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    The Poetry of Alexander Pope - Volume I: “Blessed is he who expects nothing, for he shall never be disappointed.”
    The Poetry of Alexander Pope - Volume I: “Blessed is he who expects nothing, for he shall never be disappointed.”
    The Poetry of Alexander Pope - Volume I: “Blessed is he who expects nothing, for he shall never be disappointed.”
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    The Poetry of Alexander Pope - Volume I: “Blessed is he who expects nothing, for he shall never be disappointed.”

    By Alexander Pope

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    Alexander Pope was born on May 21st, 1688 in London into a Catholic family. His education was affected by the recent Test Acts, upholding the status of the Church of England and banning Catholics from teaching. In effect this meant his formal education was over by the age of 12 and Pope was to now immerse himself in classical literature and languages and to, in effect, educate himself. From this age too he also suffered from numerous health problems including a type of tuberculosis (Pott’s disease) which resulted in a stunted, deformed body. Only to grow to a height of 4’ 6”, with a severe hunchback and complicated further by respiratory difficulties, high fevers, inflamed eyes and abdominal pain all of which served to further isolate him, initially, from society. However his talent was evident to all. Best known for his satirical verse, his translations of Homer and the use of the heroic couplet, he is the second-most frequently quoted writer in The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations, after Shakespeare. With the publication of Pastorals in 1709 followed by An Essay on Criticism (1711) and his most famous work The Rape of the Lock (1712; revised and enlarged in 1714) Pope became not only famous but wealthy. His translations of the Iliad and the Odyssey further enhanced both reputation and purse. His engagement to produce an opulent new edition of Shakespeare met with a mixed reception. Pope attempted to "regularise" Shakespeare's metre and rewrote some of his verse and cut 1500 lines, that Pope considered to be beneath the Bard’s standard, to mere footnotes. Alexander Pope died on May 30th, 1744 at his villa at Twickenham (where he created his famous grotto and gardens) and was buried in the nave of the nearby Church of England Church of St Mary the Virgin. Over the years and centuries since his death Pope’s work has been in and out of favour but with this distance he is now truly recognised as one of England’s greatest poets.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherCopyright Group
    Release dateMar 14, 2016
    ISBN9781785436819
    The Poetry of Alexander Pope - Volume I: “Blessed is he who expects nothing, for he shall never be disappointed.”
    Author

    Alexander Pope

    Alexander Pope (1688-1744) was an English poet. Born in London to a family of Catholics who were later expelled from the city during a period of religious persecution, Pope was largely self-educated, and struggled with numerous illnesses from a young age. At 23, he wrote the discursive poem An Essay on Criticism (1711), a manifesto on the art of poetry which gained him the admiration and acclaim of influential critics and writers of his day. His most famous poem, The Rape of the Lock (1712), is a mock epic which critiques aristocratic English society while showcasing Pope’s mastery of poetic form, particularly the use of the heroic couplet. Pope produced highly acclaimed translations of the Iliad and Odyssey, which transformed Homer’s ancient Greek dactylic hexameter into a contemporary rhyming English verse. His work The Dunciad (1728-1743), originally published anonymously in Dublin, is a satirical poem which lampoons English literary society and criticizes the moral and intellectual decay of British life. Second only to Shakespeare for the frequency with which he is quoted, Alexander Pope succumbed to his illnesses at the age of 56 while at the height of his fame and productivity.

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      Book preview

      The Poetry of Alexander Pope - Volume I - Alexander Pope

      The Poetry of Alexander Pope

      Volume I

      Alexander Pope was born on May 21st, 1688 in London into a Catholic family.

      His education was affected by the recent Test Acts, upholding the status of the Church of England and banning Catholics from teaching.  In effect this meant his formal education was over by the age of 12 and Pope was to now immerse himself in classical literature and languages and to, in effect, educate himself. 

      From this age too he also suffered from numerous health problems including a type of tuberculosis (Pott’s disease) which resulted in a stunted, deformed body.  Only to grow to a height of 4’ 6", with a severe hunchback and complicated further by respiratory difficulties, high fevers, inflamed eyes and abdominal pain all of which served to further isolate him, initially, from society.

      However his talent was evident to all. Best known for his satirical verse, his translations of Homer and the use of the heroic couplet, he is the second-most frequently quoted writer in The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations, after Shakespeare.

