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The Complete Works Of Alexander Pope [Annotated]
contains an extended biography written by Leslie Stephen
Alexander Pope was an 18th-century English poet, best known for his satirical verse. Famous for his use of the heroic couplet, he is the third-most frequently quoted writer in The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations, after Shakespeare and Tennyson.
ebook
Table of Contents
LIFE OF ALEXANDER POPE
THE GENIUS AND POETRY OF POPE.
POPE'S POETICAL WORKS.
PREFACE.
PASTORALS
AN ESSAY ON CRITICISM.
THE RAPE OF THE
WINDSOR-FOREST.
ODE ON ST CECILIA'S DAY,
TWO CHORUSES TO THE TRAGEDY OF BRUTUS.
TO THE AUTHOR OF A POEM ENTITLED SUCCESSIO.
ODE ON SOLITUDE.
THE DYING CHRISTIAN TO HIS SOUL.
ELEGY TO THE MEMORY OF AN UNFORTUNATE LADY
PROLOGUE TO MR ADDISON'S TRAGEDY OF CATO.
IMITATIONS OF ENGLISH POETS.
THE TEMPLE OF FAME.
ELOISA TO ABELARD.
EPISTLE
EPITAPHS.
AN ESSAY ON
SATIRES AND EPISTLES OF HORACE IMITATED.
MORAL ESSAYS.
TRANSLATIONS AND IMITATIONS.
MISCELLANIES
English
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Looking for other Art & Poetry Publishing ebook on Amazon!
Alexander Pope was an 18th-century English poet, best known for his satirical verse. Famous for his use of the heroic couplet, he is the third-most frequently quoted writer in The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations, after Shakespeare and Tennyson.
ebook
Table of Contents
LIFE OF ALEXANDER POPE
THE GENIUS AND POETRY OF POPE.
POPE'S POETICAL WORKS.
PREFACE.
PASTORALS
AN ESSAY ON CRITICISM.
THE RAPE OF THE
WINDSOR-FOREST.
ODE ON ST CECILIA'S DAY,
TWO CHORUSES TO THE TRAGEDY OF BRUTUS.
TO THE AUTHOR OF A POEM ENTITLED SUCCESSIO.
ODE ON SOLITUDE.
THE DYING CHRISTIAN TO HIS SOUL.
ELEGY TO THE MEMORY OF AN UNFORTUNATE LADY
PROLOGUE TO MR ADDISON'S TRAGEDY OF CATO.
IMITATIONS OF ENGLISH POETS.
THE TEMPLE OF FAME.
ELOISA TO ABELARD.
EPISTLE
EPITAPHS.
AN ESSAY ON
SATIRES AND EPISTLES OF HORACE IMITATED.
MORAL ESSAYS.
TRANSLATIONS AND IMITATIONS.
MISCELLANIES
English
Drop yes
Separate yes
Kindle Superior yes
Table of yes
Looking for other Art & Poetry Publishing ebook on Amazon!
897 pages, Kindle Edition
Published June 10, 2012
129 people are currently reading
165 people want to read
About the author
Alexander Pope
2,243 books688 followersPeople best remember
The Rape of the Lock
(1712) and
The Dunciad
(1728), satirical mock-epic poems of English writer Alexander Pope.
Ariel, a sylph, guards the heroine of The Rape of the Lock of Alexander Pope.
People generally regard Pope as the greatest of the 18th century and know his verse and his translation of Homer. After William Shakespeare and Alfred Tennyson, he ranks as third most frequently quoted in the language. Pope mastered the heroic couplet.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexand...
Ariel, a sylph, guards the heroine of The Rape of the Lock of Alexander Pope.
People generally regard Pope as the greatest of the 18th century and know his verse and his translation of Homer. After William Shakespeare and Alfred Tennyson, he ranks as third most frequently quoted in the language. Pope mastered the heroic couplet.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexand...
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
March 24, 2024
I have not read everything in this book. Mr Pope was a prolific writer. I got into this solely because while reading Mr Robert Fagles translation of The Odyssey I came across: "Pope, whose translation of the Iliad is the finest ever made".This is from the Introduction by Mr Bernard Knox.
So I wanted to read some, at least, of his translation of the The Odyssey and this edition I considered the best available and the most affordable, if in considerably more scope than what I wanted.
