Alexander Pope (note for exam purpose)

If Chaucer was the painter of actual life, Spenser of imaginative life, Shakespeare of ideal life, and Milton of
moral and spiritual life, Pope's subjects of poetry in which he excelled are of the satirical and mock-heroic kind. He is
the unchallenged master of artificial poetry draped with classical flavour paving in the realm of mock seriousness.
"Pope," says Lowell "was the chief founder of an artificial poetry which in his hands was living and powerful,
because he used it to express artificial modes of thinking and an artificial state of society… tried by any high of wit,
he is unrivalled."

His satires are simply brilliant and the portraits of the people he detested are, indeed, the best he could give.
The Rape of the Lock is a rare specimen of this class of poetry that exhibits a rare combination of wit and fancy. The
mock epic is inspired from Tassoni’s – Rape of a Bucket, Vida’s – Game of Chess, Boileau’s – Le Lutrin. This social
satire, in a light vein, is ironic reflection of his time after that presents the follies and vices of the upper class society.
Saintsbury says “His satire may not be having the largeness of Dryden, but he looked on society with an unclouded
eye, and he expresses his views with a pen that never stumbled, never made slips of forms, and always said the
right thing in the right way”. John Dennis says "His careful workmanship often makes his satirical touches more
attractive than Dryden's”.

Pope is the unchallenged master of the heroic couplet, just as Milton is of blank verse. The Epistle to Doctor
Arbuthnot (1735) is a satire in poetic form addressed to John Arbuthnot, a physician. It reviews his own literary carrier
and includes the famous portraits of Lord Hervey as “Sporus” and Addison “Atticus”. The rhythm of Pope's couplet has
perfect smoothness and regularity which have a pleasing effect upon the ear. Pope mostly used the ‘stops’ couplet---
that is, there is a final pause after every couplet. “Shut, shut the door, good John; fatigued I said, /Tie up the
knocker, say I’m sick, I’m dead.”

He is remarkable for his epigrams and aphorisms, which lends the gift of suitability to his poetry. " Probably no
poet," says Edmunds, "with the exception of Shakespeare, has enriched our language so much with quotable and
readily remembered sayings." "Foolish rush in where angels fear to tread," "to err is human, to forgive divine," are
only two of his innumerable aphorisms. In Ode on Solitude Pope wrote– “Happy the man, whose wish and care/ A
few paternal acres bound”

He is not a lyric poet as he lacked the intensity, spontaneity, music and melody of a lyric poet. Due to
preference of logic over emotion, imaginative lights as we find in Shelle, is absent from his poetry. His poetry deals
with library criticism, ethical philosophy, moral satire, which for their presentation have to depend upon cold and
impassioned analysis and scientific method, and not heights of the flights of imagination. His studies relate only to the
social life, manners and customs of a highly artificial society, where conventions impede the strong and smooth flow
of elemental human passions and emotions. He could not rise up to epic and drama which constitute the grandest
form of poetry. He lacked insight into eternal truths and to capture them in melody and metaphor, or some strain of
harmony, is absolutely beyond him

