Alexander Pope as a Representative Poet || Pope as a Neoclassical Poet || Pope as a Satirist

 

ALEXANDER POPE AS A REPRESENTATIVE POET

POPE AS A NEOCLASSICAL POET

POPE AS A SATIRIST

CHARACTERISTICS OF POPE’S POETRY

 “Pope gave to his age the kind of poetry it needed.”

- Mactail

INTRODUCTION:

John Dryden once rightly remarked that every age is known by a genius who represents all its ideals and spirit. Alexander Pope (1688 – 1744) is as a representative of his age as Chaucer was of the late 14th century and  Tennyson  of the  Victorian Age or 19^th century. Pope was a poet par excellence who wrote poetry during the first half of the 18^th century. Pope is best known for his following works. 

1.  An Essay on Criticism (1711)

2.  The Rape of the Lock (1712–14)

3.  The Dunciad (1728)

4.   An Essay on Man (1733–34)

POPE'S CLASSICISM:

In his prose style, he is much indebted to the ancient writers of Greece and Rome. He adopts the style of his poetry from the Greek writers like Homer and Virgil. It became the chief object of Pope to introduce the language and versification of the Greek writers in his poetry by imitating the ancient classical writers. In fact, he himself became the most dominant neoclassical writer of the 18th century.

 

POPE'S CORRECTNESS AND FINISH:

Pope's poetry is chiefly characterized by correctness and finish. His chief aim as a poet was to become a writer of finished works. While writing poetry, he was much conscious and the thoughts did not come "spontaneously", to use the words of Wordsworth. But he made deliberate attempts to bring thoughts to the readers and to give them proper shape and meaning. It is in this respect that he differs from the romantic poets. Pope examined each line and word of his poetry with minute observation and rearranged every part with great patience and clarity. In his preface to 'The Rape of the Lock', he wrote, "I corrected because it was as pleasant to me to correct as to write."

 

POPE'S SATIRE:

Alexander Pope is considered as one of the great satirists of English poetry. His own physical deformity and the insults done to him in his personal life made him write the satires which mock at the society. Pope himself declared his great interest in being a satirist:

 

"Satire's my weapon, but i am too discreet (wise)

to run amuck (run wild), and tilt (strike) at all i meet."

 

Pope was a writer of wild satire - both personal and impersonal. He was a man with pride and boldness to write whatever he felt and thought. In his poetry, he boldly mocks at the corruption in the high places. In fact, Pope comes out as a fine impersonal satirist where he ridicules at the whole woman class in his 'Rape of the Lock'. In this work, he showed to the world that all women are shallow; they are merely interested in love making.

 

On the other hand, Pope never misses a chance to write personal satires. His 'The Dunciad' is a fine example of personal satire where he laughs at Theobalt, Bentley and Cibber. It is an attack on bad writers and bad writing. The satires of Pope have an acid like power to create a deep wound in the hearts of the persons concerned. In this respect, Pope can never be placed lower than Dryden and Swift.

 

POPE'S POETIC TECHNIQUES/HEROIC COUPLETS:

Pope was not a poet like Shelley, Wordsworth and Byron. He was a poet of different class. Instead of rhythm, emotions and imagery, he introduces reason, intellect wit and thought in his poetry. He is a great master of heroic couplets. The Heroic couplet consists of two lambic Pentameter lines rhyming together. It is called “heroic’ because it was usually used for epic verse in English celebrating heroic exploits. It was also used in descriptive and narrative poetry. His each couplet rends the heart of the reader with great effect and power.

 

His technique of writing poetry is amazingly different because he thinks and rethinks, writes and rewrites; he makes infinite changes in his writings to polish them. Thus, his poetry is not a "spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings" (Wordsworth); it is an expression of "well organized thoughts" (Eliot) full of wit, satire and intellect.

 

CONCLUSION:

Thus, Alexander Pope was indeed a representative poet of his age. 18^th century was the period of prose writing, of reason, of neoclassicism, of correctness and intellect. All these elements of correctness, finish, precision and exactness have made his poetry great in kind and style and made him the representative poet of his age. The satire of his poetry has the power to burn the heart of a strong man.  Though critics may say that he is more a prose writer than a poet, one has to accept that he was a great poet of classicism, reason, wit and intellect. Lord Byron who himself was a great poet, remarks:

 “As to Pope, I have always regarded him as the greatest name in our poetry. Depend upon it, the rest are barbarians.”

 

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