I discovered that unlike the Iliad Mr Pope did not translate the whole of the The Odyssey but farmed out several books to two other gentlemen. I did read some of his translation and then moved on to the Iliad and read some of that. And then I worked my way through quite a few of his poems. I became quite tired of heroic couplets but after awhile they just roll on, almost effortlessly.
"Th’ assembled Chiefs, descending on the ground,
Attend his order, and their Prince surround.
A massy spear he bore of mighty strength,
Of full ten cubits was the lance’s length;
The point was brass, refulgent to behold,
Fix’d to the wood with circling rings of gold:
The noble Hector on this lance reclin’d..." Loc. 144867
Achilles rages over the field:
"Then fell on Polydore his vengeful rage,
The youngest hope of Priam’s stooping age
(Whose feet for swiftness in the race surpass’d);
Of all his sons, the dearest and the last.
To the forbidden field he takes his flight
In the first folly of a youthful knight;
To vaunt his swiftness wheels around the plain,
But vaunts not long, with all his swiftness slain;
Struck where the crossing belts unite behind,
And golden rings the double back-plate join’d.
Forth thro’ the navel burst the thrilling steel;
And on his knees with piercing shrieks he fell;
The rushing entrails pour’d upon the ground
His hands collect: and darkness wraps him round..." Loc. 200146
An example of the brutality Mr Pope could muster even within the straits of verse.
I became interested in Mr Pope's translations of Chaucer, and moved on to Mr Chaucer himself to compare. So then I had to study Middle English, at least the pronunciation as the edition I was using included copious footnotes. (The Standardebooks) improved edition of the Gutenberg edition).
Mr Pope made these translations in his youth and was much freer with his source materials than later in life. Still they were quite fun.
from January and May; or, The Merchant's Tale
"‘t is too much for human race to know
The bliss of Heav’n above and earth below:
Now should the nuptial pleasures prove so great,
To match the blessings of the future state,
Those endless joys were ill exchanged for these:
Then clear this doubt, and set my mind at ease." Loc. 993
"'I have,' quoth he, 'heard said, full yore2845 ago,
There may no man have perfect blisses two,
This is to say, onearth and eke in heaven.
For though he keep him from the sinnës seven,
And eke from every branch of thilkë tree, 2846
Yet is there so perfect felicity,
And so great ease and lust, 2847 in marriage,
That ev'r I am aghast, 2848 now in mine age
That I shall lead now so merry a life,
So delicate, withoutë woe or strife,
That I shall have mine heav'n on earthë here.
For since that very heav'n is bought so dear,
With tribulation and great penánce,
How should I then, living in such pleasánce
As allë wedded men do with their wivës,
Come to the bliss where Christ etern on live is? 2849
This is my dread; 2850 and ye, my brethren tway,
Assoilë 2851 me this question, I you pray.'" page 22
2845 Long
2846 That tree of original sin, of which the special sins are the branches.
2847 Comfort and pleasure
2848 Alarmed, afraid
2849 Lives eternally
2850 Doubt
2851 Resolve, answer from The Merchant's Tale p. 22
I also read The Wife of Bath tale which I had not read before despite its taint of scandal. Actually it's the prologue which is bawdy, her tale is pretty tame.
Even the young Mr Pope was well read. In a long rambling poem The Temple of Fame he tosses out a few abstruse allusions:
"The Mantuan there in sober triumph sate..." The Mantuan being Virgil. Loc. 1663
"Here, in a shrine that cast a dazzling light, Sate fix’d in thought the mighty Stagyrite..." The native of Stagra here is Aristotle. Loc. 1681
When I read Mr Pope in high school I was not impressed. The poem we studied was The Rape of the Lock. I disliked heroic couplets even then and found the poem laborious. Having read a good deal more now I must agree with my teacher though that this was the best choice. It's not too long and Pope makes some witty juxtapositions:
"Some dire disaster, or by force or slight;
But what, or where, the Fates have wrapt in night.
Whether the nymph shall break Diana’s law,
Or some frail China jar receive a flaw;
Or stain her honour, or her new brocade,
Forget her prayers, or miss a masquerade,
Or lose her heart, or necklace, at a ball" Loc. 4124
"Here Britain’s statesmen oft the fall foredoom
Of foreign tyrants, and of nymphs at home;
Here, thou, great ANNA! whom three realms obey,
Dost sometimes counsel take — and sometimes tea..." Loc. 4160
"Oh thoughtless mortals! ever blind to fate,
Too soon dejected, and too soon elate..." Loc. 4212
"Then flash’d the living lightning from her eyes,
And screams of horror rend th’ affrighted skies.
