Chapter - 6
"Essay on Man”

- Alexander Pope

Life and Works of Alexander Pope : In a Nut-Shell

Alexander Pope was born on 21st May, 1688 in Landon. His parents were Roman Catholics. In his letter to Noble Lord, he says, "His father was no mechanic, neither hatter, nor a cobbler, but in truth of very honourable family and my mother of an ancient one". A Roman Catholic priest had given him the first lesson of Latin and Greek. Later on, he was sent to a Catholic seminary at Twyford, near Winchester, then to another school in London. He left school when he was not fully 12. He said about it, "This was all the teaching, I ever had and God knows, it extended a very little way. When I had done with my priests, I took a reading by myself, for which I had great eagerness and enthusiasm, especially for poetry, and in a few years, I had dipped into a very great number of the English, French, Italian and Greek poets......" Pope's catholic creed debarred him from many rights, including admission to a university. After his brief schooling, Pope's parents shifted to Binfield in Windsor Forest where his father had settled after retiring from his linen draper's business.

Pope was profoundly influenced by Roman poets with whose style and thought, he shows remarkable affinity. Physically, he was grew up undersized, barely four feet tall, delicate and deformed from adolescence, and his body crooked and mishappen from a Lubercular ailments. This was a constant and cruel but attack from his enemies throughout his life to which he reacted sharply due to his ill health. Later he rented a villa at Twickenham near London-his retreat from where his genius flowered till his death in 1744.

Pope was a celebrated man of letters. He was most ardently admired by his friends. But the petty spitefulness of his inherent nature transformed his friends into bitter enemies. This was the result of his continuous illness which dogged his steps. Yet he was sincerely devoted to the cause of literature. He was a man of more feminine temperament though equally imbued with the same critical spint.

In beginning, he followed Dryden, who used the heroic couplet, originally introduced by Chaucer in the fourteenth century.. Pope brought his metrical medium to perfection. His aim was to achieve 'absolute correctness'. He improved and rectified all that was irregular, rough and rugged. He restricted the variations of the Caesura and instead of subordinating to the demands of the subject, he forced the subject into a prepared mould in which each line kept its separate identity. Heroic couplet became a sensitive instrument of attack, reflection or narrative in his hands. He was great artist of verse. He did not deal in thoughts beyond the reach of our souls. In his this aim, he succeeded amazingly, not only by his mastery of verbal neatness and. cleverness, but also by the more specifically poetic means of melody and rhythm. If craftmanship in words, sounds and metre is the mark of a poet, Pope was one of the greatest. But his poetry was more intellectual than emotional. It was not without imagination and feeling, it was without passion, imagination and feeling. It keeps him within the strict limits of the normal beliefs and ideas of an eighteenth century man of fashion. Pope wrote little lyrical poetry and his reflective and critical poems, such as "The Essay on Man" and "The Essays on Criticism". His greatest works are satirical or concerned with contemporary society life like the "Dunciad", "The Moral Epistles", "The Imitations of Horace" and "Rape of the Lock".

Pope attempted in his works to imitate the great Roman and Greek masters, stressed resounding clarity and brought about a discreet balance and rhythm in his verse. His poetry is intellectual rather than emotional in appeal. It appeals to the mind rather than heart. He is one of the most quoted and offcited poets of English Literature. He has chief credit for the translations of Homer and some miscellaneous poems like, 'Windsor Forest' and Four Pastorals'. He belonged to the golden age of prose and reason and to 'Illustrious Eighteenth Century known for its prosaicness, clarity and exactness in expression.

"The Rape of the Lock' is perfect. The artificial tone of the age, the frivolous aspect of feminity is nowhere more exquisitely pictured than in the poem. In the Epic of Trifling'. It is a page for the petty pleasure seeking life of a fashionable beauty. In short, it is the veritable apothesis in literary guise of scent, patches and powder. The mock heroic poem is the most purely delighted of Pope's poems. It is not merely or chiefly a burlesque of epic poetry. It is a supremely witty social document which mirrors eighteen century elegant society life especially the life of women, from an angle of vision which is a blend of satirical amusement and fascinated interest and to sparkling wit and invention it adds sheer poetic beauty in such passages as the description of Belinda's toilet (129-138) and of Sylphs (204-216).

