Alexander Pope (1688-1744)
Things to Consider:
- Epic and Mock Epic Traditions
- Portrayal of Women
Terms to Know:
- mock epic (1267)
- heroic couplet (1268)
- trochee (1268)
- spondee (1268)
- heroicomical poem (1269)
- sylph (1288)
- billet-doux (1291)
1266:
- What was Pope the first
English writer to do?
The Rape of the Lock (1712)
1287:
- What, according to the
editors, does the Cave of Spleen represent?
Canto One:
1290:
- Explain: "For when the Fair
in all their pride expire,/To their first elements their souls
retire" (1.57-58).
1290-91:
- What functions do Sylphs
perform for women?
1292:
- Explain: "If to her share
some female errors fall,/Look on her face, and you'll forget
'em all" (2.17-18).
1295:
- Explain: "At every word a
reputation dies" (3.16).
1303:
- Explain: "How vain are all these glories, all our
pains,/Unless good sense preserve what beauty gains"
(5.15-16).
1303-4:
- Describe the Battle of the Sexes (5.37ff).
1305:
- Explain the last six
lines (5.145-50).
Other Discussion Questions:
1267:
- What is the significance of
the Martin the Scribbler club?
1268:
- What problems,
according to the editors, did Pope have with "the
new commercial spirit of the nation" (1268)?
- What, according to the
editors, is the traditional focus of satirists?
- Describe the persona that
Pope develops in his poems.
1269:
- Explain Pope's belief that
"the different kinds of literature have their different and
appropriate styles" (1269).
1286:
- What was Pope's inspiration
for The
Rape of the Lock ?
1288:
- To what does "machinery"
refer?
- How, according to Pope, are
the ancient poets like many modern ladies?
- Who are the Rosicrucians?
- Who is Caryll (1.3)? (cf.
1286)
- Explain the questions asked
in lines 8-10 of Canto One.
1289-91:
- Explain the speech given by
Belinda's Sylph (Ariel) in her dream (1.27-114).
1290:
- Explain the origins of
Salamanders, Nymphs, Gnomes, and Sylphs.
1291:
- What event concludes this
Canto?
Canto Two:
1292:
- Why does Pope describe
Belinda's lock as being nourished "to the destruction of
mankind" (2.19)?
- 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.
1293:
- Why does Ariel call the other
spirits together (2.73ff)?
1294:
- Explain 2.105-9. How is
satire being employed?
- Explain the appropriateness
of the names of the Sylphs in 2.112-15.
Canto Three:
1295:
- What is ombre (2.27)? What
kind of language does Pope employ in his description of it?
1297:
- What occurs in 3.105-10?
- Who is Clarissa (3.127)? Why
does she aid the Baron?
1298:
- How is steel described in
3.171-78?
Canto Four:
1299:
- Who is Umbriel (4.13)? How does he function here?
- What is the Cave of Spleen (4.16)?
- Who are Ill-Nature (4.28) and Affectation (4.31)? How
do they function here?
1300:
- What is spleenwort (4.56)? Why does the Gnome
(Umbriel) carry it?
1301:
- Why is all Belinda's honor "in a whisper lost"
(4.110)?
- Who is Sir Plume (4.121)? How does he function here?
1302:
- Describe Belinda's response to the loss of her lock.
Canto
Five:
1303:
1304:
- Explain: "Nor feared the chief the unequal fight to
try,/Who sought no more than on his foe to die" (5.77-78).
1305:
- What ultimately
happens to Belinda's lock?
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