Alexander
Pope - An Essay on Man
About the Author
Alexander was a national figure and was
acknowledged as the first poet of the age. He contributed to the Renaissance
criticism. Johnson’s view typified only one set of critical value that existed
in the eighteenth century. Till today, Pope is remembered not only as an
essayist, and critic but as the greatest of English satirists besides being one
of the acclaimed poets of the Enlightenment.
Born
in London in 1688, to a linen merchant and Edith (Turner) Pope, as their only child,
in a Roman Catholic family, His childhood was spent in Binfield near Windsor
Forest. Pope mastered Greek, Latin and French. He spent his early years at Binfield
on the edge of Windsor Forest, and recalled this period as a golden age. Even
as a child he was nicknamed “the Little Nightingale”. He published his
Pastorals in 1709. He wrote his first verses at the age of 12. His ‘An Essay on
Criticism’ (1711), appeared when he was twenty-three. Pope’s physical defects
made him an easy target for heartless mockery. In Pope’s life the forces of
tradition and identity, the pressure of the past and will to belong to the
great tradition of poets in Western literature and the desire to distinguish
himself as a poet, complement one another. He translated many authors like
Ovid, Statius, Boethius, Cicero, Horace, Malberbe and Homer.
Essays
on Criticism (1711) testified the poet’s deep interest not only in poetry but
remains till today as specimen of a literary fashion. When his descriptive
verse Windsor Street was published in 1713 Pope won the appreciation of Dr.
Johnson.
Pope
was gifted with an active, ambitious, and enterprising mind, ever aspiring for
higher flights with wings of poesy with a desire to do what is not easily done.
Pope’s desire to create an epic at a time was fulfilled with the publication of
The Rape of the Lock. Even those critics who were hostile towards Pope liked this
work. This poetic creation is indisputably his masterpiece which has received a
lot of attention and applause.
Continuing
his poetic career with zeal, Pope added a few minor poems which are of great
importance. His Ode on St. Cecilia’s Day and The Temple of Fame were added to the
list before venturing into the translating Homer’s The Iliad (1720). Along the
publication of Moral Essays between 1731 and 1734, An Essay on Man in four
Epistles also got published.
Pope
began to work on his Essay on Man along with the Moral Essays but he could
complete only the first three epistles by 1731 and they got published in 1733;
and in 1734 when the fourth epistle was also finished the completed version was
published anonymously. Pope acknowledged his authorship only in April 1935. Pope
enjoyed the reputation of a humanist, and in his Essay on Man he is
“nonchalantly untheological” and like many of Enlightenment figures, he had no
use for religion. In 1743, the year prior to his death, Pope completed The
Dunciad, in Four Books, which is a satire celebrating dullness with Cibber as
its hero. It ridiculed bad writers, scientists and critics. Before his death he
received the last sacrament, for he had not abandoned his Catholic religion
despite his Deist leanings. On May 30, 1744, the poet breathed his last leaving
all his property to Blount. None enjoyed the kind of success and the level of
stardom that Pope received while alive. All through his career the poet refined
his own personal ‘rules’ on the choice of diction and on the perfection of rhymes.
He used the heroic couplet with unparalleled brilliance and with its success he
made it the dominant poetic form. His continuing influence is evident in the
number of translations of his poetry in various languages.
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