Alexander Pope

BiographyAlexander Pope (1688 –

1744) suffered from poor health.

He was a Roman Catholic ( a member of a minority religion at that time.)

His religion was a barrier for getting Education.

He was a man of genius: He dug out knowledge by himself.

In 1711 he published “An Essay on Criticism”.

In 172 he published “The Rape of the Lock.”

He translated Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey.

He could afford a small State at Twickenham, near London, and lived a secluded life.

He wrote the Dunciad and Essay of Man.

At his death he was acclaimed as England’s greatest poet.

An Essay on CriticismIt was written in 1709.Pope was trying to write a

poetical essay which would hold the same important place in English Criticism that Boleau’s Art Poetique was holding in French Criticism.

Pope´s Essay of Criticism is not only the last but the most rewarding of the important critical essays in verse modeled on Horace’s Art of Poetry

The form of the Epigrams of An Essay on Criticism are perfect an their expression is witty.

The topics in this literary work are strange for poetry. The purpose of the classicists was to instruct rather than entertaining.

It covers a range of good criticism and advise.

It also presents many of the chief literary ideals of Pope’s age.

But you who seek to give and merit Fame,And justly bear a Critick's noble Name,

Be sure your self and your own Reach to know.How far your Genius, Taste, and Learning go;

Launch not beyond your Depth, but be discreet,And mark that Point where Sense and Dulness meet.

Nature to all things fix'd the Limits fit,And wisely curb'd proud Man's pretending Wit:

As on the Land while here the Ocean gains,In other Parts it leaves wide sandy Plains;Thus in the Soul while Memory prevails,The solid Pow'r of Understanding fails;

Where Beams of warm Imagination play,The Memory's soft Figures melt away.One Science only will one Genius fit;So vast is Art, so narrow Human Wit;

Not only bounded to peculiar Arts,But oft in those, confin'd to single Parts.

Like Kings we lose the Conquests gain'd before,By vain Ambition still to make them more:

Each might his sev'ral Province well command,Wou'd all but stoop to what they understand.

Awareness of his own limitations46 - 67

John Dryden

Dryden was born into a well-to-do Puritan Family.

He was a man of changeable ideas.After attending Trinity College, Cambridge, he

married Lady Elizabeth Howard.As a writer of Comedies he was successful, but

his heroic tragedies were more important:All for Love The world well Lost (Anthony and Cleopatra)

He wrote satires : “Absalom and Achitopel”

John Dryden (1631 – 1700)

The theme of this poem is the power of music to arouse emotion that is expressed in action.

It is an Ode: a lyric poem on an important subject.

Many English Odes are imitations of Greek and Latin Odes.

“Alexander Feast” or “The Power of Music”

We must remember some classical characters:

Alexander the great

Thais

Bacchus

The Furies

Argument:The main body of the poem describes the feast

given by Alexander the Great at the Persian capital Persepolis, after his defeat of Darius. Alexander's bard Timotheus sings praises of him. Alexander's emotions are manipulated by the singer's poetry and music. Timotheus glorifies him as a god, puffing up Alexander's pride. He then sings of the pleasures of wine, encouraging Alexander to drink. Seeing Alexander becoming too boisterous, he sings of the sad death of Darius; the king becomes quiet. He then lauds the beauty of Thaïs, Alexander's lover, making the king's heart melt. Finally, he encourages feelings of anger and vengeance, causing Thaïs and Alexander to burn down the Persian palace in revenge for Persia's previous outrages against Greece.