Alexander Pope’s poem Ode on Solitude

1. Happy the man, whose wish and care

A few paternal acres bound,
Content to breathe his native air,
In his own ground.
 
2. Whose heards with milk, whose fields with bread,
Whose flocks supply him with attire,
Whose trees in summer yield him shade,
In winter fire.
 
3. Blest! who can unconcern'dly find
Hours, days, and years slide soft away,
In health of body, peace of mind,
Quiet by day,
 
4. Sound sleep by night; study and ease
Together mix'd; sweet recreation,
And innocence, which most does please,
With meditation.
 
5. Thus let me live, unseen, unknown;
Thus unlamented let me dye;
Steal from the world, and not a stone
Tell where I lye.
Stanza 1
 Alexander Pope’s bucolic scene offers the reader a quiet,
contemplative setting in which to muse on the nature of farm life.
 The young speaker has assumed that the folks are happiest who can
raise their own food, provide their own clothing, and who possess their
own trees to afford them shade in summer and firewood in winter.
 The speaker demonstrates a stark contrast between his pastoral
scene and the hustle and bustle of the living in the city in cramped
quarters and having to purchase each and every item needed for
existence.
 The farm family is blessed with breathing room and enough land on
which to grow their own food and maintain other commodities needed
for existence.

Stanza 2

 The self-contained farm with a self-reliant farmer is a romantic notion

that emerged with the rise of cities. The simple country folk became a
symbol of nature that was particularly played up in the next century by
the Romantic Movement.

 The peaceful farmer procures his daily milk from his own "herds" that
supply his need. Also from his own fields of grain, he can keep his
larder filled with his daily bread. Summertime on the farm offers
refuge from the sun under the many trees that dot the land. In winter,
the farm family can gather around a cozy fire, fueled by the wood that
grows abundantly on their own land.

 The idea of the self-perpetuating farm with a self-reliant farm family

became a romantic throwback that blossomed in the minds and hearts
of the sensitive Romantics along with the emergence of large cities.

 Simple country folk came to symbolize nature itself, and the pastoral
image became a fixture, hoisted to near worship status in the next
century by the Romantic Movement.
Stanza 3
 To Pope’s young starry-eyed speaker, the farmer represents the
epitome of a satisfied life. Such an imagined farmer with his supreme
health of body and utter peace of mind remains nearly incapable of
stress.
 His days pass quickly, quietly, and soothingly because his nerves are
untaxed by labor that would cause the heartache and anxiety of
uncertainty.
 In the mind of Pope’s speaker, the farming life represents an earthly
paradise, with its pastoral setting of fields blooming with the farm
family’s food and drink and trees offering them shade in summer and
fuel in winter.
Stanza 4
 At night, the farmer can rest peacefully.
 In leisure hours, he remains free to study as he chooses and take
pleasure in wholesome activities.
 He can complete his day labor without molestation and is allowed
hours for quiet meditation.
 To the speaker created by twelve-year-old Pope, farm life offers the
best situation for living a complete life that remains harmonious and
balanced.
Stanza 5
 In the final stanza, the speaker asks of the Granter of wishes that he
be permitted to pass his life in anonymity. He desires to emulate the
farmer, at least in his station as a commoner who would live and pass
silently and not interfere with others.
Commentary

 The scenario Pope describes is a lovely one to be sure, although quite

a romantic oversimplification of the rural man’s life. His speaker, for
example, does not let the backbreaking labor, crop failures, poverty,
and seasonal uncertainties of the laboring farmer’s existence interfere
with his portrayal. But then Pope was only a lad when he romanticized
this scene.
 Pope’s speaker is describing a romanticized version of farm life—one
that is beautiful but unrealistic.
 Introduction and Text
 Literary legend has it that Alexander Pope penned his lilting beauty,
"Ode on Solitude," before his twelfth birthday. The poem demonstrates
the craftsmanship of a mature poet, with its perfect rime scheme of
ABAB in each of its carefully sculpted five quatrains but the sensibility
of a young, immature thinker—well within the likelihood of a twelve-
year-old’s experience.
THE SPEAKER
 Alexander Pope’s life (1688-1744) straddled the 16th and 17th
centuries. Thus, the poet’s speaker likely seems quite alien to
contemporary tweens.
 This speaker demonstrates that he has become enthralled with the
notion of the pastoral, the bucolic, and the rustic.
 The life of the farmer then represents to him the epitome of the
nearly perfect life. Thus, he fashions his hopes for leaving this world
without anyone even noticing. He craves no stone that just sits there
announcing his birth and death dates.
THEME
A Youthful Fantasy
 The romantic scenario that Pope’s young speaker creates of the farm
family’s life cannot be described as other than beautiful, admirable,
and one to be desired.
 he leaves out some very important details of farm life: backbreaking
labor allowing little time or energy for that study and meditation the
speaker imagines for the farmer, bad weather that destroys the very
crops that would have provided necessary food items as well as
materials for making the clothing for the family.

 And readers, safe in their arm-chairs, can forget those negative

possibilities and dream along with the speaker,

 created by a twelve-year old budding poet, about a life fully contained,

self-reliant, and soothing—a paradise on earth.