Page 227 - DENG405_BRITISH_POETRY

British Poetry

Notes Introduction

Alexander Pope was born in London in 1688. As a Roman Catholic living during a time of Protestant
consolidation in England, he was largely excluded from the university system and from political life,
and suffered certain social and economic disadvantages because of his religion as well. He was
self-taught to a great extent, and was an assiduous scholar from a very early age. He learned several
languages on his own, and his early verses were often imitations of poets he admired. His obvious
talent found encouragement from his father, a linen-draper, as well as from literary-minded friends.
At the age of twelve, Pope contracted a form of tuberculosis that settled in his spine, leaving him
stunted and misshapen and causing him great pain for much of his life. He never married, though he
formed a number of lifelong friendships in London’s literary circles, most notably with Jonathan
Swift.
Pope wrote during what is often called the Augustan Age of English literature (indeed, it is Pope’s
career that defines the age). During this time, the nation had recovered from the English Civil Wars
and the Glorious Revolution, and the regained sense of political stability led to a resurgence of
support for the arts. For this reason, many compared the period to the reign of Augustus in Rome,
under whom both Virgil and Horace had found support for their work. The prevailing taste of the
day was neoclassical, and 18th-century English writers tended to value poetry that was learned and
allusive, setting less value on originality than the Romantics would in the next century. This literature
also tended to be morally and often politically engaged, privileging satire as its dominant mode.
The Rape of the Lock is one of the most famous English-language examples of the mock-epic. Published
in its first version in 1712, when Pope was only 23 years old, the poem served to forge his reputation
as a poet and remains his most frequently studied work. The inspiration for the poem was an actual
incident among Pope’s acquaintances in which Robert, Lord Petre, cut off a lock of Arabella Fermor’s
hair, and the young people’s families fell into strife as a result. John Caryll, another member of this
same circle of prominent Roman Catholics, asked Pope to write a light poem that would put the
episode into a humorous perspective and reconcile the two families. The poem was originally pub-
lished in a shorter version, which Pope later revised. In this later version he added the “machinery,”
the retinue of supernaturals who influence the action as well as the moral of the tale.
After the publication of The Rape of the Lock, Pope spent many years translating the works of Homer.
During the ten years he devoted to this arduous project, he produced very few new poems of his own
but refined his taste in literature (and his moral, social, and political opinions) to an incredible de-
gree. When he later recommenced to write original poetry, Pope struck a more serious tone than the
one he gave to The Rape of the Lock. These later poems are more severe in their moral judgments and
more acid in their satire: Pope’s Essay on Man is a philosophical poem on metaphysics, ethics, and
human nature, while in the Dunciad Pope writes a scathing expose of the bad writers and pseudo-
intellectuals of his day.

24.1 Alexander Pope: The Rape of the Lock: Canto I–V

24.1.1 The Rape of the Lock: Canto I

Summary
The Rape of the Lock opens with an invocation of a muse and establishes the poem’s subject matter,
specifically a “dire offense from amorous causes” and the “mighty contests [rising] from trivial things”
(1-2). The speaker concludes his invocation by asking the muse to explain first why a lord of good-
breeding would assault a lady and, secondly, why a lady would reject a lord.
The action of the poem begins with the rising sun awakening the residents of a wealthy household.
Though everyone, including the lapdogs, has risen, Belinda remains asleep. She dreams of a
handsome youth who informs her that she is protected by a “thousand bright inhabitants of air:”
spirits that were once human women who now protect virgins.
The youth explains that after a woman dies; her spirit returns to elemental form; namely, to fire,
water, earth, and air. Each element is characterized by different types of women. Termagants or

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