Not louder shrieks to pitying Heav’n are cast,
When husbands, or when lapdogs breathe their last;
Or when rich China vessels, fall’n from high,
In glitt’ring dust and painted fragments lie! Loc. 4242
Later in my life at university I reread this with similar distaste and also The Dunciad and The Essay on Man both of which I enjoyed much more, then, Not now. I now find the squabbles of the English literati to be absurd as well as Mr Pope's straited religion.
"Laugh where we must, be candid where we can,
But vindicate the ways of God to man." Loc. 5709
is not a sentiment that resounds in the modern world.
At his best Mr Pope controls both the sense and the music of his language. From The Essay on Criticism:
"'Tis not enough no harshness gives offence;
The sound must seem an echo to the sense.
Soft is the strain when zephyr gently blows,
And the smooth stream in smoother numbers flows;
But when loud surges lash the sounding shore,
The hoarse rough verse should like the torrent roar.
When Ajax strives some rock's vast weight to thro,
The line too, labours, and the words move slow:
Not so when swift Camilla scours the plain,
Flies o'er the unbending corn, and skims along the main... Essay on Criticism Part II. 164-173.
Mr Pope has coined not a few memorable lines;
"A little learning is a dangerous thing".
"Too err is human, to forgive divine."
"Fools rush in where angels fear to tread."
Suddenly, while reading Eloisa to Abelard:
"How happy is the blameless vestal’s lot!
The world forgetting, by the world forgot;
Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind..." Loc. 4562
I wonder if John Keats when he set out to pen his Ode to a Nightingale – just as an example – tapped his forehead with his pen and considered "What rhyme scheme shall I use?"* Mr Pope never had this problem. At some point quite early in his career he gave his full allegiance to the couplet – for better and worse.
*
So I wanted to read some, at least, of his translation of the The Odyssey and this edition I considered the best available and the most affordable, if in considerably more scope than what I wanted.
I discovered that unlike the Iliad Mr Pope did not translate the whole of the The Odyssey but farmed out several books to two other gentlemen. I did read some of his translation and then moved on to the Iliad and read some of that. And then I worked my way through quite a few of his poems. I became quite tired of heroic couplets but after awhile they just roll on, almost effortlessly.
"Th’ assembled Chiefs, descending on the ground,
Attend his order, and their Prince surround.
A massy spear he bore of mighty strength,
Of full ten cubits was the lance’s length;
The point was brass, refulgent to behold,
Fix’d to the wood with circling rings of gold:
The noble Hector on this lance reclin’d..." Loc. 144867
Achilles rages over the field:
"Then fell on Polydore his vengeful rage,
The youngest hope of Priam’s stooping age
(Whose feet for swiftness in the race surpass’d);
Of all his sons, the dearest and the last.
To the forbidden field he takes his flight
In the first folly of a youthful knight;
To vaunt his swiftness wheels around the plain,
But vaunts not long, with all his swiftness slain;
Struck where the crossing belts unite behind,
And golden rings the double back-plate join’d.
Forth thro’ the navel burst the thrilling steel;
And on his knees with piercing shrieks he fell;
The rushing entrails pour’d upon the ground
His hands collect: and darkness wraps him round..." Loc. 200146
An example of the brutality Mr Pope could muster even within the straits of verse.
I became interested in Mr Pope's translations of Chaucer, and moved on to Mr Chaucer himself to compare. So then I had to study Middle English, at least the pronunciation as the edition I was using included copious footnotes. (The Standardebooks) improved edition of the Gutenberg edition).
Mr Pope made these translations in his youth and was much freer with his source materials than later in life. Still they were quite fun.
from January and May; or, The Merchant's Tale
"‘t is too much for human race to know
The bliss of Heav’n above and earth below:
Now should the nuptial pleasures prove so great,
To match the blessings of the future state,
Those endless joys were ill exchanged for these:
Then clear this doubt, and set my mind at ease." Loc. 993
"'I have,' quoth he, 'heard said, full yore2845 ago,
There may no man have perfect blisses two,
This is to say, onearth and eke in heaven.
