Alexander Pope
Alexander Pope, who lived from 1688-1744, was an English poet who modeled himself after great poets of the classical past. Verse translations, moral and critical essays, satires, and the development of the heroic couplet, made him the leading poet of his age. Pope, born in London, was the son of a cloth merchant. His parents were Roman Catholics, which automatically barred him from England's Protestant universities. Until he was 12 years old, he was educated mainly by priests; afterward, he primarily taught himself. A devastating illness, most likely tuberculosis of the spine, struck him in childhood, leaving him deformed. He never grew taller than 4 ft 6 in and was subject to suffering horrible headaches. Possibly as a result of this condition, he was hypersensitive and exceptionally irritable the rest of his life. He was a very quarrelsome man and attacked his literary contemporaries. To few, he was warm and affectionate; he had a long and close friendship with Irish writer Jonathan Swift. The Essay on Man is a philosophical poem, written in heroic couplets and published between 1732 and 1734. It is an at
Pope's most extreme claim is that man is predominantly a creature of passion, not reason. He defends this assertion with an explanation that passion, or self-love must be the larger motivating element in a creature such as man. He displays this in saying "Self-love, the spring of motion, acts the soul; reason's comparing balance rules the world. Man, but not for that, no action could attend, and, but for this, were active to no end" (II, 59-62). The "Essay" consists of four epistles, addressed to Lord Bolingbroke, and were thought to have derived, to some extent, from some of Bolingbroke's writings. The question was often "raised regarding the relation between the argument of the "Essay on Man" and that of certain prose manuscripts of Pope's 'guide' Bolingbroke." (MacDonald p.132) Many agreed that the poet and his friend in some way combined their intellect to produce the essay. "Pope felt and thought by shocks and electric flashes. He could only obtain a continuous effect when working clearly upon lines already provided for him." (Stephen p.163) Bolingbroke, once said of Pope that he was "a very great wit
Some common words found in the essay are:
God Essay, England's Protestant, Swift Essay, Alexander Pope, Bolingbroke MacDonald, Epistle IV, Bolingbroke Pope, Lord Bolingbroke, Epistle III, Roman Catholics, existence evil, evil pope,
Approximate Word count = 760
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)
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