ALEXANDER

POPE
1688-1744
Poet of the Age of Reason
Sketches of Pope
Alexander Pope -- Influences

 Descartes--the emphasis upon

reason, order, harmony
 Leibnitz--Rational Theology
 Alexander Pope
Poetic Form

The Heroic Couplet

The heroic couplet’s rhyme-scheme was
ordinarily closed, rhymed couplets.
The meter was Iambic Pentameter.
The couplets often contrasted opposing ideas
in an epigrammatic manner.
“Know then thyself, presume not God to scan;
The proper study of mankind is man.” (93)
 Themes in Pope’s
“Essay on Man”
 Evil happens naturally, the by-product of natural
fault; it is not directly caused by God.
 Pride keeps us from seeing our role in God’s
world; we should not presume to judge God.
 God’s universe must be coherent with logic and
reason.
 Humans fit into an elaborate “chain of being,
composed of lifeforms and inanimate objects which
are all necessary for the whole mechanism to
work.
 Alexander Pope’s Essay on Man – Selected
Passages

 Purpose:  In his Argument, Pope ends by

 telling the reader his purpose. In this
Together let us beat this ample field, case, it is to “vindicate the ways of
 Try what the open, what the covert yield; God to man.”
 Think about the word choice
 The latent tracts, the giddy heights, “vindicate.” He doesn’t write
 explore “explain.’
 Of all who blindly creep or sightless soar;  He believes that one can prove the
ways of God to man by an
 Eye Nature's walks, shoot folly as it flies, examination of Nature. Purpose

 And catch the manners living as they rise;

 Laugh where we must, be candid where

we can, But vindicate the ways of God to
man.
 Reason:

 Just as God created the

 Say first, of God above or Man
below
 What can we reason but from
what we know?
 Of man what see we but his
station here,
 From which to reason, or to
which refer?
universe out of his Reason,
we can use that same
Reason to understand the
universe.
 To do so, we have to just
take our own surroundings
and then expand. Reason
 Pride and
Presumption:

 Presumptuous man! the reason  Pope writes about the human tendency to
wouldst thou find, question God, to ask why. Why do bad
 Why form'd so weak, so little, and so things happen? Why are we born flawed?
blind?
  Remember that this is not a theoretical
First, if thou canst, the harder reason
guess question for Pope. His physical
deformities and illnesses were a constant
 Why form'd no weaker, blinder, and struggle
no less!
 Ask of thy mother earth why oaks  . Pope notes that we never ask why we
are made weren’t born less, we only question why
 not better
Taller or stronger than the weeds
they shade!  . In other words, we are presumptuous
and prideful rather than grateful. Pride
and Presumption