For though he keep him from the sinnës seven,
And eke from every branch of thilkë tree, 2846
Yet is there so perfect felicity,
And so great ease and lust, 2847 in marriage,
That ev'r I am aghast, 2848 now in mine age
That I shall lead now so merry a life,
So delicate, withoutë woe or strife,
That I shall have mine heav'n on earthë here.
For since that very heav'n is bought so dear,
With tribulation and great penánce,
How should I then, living in such pleasánce
As allë wedded men do with their wivës,
Come to the bliss where Christ etern on live is? 2849
This is my dread; 2850 and ye, my brethren tway,
Assoilë 2851 me this question, I you pray.'" page 22
2845 Long
2846 That tree of original sin, of which the special sins are the branches.
2847 Comfort and pleasure
2848 Alarmed, afraid
2849 Lives eternally
2850 Doubt
2851 Resolve, answer from The Merchant's Tale p. 22
I also read The Wife of Bath tale which I had not read before despite its taint of scandal. Actually it's the prologue which is bawdy, her tale is pretty tame.
Even the young Mr Pope was well read. In a long rambling poem The Temple of Fame he tosses out a few abstruse allusions:
"The Mantuan there in sober triumph sate..." The Mantuan being Virgil. Loc. 1663
"Here, in a shrine that cast a dazzling light, Sate fix’d in thought the mighty Stagyrite..." The native of Stagra here is Aristotle. Loc. 1681
When I read Mr Pope in high school I was not impressed. The poem we studied was The Rape of the Lock. I disliked heroic couplets even then and found the poem laborious. Having read a good deal more now I must agree with my teacher though that this was the best choice. It's not too long and Pope makes some witty juxtapositions:
"Some dire disaster, or by force or slight;
But what, or where, the Fates have wrapt in night.
Whether the nymph shall break Diana’s law,
Or some frail China jar receive a flaw;
Or stain her honour, or her new brocade,
Forget her prayers, or miss a masquerade,
Or lose her heart, or necklace, at a ball" Loc. 4124
"Here Britain’s statesmen oft the fall foredoom
Of foreign tyrants, and of nymphs at home;
Here, thou, great ANNA! whom three realms obey,
Dost sometimes counsel take — and sometimes tea..." Loc. 4160
"Oh thoughtless mortals! ever blind to fate,
Too soon dejected, and too soon elate..." Loc. 4212
"Then flash’d the living lightning from her eyes,
And screams of horror rend th’ affrighted skies.
Not louder shrieks to pitying Heav’n are cast,
When husbands, or when lapdogs breathe their last;
Or when rich China vessels, fall’n from high,
In glitt’ring dust and painted fragments lie! Loc. 4242
Later in my life at university I reread this with similar distaste and also The Dunciad and The Essay on Man both of which I enjoyed much more, then, Not now. I now find the squabbles of the English literati to be absurd as well as Mr Pope's straited religion.
"Laugh where we must, be candid where we can,
But vindicate the ways of God to man." Loc. 5709
is not a sentiment that resounds in the modern world.
At his best Mr Pope controls both the sense and the music of his language. From The Essay on Criticism:
"'Tis not enough no harshness gives offence;
The sound must seem an echo to the sense.
Soft is the strain when zephyr gently blows,
And the smooth stream in smoother numbers flows;
But when loud surges lash the sounding shore,
The hoarse rough verse should like the torrent roar.
When Ajax strives some rock's vast weight to thro,
The line too, labours, and the words move slow:
Not so when swift Camilla scours the plain,
Flies o'er the unbending corn, and skims along the main... Essay on Criticism Part II. 164-173.
Mr Pope has coined not a few memorable lines;
"A little learning is a dangerous thing".
"Too err is human, to forgive divine."
"Fools rush in where angels fear to tread."
Suddenly, while reading Eloisa to Abelard:
"How happy is the blameless vestal’s lot!
The world forgetting, by the world forgot;
Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind..." Loc. 4562
I wonder if John Keats when he set out to pen his Ode to a Nightingale – just as an example – tapped his forehead with his pen and considered "What rhyme scheme shall I use?"* Mr Pope never had this problem. At some point quite early in his career he gave his full allegiance to the couplet – for better and worse.
*
February 6, 2025
Maybe my next thesis should be entirely in verse.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews