Content deleted Content added
No edit summary |
m Reverted edits by 207.63.98.66 to last version by 209.7.217.114 |
||
Line 1:
[[Image:AlexanderPope.jpg|thumb|200px|right]]
'''Alexander Pope''' ([[May 22]], [[1688]] – [[May 30]], [[1744]]) is considered one of the greatest [[England|English]] [[poet]]s of the eighteenth century.
Born to a [[Roman Catholic]] family in [[1688]], Pope was educated mostly at home, in part due to [[penal law|laws]] in force at the time upholding the status of the [[state church|established]] [[Church of England]]. From early childhood he suffered numerous health problems, including [[Pott's disease]] (a form of [[tuberculosis]] affecting the [[vertebral column|spine]]) which deformed his body and stunted his growth, no doubt helping to end his life at the relatively young age of 56 in [[1744]]. He never grew beyond 1.37m (4ft 6in).
Although he had been writing poetry since the age of 12, his first major contribution to the literary world is considered to be ''[[An Essay on Criticism]],'' which was published in [[1711]] when he was 23. This was followed by ''[[The Rape of the Lock]]'' ([[1712]], revised [[1714]]), his most popular poem; ''[[Eloisa to Abelard]]'' and ''[[Elegy to the Memory of an Unfortunate Lady]]'' ([[1717]]); and several shorter works, of which perhaps the best are the epistles to Martha Blount. From [[1715]] to [[1720]], he worked on a translation of [[Homer]]'s [[Iliad]]. Encouraged by the very favourable reception of this translation, Pope translated the [[Odyssey]] ([[1725]]-[[1726]]) with [[William Broome]] and [[Elijah Fenton]]. The commercial success of his translations made Pope the first English poet who could live off the sales of his work alone, "indebted to no prince or peer alive," as he put it. In this period Pope also brought out an edition of [[Shakespeare]], which silently "regularised" his metre and rewrote his verse in several places. [[Lewis Theobald]] and other scholars attacked Pope's edition, incurring Pope's wrath and inspiring the first version of his satire ''[[The Dunciad]]'' ([[1728]]), the first of the moral and satiric poems of his last period. His other major poems of this period were ''[[Moral Essays]]'' ([[1731]]-[[1735]]), ''Imitations of [[Horace]]'' ([[1733]]-[[1738]]), the ''[[Epistle to Arbuthnot]]'' ([[1735]]), the ''[[Essay on Man]]'' ([[1734]]), and an expanded edition of the ''[[Dunciad]]'' ([[1742]]), in which [[Colley Cibber]] took Theobald's place as the 'hero'.
[[Image:Alexander Pope ca 1727.png|frame|left|Alexander Pope, circa 1727.]]
Pope directly addressed the major religious, political and intellectual problems of his time. He developed the [[heroic couplet]] beyond the achievement of any previous poet, and major poets after him used it less than those before, as he had decreased its usefulness for them.
Pope also wrote the famous epitaph for [[Sir Isaac Newton]]:
<blockquote>
''"Nature and nature's laws lay hid in night;''<br />
''God said 'Let Newton be' and all was light."''
</blockquote>
to which [[J._C._Squire|Sir John Collings Squire]] later added the couplet
<blockquote>
''"It did not last: the devil, shouting 'Ho.''<br />
''Let [[Albert_Einstein|Einstein]] be' restored the status quo."''
</blockquote>
Pope had a friend and ally in [[Jonathan Swift]]. In about 1713, he formed the [[Scriblerus Club]] with Swift and other friends including [[John Gay]].
[[Image:Pope-dying.png|thumb|right|240px|The death of Alexander Pope from ''Museus,'' a threnody by William Mason. [[Diana]] holds the dying Pope, and [[John Milton]], [[Edmund Spenser]], and [[Geoffrey Chaucer]] prepare to welcome him to heaven.]]
Pope's works were once considered part of the mental furniture of the well-educated person. One edition of the Oxford Dictionary of Quotations includes no less than 212 quotations from Pope. Some, familiar even to those who may not know their source, are "A little learning is a dang'rous thing" (from the ''Essay on Criticism''); "To err is human, to forgive, divine" (''ibid.''); "For fools rush in where angels fear to tread" (''ibid''); and "The proper study of mankind is man" (''Essay on Man'').
Pope's reputation declined precipitously in the 19th century, but has recovered substantially since then. Some poems, such as ''The Rape of the Lock'', the moral essays, the imitations of Horace, and several epistles, are regarded as highly now as they have ever been, though others, such as the ''Essay on Man'', have not endured very well, and the merits of two of the most important works, the ''Dunciad'' and the translation of the ''Iliad'', are still disputed. The 19th century considered his diction artificial, his versification too regular, and his satires insufficiently humane. The third charge has been disputed by various 20th century critics including [[William Empson]], and the first does not apply at all to his best work. That Pope was constrained by the demands of "acceptable" diction and prosody is undeniable, but Pope's example shows that great poetry could be written with these constraints.
==Works==
[[Image:Twickenham.png|thumb|right|380px|Pope's house at Twickenham, showing the grotto. From a watercolor produced soon after his death.]]
* (1709) ''[[Pastorals]]''
* (1711) ''[[An Essay on Criticism]]''
* (1712) ''[[The Rape of the Lock]]''
* (1713) ''[[Windsor Forest]]''
* (1717) ''[[Eloisa to Abelard]]''
* (1717) ''[[Elegy to the Memory of an Unfortunate Lady]]''
* (1728) ''[[The Dunciad]]''
* (1734) ''[[Essay on Man]]''
* (1735) ''[[The Prologue to the Satires]]'' (see the ''Epistle to Dr Arbuthnot'')
==Trivia==
His father was not much in favor of his writing poems as a child. Once he was caught and beaten up by his father when he was found to be writing a poem. He immediately begged his father's forgiveness saying: ''Papa Papa pity take! No more shall I verses make!''
==External links==
{{wikiquote}}
{{wikisource author}}
* {{gutenberg author | id=Pope,_Alexander | name=Alexander Pope}}
* [http://eir.library.utoronto.ca/rpo/display/poet263.html University of Toronto "Representative Poetry Online" page on Pope]
* Various biographies [http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/apope.htm], [http://www-unix.oit.umass.edu/~sconstan/popebio.html], [http://www.island-of-freedom.com/POPE.HTM], [http://members.aol.com/basfawlty/pope.htm]
* A copy of "An Essay on Criticism", [http://eserver.org/poetry/essay-on-criticism.html]
* [[Project Gutenberg]] e-text of [http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/webbin/gutbook/lookup?num=2428 An Essay On Man]
* [http://www.twickenham-museum.org.uk/detail.asp?ContentID=19 The Twickenham Museum - Alexander Pope]
* [http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~ynotbw/pope.htm Alexander Pope in Twickenham]
[[Category:1688 births|Pope, Alexander]]
[[Category:1744 deaths|Pope, Alexander]]
[[Category:English poets|Pope, Alexander]]
[[Category:Autodidacts|Pope, Alexander]]
[[Category:Neoclassicism|Pope, Alexander]]
[[Category:Freemasons|Pope, Alexander]]
[[bg:Александър Поуп]]
[[da:Alexander Pope]]
[[de:Alexander Pope]]
[[es:Alexander Pope]]
[[it:Alexander Pope]]
[[ja:アレキサンダー・ポープ]]
[[nl:Alexander Pope]]
[[pt:Alexander Pope]]
[[sv:Alexander Pope]]
| |||