Alexander Pope (1688-1744)
Things to Consider:
- Epic and Mock-Epic Traditions
- Portrayal of Women
Terms to Know:
- mock-epic (1120)
- heroic couplet (1122)
- heroicomical poem (1136)
- sylph (1136)
- billet-doux (1140)
1120:
- What was Pope the first
English writer to do?
The Rape of the Lock (1712)
1136:
- What does the Cave of Spleen
represent?
Canto One:
1139:
- Explain: "For when the Fair
in all their pride expire,/To their first elements their souls
retire" (1.57-58).
1139-40:
- What functions do Sylphs
perform for women?
1141:
- Explain: "If to her share
some female errors fall,/Look on her face, and you'll forget
'em all" (2.17-18).
1144:
- Explain: "At every word a
reputation dies" (3.16).
1152:
- Explain: "How vain are all these glories, all our
pains,/Unless good sense preserve what beauty gains"
(5.15-16).
1152-53:
- Describe the Battle of the Sexes.
1155:
- Explain the last six
lines (5.145-50).
Other Discussion Questions:
1121:
- What is the significance of
the Martin the Scribbler club?
- What problems did Pope have
with "the new commercial spirit of the nation" (1121)?
- What, according to the
editors, is the traditional focus of satirists?
- Describe the persona that
Pope develops in his poems.
1123:
- Explain Pope's belief that
"the different kinds of literature have their different and
appropriate styles" (1123).
1136:
- What was Pope's inspiration
for this poem?
1137:
- To what does "machinery"
refer?
- How, according to Pope, are
the ancient poets like many modern ladies?
- Who are the Rosicrucians?
1138:
- Who is Caryll (3)? (cf. 1136)
- Explain the questions asked
in lines 8-10.
- Who is Sol?
1138-40:
- Explain the speech given by
Belinda's Sylph (Ariel) in her dream.
1139:
- Explain the origins of
Salamanders, Nymphs, Gnomes, and Sylphs.
1140-41:
- What event concludes this
Canto?
Canto Two:
1141:
- Why does Pope describe
Belinda's lock as being nourished "to the discussion of
mankind" (19)?
1142:
- Explain: "For when success a
lover's toil attends,/Few ask if fraud or force attained his
ends" (2.33-34).
- Describe the Baron's actions
in 2.35-44.
- Why does Ariel call the other
spirits together?
- Explain 2.105-9. How is
satire being employed?
- Explain the appropriateness
of the names of the Sylph's in 2.112-15.
Canto Three:
1144:
- What is ombre? What kind of
language does Pope employ in his description of it?
1146:
1147:
- Who is Clarissa? Why does she
aid the Baron?
- How is steel described in
3.171-78?
Canto Four:
1148:
- Who is Umbriel? How does he function here?
- What is the Cave of Spleen?
- Who are Ill-Nature and Affectation? How do they
function here?
1149:
- What is spleenwort? Why does the Gnome (Umbriel)
carry it?
1150:
- Why is all Belinda's honor "in a whisper lost"
(4.110)?
- Who is Sir Plume? How does he function here?
1151:
- Describe Belinda's response to the loss of her lock.
Canto
Five:
1152:
1153:
- Explain: "Nor feared the chief the unequal fight to
try,/Who sought no more than on his foe to die" (5.77-78).
1154:
- What ultimately
happens to Belinda's lock?
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