Alexander Pope- Tradition, Form and Culture PDF

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Alexander Pope Tradition and Form Introduction: Pope and Eighteenth-Century Context Pope was born into a catholic family (social outcast), Pope contracted tuberculosis of the bone as a child he had a curvature of the spine, and was no taller than 4 1/2-foot, important influence of Pope, influence his attitude and bitterness towards women, he never married. Another perspective is as an outsider pope was able to relate more to women. Pope didn’t have an education he was self-taught, 21 first published work, success very early. He becomes one of the first writers who make a living from writing. -

Tone of authority of taste through his poems and work Tension within poems with conformity to establishment and independence

*Commercial success and aesthetic integrity *Tension between conformity to establishment and independence from it Taste and Authority *‘An Essay on Criticism’ (1711) – literary tastes (critics) – huge rant about modern critics and authors – print culture explodes *Attacks modern critics and authors in a new age of literary commerce > modern inadequacy and artistic integrity – he argues that not everyone has an aesthetic integrity *Greek and Roman classics as model for good literary taste: ‘Learn hence for ancient rules a just esteem; To copy nature is to copy them’ (ll. 139-40) He starts with a rant and them states what we should be doing, and artistic integrity and states that Greek and roman classics should be the model for great poetry 2) Taste and Form: Neoclassicism (or Augustinism) Broader movement of Neoclassicism = Pope belongs to this movement. 1) ‘strong traditionalism’ and a ‘great respect for classical writers – that is, the writers of ancient Greece and Rome – who were thought to have achieved excellence, and established the enduring models, in all the major literary genres.’

2) Literature conceived primarily as art: ‘a set of skills which, although it requires innate talents, must be perfected by long study and practice’. 3) ‘Human beings, and especially human beings as an integral part of a social organization, were regarded as the primary subject matter of literature. Poetry was held to be an imitation of human life.’ – Subject matter all about human beings, society and the organization of society 4) ‘Both in the subject matter and the appeal of art, emphasis was placed on what human beings possess in common—representative characteristics and widely shared experiences, thoughts, feelings, and tastes.’ – enthasis on widely shared experiences, social standards of humans Romanticism takes over from Neoclassicism Romanticism moves from people and more onto nature Form: The Heroic Couplet ‘Lines of iambic pentameter which rhyme in pairs: aa, bb, cc. The adjective “heroic” was applied in the later seventeenth century because of the frequent use of such couplets in heroic (that is, epic) poems and heroic dramas.’ In the neoclassical period, ‘poets wrote closed couplets, in which the end of each pair of lines tends to coincide with the end either of a sentence or a self-sufficient unit of syntax.’ Form represent the ideas of classical taste, written in the form of The Heroic Couplet. -

- Narrative form within Popes Poetry 18 century England writers are modelling their work to these classic models th

Taste and Eighteenth-Century Culture ‘The changing pattern of wealth distribution which shaped eighteenthcentury society, ensured that a greater number of people, particularly amongst the merchant and professional classes, were anxious to express their refinement as a means to cultural distinction.’ ‘[T]he analysis of beauty, as William Hogarth termed it, was an area of literary and cultural life that necessarily produced a number of competing theories, each seeking to valorise a particular set of judgments or modes of taste.’ Broad cultural theme of Popes poems comes from massive shifts in 18th century culture, what is moral and immoral, money and class

Commercial success this disrupts the traditional upper-class societies that are inherited. You can have money but still be vulgar and tasteless, miss use of wealth, extravagance. Reflection of Popes own upbringing, class status then and now. Concerned with having lots of a money in a taste full way Debate in the 18th as to what is good taste, what does it mean to have cultural distinction, pope focuses on fashion, manners, courtship Wordsworth focuses on personal emotion / a lot freer = contrast between what pope and words worth are wanting to do with culture -

Satire and Culture -

Satires of social behavior and interactions = all 3 Pope poems

3) Gender and Satire: ‘The Rape of the Lock’ (1714) ‘A mock epic or mock-heroic poem is distinguished as that type of parody which imitates, in a sustained way, both the elaborate form and the ceremonious style of the epic genre but applies it to narrate at length a commonplace or trivial subject matter. -

Using this classical model in satirical way Mocking the high society (rape of the lock) Draws on these classic epics and contrasts with everyday life

In a masterpiece of this type, The Rape of the Lock (1714), Alexander Pope views through the grandiose epic perspective a quarrel between the belles and elegant of his day over the theft of a lady's curl. The story includes such elements of traditional epic protocol as supernatural machinery, a voyage on board ship, a visit to the underworld, and a heroically scaled battle between the sexes—although with metaphors, hatpins, and snuff for weapons.’ Trivial = Domestic

(Abrams, Glossary of Literary Terms, p.

27.)

‘The Rape of the Lock’: Mock Epic ‘Just then, Clarissa drew with tempting A two-edged weapon from her shining So, ladies in romance assist their knight, Present the spear and arm him for the He takes the gift with reverence, and The little engine on his finger’s ends; This just behind Belinda’s neck he spread,

grace case: fight. extends

As o’er the fragrant steams she bends her head.’ ‘The Rape of the Lock’, Canto III, ll. 127-134. -

Contrast between epic metaphors and motifs to what is actually happening The idea of the little engine – machinery The attack = just snipping hair from her head Traditions of the epic = what’s actually being described

