Page 245 - DENG405_BRITISH_POETRY

British Poetry

Notes So through the medium of satire, Pope paints a picture of 18th century English society. His satire is
didactic and impersonal. It is not inflicted against any person or individual, rather against the society
and that, too, owing to some moral faults. He is dissatisfied with the society around which he wants
to reform. The society he pictured is the aristocratic group of 18th century fashionable English
society. But thee are several allied subjects, too, on which he inflicts his satire. For example, he
satirized the judged that make hasty decisions.
“The hungry judges soon the sentence sign,
And wretches hang that jurymen may dine”
He also satirized those friends whose friendship is but lust, those politicians who do not have a
deeper insight and cannot see beyond the shows and take steps just for their own interests and ends
etc.
To sum up, the poem is a reflection of this artificial and hollow life, painted with a humorous and
delicate satire. Pope’s satire is intellectual and full of wit and epigram. Is picture of Addison as
Atticus though unjust and prompted by malice, is a brilliant piece of satire.

24.4.2 The Rape of the Lock as a Mock Epic Poem

Pope demonstrates two quite separate influences in The Rape of the Lock: mock epic and Horation
satire. But since these two are quite antipodal—at least in terms of style and conventions—we shall
examine not only instances of their presence, but the manner in which they are combined.
Just as history provides the most suitable material for the epic poem, Pope’s use of a contemporary
history—necessarily of lesser import—is equally befitting the mock epic. Accordingly, rather than
depicting kings or majestic men and their distinguished deeds, intending to provoke our admiration,
with perfect irony, Pope takes for his mock epic a vain female as hero, displaying her lowly trials
and provoking our scorn. Here then we find our first common element, for Horace also is concerned
with contemporary issues, though he certainly chooses an entirely different form for its exposition.
Indeed, When Trebatius warns him away from satire, suggesting, “. . . if such great love of writing
grips you, think big;/sing about unbeaten Caesar’s deeds, and be rewarded,” which certainly smacks
of contemporary epic, Horace politely declines: “I’m insufficient; we all can’t write of battle lines.”
Another instance in which The Rape of the Lock makes use of epic convention and differs from
Horace’s Satires, is the introductory invocation of the Muse. Though this has no parallel in the
Satires, Horace does begin the first epistle, in Book I of Epistles with: “My very first Muse sang of
you.” It’s inclusion, by Pope, is not only necessitated by the mock epic form, but also by the ending
of the work: Belinda wins immortality by means of the poem itself—muse related—as well as by
the lock rising to form a new heavenly body: “But trust the Muse—she saw it upward rise,/Tho’
mark’d by none but quick Poetic Eyes,” which is essentially saying the same thing: her immortality
is owing to poetry.
Even Horace himself acknowledges, also in the Epistles: “It is the Muse who gives immortality.”
Pope also uses the initial reference to the Muse to establish the presence of the supernatural, though
instead of the classical gods providing the machinery, inciting to battle and protecting the mortal
hero—as would be the case in epic convention—we find the Sylphs of Rosicrucian Philosophy. The
Sylphs, of course, proved a perfect choice, for not only do the lack the reverence of classical gods,
thus proving more suitable protectorates of our unworthy hero, but they also brought with them a
literary connection with erotica, particularly in Le Comte de Gabalis.
The foulness of language, in Book I Satire 2 is in no way indicative of Horace’s other satires, but it
does, nevertheless, demonstrate by exaggeration—just as Book II teaches by exaggeration—that the
language of Horace is the language of the street: “. . . my things are more like conversation,” as well
as “ . . . talk is all it is.” This is Horace himself speaking, in Book I, of his own work. In the final Satire
of that book, written at a later date, this idea had been slightly modified:

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