      With the publication of Pastorals in 1709 followed by An Essay on Criticism (1711) and his most famous work The Rape of the Lock (1712; revised and enlarged in 1714) Pope became not only famous but wealthy.

      His translations of the Iliad and the Odyssey further enhanced both reputation and purse.  His engagement to produce an opulent new edition of Shakespeare met with a mixed reception.  Pope attempted to regularise Shakespeare's metre and rewrote some of his verse and cut 1500 lines, that Pope considered to be beneath the Bard’s standard, to mere footnotes.

      Alexander Pope died on May 30th, 1744 at his villa at Twickenham (where he created his famous grotto and gardens) and was buried in the nave of the nearby Church of England Church of St Mary the Virgin.

      Over the years and centuries since his death Pope’s work has been in and out of favour but with this distance he is now truly recognised as one of England’s greatest poets.

      Index of Contents

      The Dying Christian to his Soul

      Solitude

      On a Certain Lady at Court, Henrietta Howard, Countess of Suffolk

      An Essay on Man - Epistle I—Of the Nature and State of Man, with Respect to the Universe

      An Essay on Man - Epistle II—Of the Nature and State of Man with Respect to Himself, as an Individual

      An Essay on Man - Epistle III—Of the Nature and State of Man with Respect to Society

      An Essay on Man - Epistle IV—Of the Nature and State of Man with Respect to Happiness

      Alexander Pope – A Short Biography

      Alexander Pope – A Concise Bibliography

      The Dying Christian to his Soul

      Vital spark of heav'nly flame!

      Quit, O quit this mortal frame:

      Trembling, hoping, ling'ring, flying,

      O the pain, the bliss of dying!

      Cease, fond Nature, cease thy strife,

      And let me languish into life.

      Hark! they whisper; angels say,

      Sister Spirit, come away!

      What is this absorbs me quite?

      Steals my senses, shuts my sight,

      Drowns my spirits, draws my breath?

      Tell me, my soul, can this be death?

      The world recedes; it disappears!

      Heav'n opens on my eyes! my ears

      With sounds seraphic ring!

      Lend, lend your wings! I mount! I fly!

      O Grave! where is thy victory?

      O Death! where is thy sting?

      Solitude

      Happy the man, whose wish and care

      A few paternal acres bound,

      Content to breathe his native air

      In his own ground.

      Whose herds with milk, whose fields with bread,

      Whose flocks supply him with attire;

      Whose trees in summer yield him shade,

      In winter fire.

      Blest, who can unconcern’dly find

      Hours, days, and years, slide soft away

      In health of body, peace of mind,

      Quiet by day.

      Sound sleep by night; study and ease

      Together mix’d, sweet recreation,

      And innocence, which most does please

      With meditation.

      Thus let me live, unseen, unknown;

      Thus unlamented let me die;

      Steal from the world, and not a stone

      Tell where I lie.

      On a Certain Lady at Court, Henrietta Howard, Countess of Suffolk

      I know a thing that’s most uncommon

      (Envy, be silent, and attend);

      I know a reasonable woman,

      Handsome and witty, yet a friend.

      Not warped by passion, awed by rumour,

      Not grave through pride, or gay through folly;

      An equal mixture of good humour,

      And sensible soft melancholy.

      ‘Has she no faults then,’ Envy says, ‘Sir?’

      Yes, she has one, I must aver:

      When all the world conspires to praise her

      The woman’s deaf, and does not hear!

      An Essay on Man

      Epistle I—Of the Nature and State of Man, with Respect to the Universe

      Awake, my St. John! leave all meaner things

      To low ambition, and the pride of kings.

      Let us (since life can little more supply

      Than just to look about us, and to die)

      Expatiate free o’er all this scene of man;

      A mighty maze! but not without a plan;

      A wild, where weeds and flow’rs promiscuous shoot;

      Or garden, tempting with forbidden fruit.

      Together let us beat this ample field,

      Try what the open, what the covert yield!

      The latent tracts, the giddy heights, explore

      Of all who blindly creep, or sightless soar;

      Eye nature’s walks, shoot folly as it flies,

      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.

      I.

      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?

      Thro’ worlds unnumber’d tho’

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