its appeal to the mind over heart with wit, epigrams, and memorable quotable lines. His masterwork, The Rape of the Lock, was a social satire that effectively ridiculed the follies and vanities of high society through humor and parody. While a master of verse, some limitations of Pope's poetry included its superficiality, narrow

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    © All Rights Reserved
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    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    1K views2 pages

    Alexander Pope As A Poet

    Uploaded by

    Sana Noor
    Pope was the most influential poetic figure of the early 18th century in England. His poetry was intellectual, didactic, and satirical in nature, nearly always written in heroic couplets. Though not the highest class of poetry, it was unrivaled in its technical mastery of form and style. Pope's poetry reflected the spirit of his age through its appeal to the mind over heart with wit, epigrams, and memorable quotable lines. His masterwork, The Rape of the Lock, was a social satire that effectively ridiculed the follies and vanities of high society through humor and parody. While a master of verse, some limitations of Pope's poetry included its superficiality, narrow

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    © All Rights Reserved
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    ALEXANDER POPE AS A POET

    Pope is by far the most important poetic figure of the age called after him (1700-1740). His importance
    lies in the fact that he exercised the greatest influence on the classical poetry of the century. His poetry was
    intellectual, didactic and satiric, and was almost written in heroic couplet. It is never of the highest class, but
    within its limits, it stands unrivalled in the language.

    Pseudo Classicist

    The true classicism is meant to be a combination of poetic ardor and excellence of form. In Pope the true
    poetic ardor and energy is absent but he is exceedingly careful about the technique of form and style. When we
    look at the contents of Pope's poetry we do not find anything worthwhile. Satire, didactic poetry, and a flimsy
    mock-heroic poem---are all his poetic achievements.

    Intellectual Poetry

    Pope's poetry was of his age, and it reflected in full measure the spirit of the age. It is intellectual and its
    appeal is to the mind rather than to the heart. It is full of wit and epigram, the brilliancy of which is
    unsurpassed. Pope is next to Shakespeare, in contributing quotable lines of verse, which are remarkable for their
    pregnancy, neatness and brevity. Here are some of his famous quotes.

    Ø To err is human, to forgive divine.


    Ø We think our fathers fools, so wise we grow. Our wiser sons, no doubt will think us so.

    The Rape Of The Lock As A Social Satire

    This poem shows Pope's genius for satirical poetry which exposes in a witty manner the follies and
    absurdities of the high society of the times. All the recognized weapons of satire have been employed by Pope
    in a most effective manner. The principal targets of satire in this poem are aristocratic ladies and gentlemen of
    Pope's day. Ladies who learns to roll their eyes and to blush in a coquettish manner. Pope ridicules the
    fickleness and superficiality of the ladies by referring to their hearts as moving toy-shops and their varying
    vanities.
    A Poet of Wit and Fancy

    He was gifted with the power of intellectual expression and perfect propriety of phrase.

    It is true that Pope had not much to express, he had hardly any original thing to say, his thoughts are
    mostly borrowed or common place, but what gives distinction to his poetry is its lucid expression, His aim was
    to set the gems, not to create them. Lessing said: Pope's great merit lay in what we call the mechanic of
    poetry.

    Pope's Heroic Couplet

    Pope is the unchallenged master of the heroic couplet, just as Milton is of blank verse. Almost all of
    Pope's poetry is written in the heroic couplet. The rhythm of Pope's couplet has perfect smoothness and
    regularity which have a pleasing effect upon the ear

    Some Limitations

    Pope's poetry is not only superficial but is limited in its range. Firstly, it is the poetry of society in the
    city, as in The Rape of the Lock-- a poetry of satire and a philosophic poetry, which is dry and has no warmth of
    experience behind it. Pope said:"The proper study of mankind is man". But it was mankind as seen only in
    the small society of London.

    So far as Pope's versification is concerned it was limited to the heroic couplet. Though he handled this
    measure with masterly skill, it shows mechanical skill rather than genuine art.

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