Alexander Pope

Alexander Pope's Beliefs

Alexander Pope was a spokesman for religious and philosophical views that were consonant with a cluster of Enlightenment-era beliefs known as Deism. Pope was also a fierce moralist, believing his gift for writing should be used to further his ethical views. His targets were typically chosen for their pomposity, stupidity, or dullness. While Pope was somewhat apolitical for much of his career, towards the end of his life he joined a group that was critical of government corruption and absolutism.

Religious and Philosophical Beliefs

Pope identified as a Catholic for the entirety of his life, but his religious beliefs were heavily influenced by the emphasis on reason and denunciation of superstition that were increasingly common in the Enlightenment. In his "Essay on Man", Pope provides a summary of a set of religious and philosophical beliefs known as Deism, which he seems to endorse.

For Pope and the Deists, God exists as a creator, designer, or first cause of the universe. God does not intervene directly in the world. Because God is benevolent, the world God created is essentially orderly and good. This is variously known as the idea of "providential order" or "optimism," that everything is for the best in part of God's larger plan. A related idea is that of the "Great Chain of Being," that everything in the world has its proper place, which is in principle discoverable by reason. Pope was skeptical of the ability of human beings to fully understand God's plan and creation, cautioning reasoned skepticism and humility.

Ethical Beliefs

Pope strongly believed that writers and poets had a duty to morally improve as well as to entertain their readers, to “delight and instruct” in the famous words of the Roman poet Horace. His "Essay on Man", for example, cautions against excessive pride and selfishness. But his preferred method of moral improvement was satire, selecting his targets for unflattering imitation or ruthless mockery. Pope was particularly outraged by pretension and dullness on the part of published authors who failed to either entertain or offer any kind of moral vision. Writing and publishing something of inferior quality was, to him, a moral failing, and so he felt justified in attacking anyone who fell short of his high standards.

Alexander Pope's Writing Style

Alexander Pope wrote almost exclusively in poetic verse. His highly polished writing style is often associated with the neoclassical movement in England, which sought to revive the glory of ancient Greek and Roman literature in a contemporary context. They did this not only through a rich engagement with and reference to classical literature, but through adhering to a series of formal rules in their writing. Some examples of what this looks like in Pope’s writing are his use of heroic couplets, his abundant use of classical allusion, and the painstaking craftsmanship with which his poems represented their subjects.

Heroic Couplets

Pope’s preferred method of writing poetry was the heroic couplet.

Heroic couplets were a popular way of translating Greek epics into English, so they would have instantly given Pope's readers a flavor of classical literature and epic heroism. Pope used this to great effect, especially in his mock-heroic writing, where he would write about everyday or unimportant subjects in this style.

Alexander Pope is an acknowledged master of the heroic couplet, maintaining this strict form for hundreds of lines at a time without forcing rhymes or resorting to awkward sentence structures.

Ideals from classical Greek and Rome played an important role in Pope's thinking and writing. Pixabay.

A Mirror Up to Nature

Alexander Pope took seriously the 18th-century idea that the point of art was to try to imitate nature. He not only painstakingly chose his words to convey accurate descriptions but also thought carefully about the emotional connotation that his diction would have, even laboring over how to organize vowel sounds and stress patterns to produce the appropriate pacing in his lines. A famous example from his "Essay on Criticism" illustrates this point, as well as giving examples of his use of the heroic couplet and classical allusion:

Here in the first couplet about Ajax, the muscle-bound warrior from Homer’s Iliad, Pope manages to slow the reader down through his use of monosyllabic words with long, rounded vowels and awkwardly placed stresses (“line too labors” and “words move slow”). When describing the Roman Camilla, a warrior famous for her speed, Pope forces the reader to pick up the pace with a greater number of unstressed syllables, short vowels, and contractions. The result is that the sound of each line also reflects the subject it describes.

Alexander Pope's Poems

Alexander Pope had a vast literary output over the course of his fairly short life. Nearly all of his writing was poetry, including many of his so-called "epistles" or letters. The "Essay on Criticism", "Windsor Forest", "The Rape of the Lock", "The Dunciad'", and "The Essay on Man" are some of his best-known works.

"Essay on Criticism" (1711)

One of Pope’s earliest publications, this highly polished verse essay in three parts provides advice on how to produce and criticize poetry. Despite its virtuosity and quotability, it did not immediately receive much recognition.

"The Rape of the Lock" (1711-14)

This poem was inspired by a real event in which a man named Robert, seventh Baron Petre, cut off a lock of hair from a young woman named Arabella Fermor without her permission. Arabella and Robert each belonged to prominent families, and the event caused a rift between them. Pope tried to defuse the situation by writing a comedic account of it in mock-heroic style. He was successful by all accounts: the parties involved had a good laugh, and the poem was so well received that he continued working on it, expanding the original two cantos into five for its 1714 re-publication.

"The Dunciad" (1728-43)

Originating from short poems that Pope had scrawled on scrap paper for amusement, "The Dunciad" is a series of unflattering descriptions of and attacks on Pope’s enemies. After being encouraged to publish it by Jonathan Swift, Pope continued updating "The Dunciad", even adding a preface by the imaginary literary persona Martinus Scriblerus. Interestingly, most of Pope’s targets would have faded into total obscurity had he not ruthlessly mocked them in this poem.

An illustration from a 1754 edition of 'The Dunciad'. Library of Congress.

"Essay on Man" (1733)

Pope’s last major poem, the "Essay on Man" gives a highly readable overview and summary of some key Enlightenment-era philosophical and religious ideas. In memorable language, he describes the Deist picture of an intelligent, benevolent, all-powerful God who nonetheless does not intervene in the world, of a perfect order and harmony of things in the universe, and of the necessity for human beings to curb their pride and understand the limits of their knowledge and reasoning abilities.

Alexander Pope Quotes

Alexander Pope was a virtuoso poet, and his form of choice, the heroic couplet, resulted in many pithy, witty, memorable quotations. Many of these have entered the English language as idioms.

Pope's early "Essay on Criticism" is an excellent source of memorable one-liners. Discussing critics and readers who are eager to read and discuss anything, regardless of its quality, he notes:

In the same poem, he famously gives advice on how to make teaching and criticism more effective:

Again in the same poem, Pope cautions against taking praise or blame from critics too seriously with the famous line:

In "An Essay on Man", Pope notes that some people will suffer and be miserable; yet since no one can know their fate, he recommends simply remaining hopeful:

References

1. J. Merriman. A History of Modern Europe from the Renaissance to the Present. Norton, 2010.

2. B. Dobree. Alexander Pope. Oxford UP, 1966.

3. P. Rogers (editor). Alexander Pope: The Major Works. Oxford University Press, 2008.