Important Aspects of Pope's Poetry

Alexander Pope was the high priest of the Age of Reason and Commonsense. English classicism reached its perfection in the poetry of Pope. Pope preached and practised the typical classical qualities-balance, exactness, restraint, polish. "Pope was the undisputed master in satirical and didactic verse." Instead of poetry of emotion and imagination he preferred the poetry of reason and commonsense. He was, thus, the opposite of poets as Spenser and Shakespeare whose poetry was dominated by romantic qualities.

(i) A confirmed classicist: Both in subject-matter and style he broke with the romantic tradition. He followed the ancient Greek and Roman poets. He also followed "Nature" which according to him was synonymous with "Reason". In his poem, "Essay on Criticism" he laid down principles of literary tasks and style. Obviously, these tastes and style were to be classical rather than romantic. He laid a great emphasis on "Authority". The poet had to abide by certain rules and standards that were followed by the ancients.

Pope and the heroic couplets: The heroic couplet which has been introduced by Denham and Waller and popularized by Dryden, was perfected by Pope. Pope was indisputably the greatest master of this verse form. Indeed, he owed his greatness to the mastery of the heroic couplet. He introduced a number of innovations in the heroic couplet. There are in following ways:

(i) He confined the sense to the lines of the couplet. In other words he disallowed the overflow of sense from one line to the other.

(ii) He fixed the position of the 'pause' is the middle of the line.

(iii) Unlike Dryden he seldom or never used an Alexandrine (a line containing six iambic feet).

(iv) He never used a triplet (three lines rhyming together).

Poetry of the town: Pope's poetry was mainly the poetry of the town. He excelled in dealing with artifical urban manners. His mock-heroic epic, "The Rape of the Lock' describes in graphic details the artificial customs and manners of town-bred men and women. It refers to "tea-drinking, snuff- taking, lapdogs, cards, parties and toilets."

Pope's merits: Pope's diction was amazingly polished and brilliant. He was the greatest master of the 'Heroic Couplet. As a satirist, ne ranked with the greatest. His choice of the right word at the right place was unerring. He possessed an astonishing knack for turning aphorisms and epigrams. He had few equals as a stylists. The lucidity of his style could not be easily surpassed. His cool wit and pungent irony were the envy of many poets.

Pope's demerits: Pope was neither a great thinker nor a great lyricist. He was a craftman than a poet. The mertis of his poems were largely those of style. He lacks depth of deeling, imaginative sensibility, lyrical ardour and power. Except The Rape of Lock', none of his longer poems attains unity of structure. He was more often rhetorical rather than poetical. He possessed little or no dramatic sense. Lastly, he deplorably lacked originality of thought. Most of his poems are strings of borrowed thoughts.

Introduction to The Poem
Pope: Essay on Man

(Lines 1-18)

(Espistle II)

Introduction to the Poem - Pope's "Essay on Man" contains Four Epistles (parts) which were published between February 1733 and January1734. The ideas written in the poem were given by Pope's friend Lord Blingbroke. Pope only put those ideas into poetry. The ideas in the poem are very commonplace. But Pope has put them into polished words. The matter is nothing. The style is beautiful. The poem is an investigation of the natural laws. In the poem Pope attempts to vindicate the way of God to man. He reveals that the scheme of the universe is perfect. God is wise and always right. Whatever is right. It is a philosophical poem in heroic couplets.

Substance - Man can never understand the ways of God. Proper study of mankind is man. Man is half God and half beast. He is in doubt whether to develop his body or his soul. Man is lord of all things, yet he falls a victim to temptations. He is full of reasons yet his reasoning is so false. He is a judge of truth yet he is steeped in errors. Man is a paradox, the glory, jest and riddle of the world.

कविता का हिन्दी सारांश

मनुष्य ईश्वर के ढंगों को नहीं समझ सकता है। मानवता का सही अध्ययन मनुष्य ही है। मनुष्य आधा देवता और आधा जानवर है। वह संदेह में है कि वह अपने तन का विकास करे या आत्मा का विकास करे। मनुष्य हर चीज का स्वामी है फिर भी वह प्रलोभनों का शिकार हो जाता है। वह तर्क से युक्त है फिर भी उ सका तर्क झूठा है। वह सत्य का निर्णायक है फिर भी वह गलतियों में आकण्ठ डूबा है। मनुष्य संसार की एक पहेली, एक मजाक, एक गौरव और एक विरोधाभास है।

Main parts of the poem -
(i) Man need not philosophise about God. (ii) Man should study about man.
(iii) Man is God as well as beast.
(iv) He is a judge of truth and full of all error. (v) He is a bundle of opposite qualities.
(vi) He is a riddle or a puzzle.

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