FROM An Essay on Man Epistle II by Alexander Pope (Text & Summary)

 

FROM An Essay on Man

Epistle II

by Alexander Pope

(Text & Summary)

Alexander Pope was the poet of ‘the age of Pope’.

·      The rise of the political parties,

·      clubs and coffee houses,

·      the new publishing houses and

·      the rise of new moralities

were the general characteristics of the age. The literary characteristics of the age includes:

·      prose and reason,

·      satire,

·      the classic age and

·      the literature of town.

The poetry of this age was of intelligence and common sense. Town poetry, artificial style and the heroic couplet were the characteristic of the poetry of this age. Pope was born in 1688. His poetic career can be divided into three parts. Pope was a controversial poet. He was neither a singer nor a creative poet. He is a great poet in the sense that his poetry conveys the spirit of the age. His poetry is the criticism of his age. He is the craftsman of the 18^th century. Like other poets of his age his poetry appeals not to our heart but to our mind.

From An Essay on Man: Epistle II

(Text)

Know then thyself, presume not God to scan;

The proper study of mankind is man.

Plac'd on this isthmus of a middle state,

A being darkly wise, and rudely great:

With too much knowledge for the sceptic side,

With too much weakness for the stoic's pride,

He hangs between; in doubt to act, or rest;

In doubt to deem himself a god, or beast;

In doubt his mind or body to prefer;

Born but to die, and reas'ning but to err;

Alike in ignorance, his reason such,

Whether he thinks too little, or too much:

Chaos of thought and passion, all confus'd;

Still by himself abus'd, or disabus'd;

Created half to rise, and half to fall;

Great lord of all things, yet a prey to all;

Sole judge of truth, in endless error hurl'd:

The glory, jest, and riddle of the world!

‘An essay on man’ is a long argumentative poem. It is a philosophical poem.  The poem projects the understanding of the man about himself.

In these lines of the poem, the poet asks the man to study himself to know the whole mankind. He considers the man a doubtful and a paradoxical creature on the earth, because the man knows the truth, yet he commits errors.

The poet asks the man to study himself for ‘the proper study of mankind is man’. According to Pope, Man is placed on the middle state of Isthmus. The man is a wise and great creature but his wisdom and greatness are shown darkly and rudely. The man has too much knowledge and too much weakness, but he lives in the world of skepticism and stoicism. According to the poet the man hangs between the doubt, that whether he is to act or to rest, to consider himself a God or a beast, in doubt what to prefer- his mind or his body. The poet further expresses his underlined paradox of the poem and says,

“born but to die, and reasoning but to err”.

He says, that his reasons are same in knowledge and in ignorance.

The poet says, that the man is a confused being, for he thinks too much or too little. The man has nothing in him- neither thought nor passion. There is a chaos in him. He has proved himself a selfish being. He has been created to remain where he is because he is created,

“half to rise and half to fall”.

In the last lines, he satirizes the man and says, that though the man is the great lord of all things on the earth, in other words he controls all things, but at the same time, he falls prey to them. Every man has his own truth but he commits endless errors one after another. In the last line he says that the man is the glory, jest and the riddle of the earth.

Alexander Pope writes this poem in a heroic couplet; thus, he follows the tradition form the point of the use of the meter. He was a great satirist. In this poem also he satirizes the whole community of man. The poem is full of paradoxes. Like other poets of this age his poetry does not appeal to our heart but to our mind.

Analysis

These are the opening lines of Pope’s ‘An Essay on Man’ Epistle 2. Alexander Pope is possibly the greatest English poet of the eighteenth century. He was born in 1688. He received very little formal education. Pope is one of the few poets of his age, who had no other profession except writing for their livelihood. Pope is considered a critic of his society.

Besides An Essay on Man, Pope’s other outstanding works are The Rape of the Lock, The Essay on Criticism and The Dunciad. In all his works Pope uses verse in a masterly manner, using heroic couplets full of satire, wit and humor. In his Essay on Man, Pope rises above petty issues and writes in an ironical style about the complexity of man’s inherent contradictions.

The Essay on Man (1734) is a meaningful poem. It is a combination of an essay and a poem. It is a poem as far as its form and style is concerned, but the gravity of thought and the depth of philosophical ideas, make it a literary essay, that’s why it is rightly termed as an essay in poetic form.

The purpose of this essay, in Pope’s own words is to “vindicate the ways of God to Man”. This epistle, addressed to Henry St. John, talks about man’s relations with God and analyses the complex nature of man.

The poem starts abruptly. It challenges man’s ego, which he exhibits in displaying his knowledge of God. The poet feels, that it is beyond man to understand the ways of God. Therefore, it is more appropriate for him to concentrate on himself, that is, Pope wants man to observe his own complexities, confusions and contradictions rather than talking about God and His ways. Pope gives a very appropriate description of man’s complex nature, desires and actions. He finds man to be wise and great, but he is only “darkly wise” and “rudely great”.

Pope is known for his epigrams, the purpose of which is to highlight the paradoxes in man’s nature. Pope looks at man’s nature with admirable clarity and feels that all the greatness that man possesses is ruined because he is rude and unaware of his own pursuits in life. That is why though man may be wise; his wisdom is of no use because of his inner darkness. Moreover, a great man can never be rude and since Pope calls man great and rude together, he suggests that man cannot be great because he is by nature rude.

Pope feels, that man always tries to do things beyond his capacities. He finds him full of knowledge, which does not help him. Moreover, he also finds him too weak to be successful as a stoic. Pope then concentrates on the dilemma, that man experiences, as because of his complex and contradictory drives, man lives in doubt forever. He does not know whether to act or rest. He is always in doubt, whether to see himself as a God or a beast, because he is a combination of the both. It is in this sense, that Pope finds man to be dangling in between God and beast.

The poet further highlights man’s sense of confusion, as he always seems to be torn between the desires of his body and instructions of his mind. Caught between these two extremes, man cannot decide what to prefer – his body or his mind.

The poet further looks a man’s situation with sympathetic irony. He finds man to be ignorant, even if he thinks too much or too little. Pope finds man to be created with such complexities, that he can rise but only to fall. Because of his inner contradictions man becomes a curious combination of weakness and strengths. Due to his strengths, he aspires to rise above his nature, but because of his weakness, he fails to do so. Man appears to be a lord of all things, but he is a prey to all. Thus, in spite of all his greatness, he is only a riddle, for he is a curious blending of difference traits, virtues and shortcomings. Man is both the glory as well as the jest of the world.

Pope’s poetry is a remarkable, clear and adequate reflection of the spirit of the age in which he lived. All the merits and demerits of the Age, which was an era of prose, are faithfully represented by the writings of Pope. It was an “Age of Prose and Reason” and even the poetry of the age was prosaic. Pope’s themes too are prosaic.