‘The Rape of the Lock’: Vanity and Value ‘Belinda’s vanity is borne of a concern with physical appearance, reputation, and image, all social constructions trivialise her value. Belinda’s hyperbolic reaction to her ravaged curl confuses virtue and vanity [...] Her culture’s obsession with the immediacy of youth, beauty and marriage denies her the ability to think about the consequences of age and the passage of time. She cannot think of herself in any but superficial terms.’ Gender Throws up questions about vanity and value Virtue and Vanity Unnumbered treasures ope at once, and here The various offerings of the world appear; From each she nicely culls with curious toil, And decks the goddess with the glittering spoil. This casket India’s glowing gems unlocks, And all Arabia breathes from yonder box. The tortoise here and elephant unite, Transformed to combs, the speckled, and the white. Here files of pins extend their shining rows, Puffs, powders, patches, bibles, billetdoux. Now awful beauty puts on all its arms;

The fair each moment rises in her charms,’ -

Ideas of empire and morality

Satire and Morality ‘The Latin satura is in essence an informal ethical epistle, without a plot, in which the poet teaches by precept and by examples. SOURCE: Ian Jack, Augustan Satire (Oxford: OUP, 1978), p. 100. ‘I have not the courage … to be such a satirist as you … but I would be as much, or more, a philosopher. You call your satires, libels: I would rather call my satires, epistles. They will consist more of morality than of wit, and grow graver, which you will call duller. Alexander Pope: letter to Jonathan Swift. Quoted in Jack, Augustan Satire, p. 100. Epistles to Several Persons (1731-35) *Epistles to Several Persons or Moral Essays (four epistles to Burlington, Cobham, a Lady and Bathhurst) *Verse epistle = neoclassical form of complimentary poetry, dedicated to an individual *Modelled on Horace’s Satires and Epistles *Pope’s epistles link informality and civility > attacked targets such as bad taste, pride, selfishness, greed (linked to capitalism of the age) *Moralism: celebrate self-knowledge, virtue, friendship ‘Epistle to a Lady’ (1735) Dedicated to Martha Blount (1690 1763), Pope’s closest female friend * ‘Nothing so true as what you once let “Most women have no characters at Matter too soft a lasting mark to bear, And best distinguished by black, brown, or fair.’ (ll. 1-4)

fall, all.”

*Study of female character and identity Epistle = moral underpinning Portraits of a Lady *Male speaker views a series of portraits (both visual and moral) *Depiction of female immorality and folly * ‘How many pictures of one nymph we view, All how unlike each other, all how true!’ (ll. 5-6) *Conflict between external self-display and inner character -Women are fickle and change minds constantly -Links between women on the outside and then below the surface Modelling Female Virtue ‘Ah! friend! to dazzle let the vain design; To raise the thought, and touch the heart be thine! [...] So when the sun’s broad beam has tired the sight, All mild ascends the moon’s more sober light, Serene in virgin modesty she shines. And unobserved the glaring orb declines.’ (ll. 249-256) - Female immorality George Savile, Marquis of Halifax, The Lady's New-years Gift, or, Advice to a Daughter (London: 1688) ‘I Must with more than ordinary earnestness give you Caution against Vanity, it being the Fault to which your Sex seemeth to be the most inclined, and since Affectation for the most part attendeth it, I do not know how to divide them.’ (pp. 134-35) ‘[R]emember that Vertue is the greatest Ornament, and good Sence the best Equipage’. (p. 95) ‘Woman’s at best a contradiction still’ (l. 270) ‘Like every satire on women, [‘Epistle to a Lady’] is shaped by stereotypes: women are fickle, frail, and subordinate to men. Yet much of the poem undermines those prejudices by showing the real difficulties of women’s lives. “By man’s oppression cursed,” they waste their talents on trivial pursuits and “die of nothing but a rage to live.” The poem shares that restlessness. If women are full of contradictions, so are Pope’s

couplets, torn between sympathy and satiric bite. The poet finds himself strangely attracted to what he disapproves, and many female readers, then and now, have felt the same way about the poem.’ The Norton Anthology of English Literature, Volume C: The Restoration and The Eighteenth Century, 10th edn., ed. by James Noggle (New York & London: Norton, 2018), p. 643. 4) Class: ‘Epistle to Burlington’ *Dedicated to Richard Boyle, Earl of Burlington (1695 – 1753): architect and patron of the arts *Attack on the misuse of wealth and bad taste (cf. consumption and self-promotion) *Departure from tradition of English country house poetry *Pope = recognized authority on horticulture -

Moral epistle = dedicated to one individual Dedicated to people he admires Simple – the misuse of wealth Departure from the Traditional country house poetry

Bad Taste: Timon’s Villa ‘At Timon’s villa let us pass a day, Where all cry out, “What sums are thrown away!” So proud, so grand, of that stupendous air, Soft and agreeable come never there. Greatness, with Timon, dwells in such a draught As brings all Brobdignag before your thought. To compass this, his building is a town, His pond an ocean, his parterre a down: Who but must laugh, the master when he sees? A puny insect, shivering at a breeze.’ (ll. 99-108) *Excesses of Versailles (La Nôtre) compared to the classical model of Stowe (seat and gardens of Richard Temple, Viscount Cobham, designed by Charles Bridgman)

Good Taste: Landscape and Nature ‘To build, to plant, whatever you intend, To rear the column, or the arch to bend, To swell the terrace, or to sink the grot; In all, let nature never be forgot. But treat the goddess like a modest fair, Not over-dress, nor leave her beauty bare;’ (ll. 47-52) -Harmony between nature and man

Morality and Nature *‘The moral of the whole, where PROVIDENCE is justified in giving wealth to those who squander it in this manner. A bad taste employs more hands, and diffuses expense more than a good one’ (Pope’s note, p. 249) *Bad taste is indicative of bad morality; good taste corresponds with virtue *Landlord as paternalistic steward of nature, tenants and animals: ends with celebration of the ideal estate *Tension in class politics > attack on aristocratic immorality dedicated to one of the richest men in England -

Morality = note to the poem page 249 ideas of squandering wealth you should use wealth in a good way...