In spite of the demerits, his merits are adequate enough to class him as a timeless classical poet. "Pope's
merits are of a kind not likely to be affected by time, a lively fancy, a power of satire almost unrivalled, and a skill in
using words so consummate that there is no poet, excepting Shakespeare, who has left his mark upon the language so
strongly. He has said in the best words what we all know and feel, but cannot express and has made that classical
which in weaker hands would be commonplace. His sensibility to the claims of his art is exquisite; the adaptation of
his style to his subject shows the hand of a master. All these are gifts to which none but a great poet can lay claim."
John Dryden (1631 – 1700) (study Material)
 John Dryden is considered as “The Father of English Criticism”, according to Dr Samuel Johnson, “a new era of
criticism began with Dryden”. Dr. Johnson in his “Life of Dryden” about Dryden and English poetry– “He found it
brick and legit it marble”.
 Dryden upholds Aristotle’s definition of poetry as a process of imitation. According to him, poetry and painting are
not only true imitations of nature but of the best nature.
 According to Dryden, the final end of poetry is delight and transport rather than instructions.
 According to Dryden a poet is neither a teacher nor a bare imitator-a photographer- but a creator.
 About Dramatic Poetry, Dryden said that, incredible scenes such as death on the stage can never be imitated and
it can be avoided.
 Dryden takes up the subject that Sir Philip Sidney had set forth in Defence of Poesy (1580), and attempts to justify
drama as a legitimate form of “Poetry” comparable to the epic as well as defend English drama against that of
ancients and the French. Dryden made use of historical method of criticism
 Dryden on the Function of Poetry: Plato wanted Poetry to instruct the reader, Aristotle to delight, Horace &
Sidney to do both instruct and delight, and Longinus to transport: So, Dryden came with his own new view and
opined that the final end of poetry is to “delight and transport”, rather than instruct
 According to Dryden, Poet is neither a teacher nor imitator but creator. He felt the necessity of fancy what later
Coleridge called “the shaping spirit of imagination”.
 Walter Scott called him “Glorious John”.
 He joined the Catholic Church
 He translated Virgil’s Aeneid, Homer’s Illiad, Ovid’s Epistles, and Metamorphoses.
 Dryden defended Rhymes saying– “Rhyme itself may be made to look natural by the use of run-on lines. Blank
verse is no verse at all; it is simply poetic prose and so fit only comedy. Rhymed verse is suitable for tragedy. This
would satisfy Aristotle’s dictum. Rhyme adds to the pleasure of the poetry. Rhyme helps judgment and thus
makes it easier to control the free flights of the fancy. The primary function of poetry is to give ‘delight’ and rhyme
enables the poet to perform this function well.
 The Most important theoretical works of Dryden are –  Defence of an Essay of Dramatic Poesy.  A Parallel of
Poetry And Painting.  Preface to Fables  Ancient and Modern.  An Essay of Dramatic Poesy
Alexander Pope(1688-1744)
 He was an 18th century poet best known for his satirical verse as well as his translation of Homer.
 He is famous for using heroic couplet.
 He is the second-most frequently quoted writer in the Oxford Dictionary of Quotation, after Shakespeare.
 Pope was born to Alexander Pope Senior who was a linen merchant.
 He was a Catholic, so his education was affected by ‘Test Acts’ which upheld the status of the established
 Church of England and banned Catholics from teaching, attending a university, voting, or holding public office.
 Initially he was taught by his aunt and later went to Catholic schools.
 In 1700, his family moved to Popeswood, because of strong anti-Catholic sentiment and a statute preventing
Catholics from living within 10 miles (16 km) of either London or Westminster.
 Pope described the countryside around his house in “Windsor Forest”.
 He educated himself by reading Horace and Juvenal, the epic poets Homer, Virgil, and English authors as Chaucer,
Shakespeare, and Dryden.
 Pope had a closed attachment with Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, and also had lifelong relationship with Martha
Blount.
 ‘The Translation of Homer’ brought Pope a financial independence and became first professional poet.
 His famous work “The Rape of the Lock” is dedicated to John Caryll.
 The first major work of Pope is “The Pastorals”.
 He was removed from the society as he was a Catholic.
 In May 1709 Pope’s Pastorals was published in sixth part of Tonson’s Poetical Miscellanies, when he was only 16
years old.
 In 1711 he wrote Essay on Criticism. (Don’t confuse with Essay in Criticism by Mathew Arnold).
 His friends were Tory writers along with whom he formed Scribblers Club in 1713: John Gay, Jonathan Swift,
Thomas Parnell and John Arbuthnot
 The aim of the club was to satirize ignorance and pedantry in the form of fictional scholar Martinus Scriblerus.
 He also made friendship with Whig writers Addison and Steele.
 He translated Iliad of Homer.
 Jonathan Swift called Pope as “Paper saving Pope”.
 “Pope could fix in one couplet more sense than I can do in six.” by Dr. Johnson.
 He has written a pamphlet on Shakespeare called ‘Shakespeare Restored”