The Rape of the Lock

by Alexander Pope

A satirical poem that intentionally over-dramatizes an incident in which a lock of a woman's hair is cut without her permission.

Genres: Poetry, Classics, Fiction, 18th Century, Literature, School, British Literature

54 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1717

About the author

People 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...

Reviews

[هدى يحيى · Rating 3 out of 5]

ألكساندر بوب الشاعر الإنجليزي الفذّ
في واحدة من أطرف وأجمل قصائده الساخرة
"اغتصاب خصلة الشعر"


والتي كان لي الحظ بدراستها

:::::::::::

القصيدة بنيت على
حادثة تافهة
حين قام لورد يدعى بيتر باقتطاع خصلة
من شعر إحدى النبيلات
وتدعي آرابيلا
فقامت الدنيا وقتها ولم تقعد
وكادت تحدث معركة كبرى بين الأسرتين

وفي هذه القصيدة يسخر بوب من المظاهر الجوفاء لحياة تلك الطبقات
وطريقة معيشتهم المثيرة للشفقة

::::::::::::::::::
مقطعي المفضل من القصيدة
::::::::::::::::::

SHE said: the pitying Audience melt in Tears,
But Fate and Jove had stopp'd the Baron's Ears.
In vain Thalestris with Reproach assails,
For who can move when fair Belinda fails?
Not half to fixt the Trojan cou'd remain,
While Anna begg'd and Dido rag'd in vain.
Then grave Clarissa graceful wav'd her Fan;
Silence ensu'd, and thus the Nymph began.
Say, why are Beauties prais'd and honour'd most,
The wise Man's Passion, and the vain Man's Toast?
Why deck'd with all that Land and Sea afford,
Why Angels call'd, and Angel-like ador'd?
Why round our Coaches crowd the white-glov'd Beaus,
Why bows the Side-box from its inmost Rows?
How vain are all these Glories, all our Pains,
Unless good Sense preserve what Beauty gains:
That Men may say, when we the Front-box grace,
Behold the first in Virtue, as in Face!
Oh! if to dance all Night, and dress all Day,
Charm'd the Small-pox, or chas'd old Age away;
Who would not scorn what Huswife's Cares produce,
Or who would learn one earthly Thing of Use?
To patch, nay ogle, might become a Saint,
Nor could it sure be such a Sin to paint.
But since, alas! frail Beauty must decay,
Curl'd or uncurl'd, since Locks will turn to grey,
Since paint'd, or not paint'd, all shall fade,
And she who scorns a Man, must die a Maid;
What then remains, but well our Pow'r to use,
And keep good Humour still whate'er we lose?
And trust me, Dear! good Humour can prevail,
When Airs, and Flights, and Screams, and Scolding fail.
Beauties in vain their pretty Eyes may roll;
Charms strike the Sight, but Merit wins the Soul.
So spake the Dame, but no Applause ensu'd;
Belinda frown'd, Thalestris call'd her Prude.
To Arms, to Arms! the fierce Virago cries,
And swift as Lightning to the Combate flies.
All side in Parties, and begin th' Attack;
Fans clap, Silks russle, and tough Whalebones crack;
Heroes and Heroins Shouts confus'dly rise,
And base, and treble Voices strike the Skies.
No common Weapons in their Hands are found,
Like Gods they fight, nor dread a mortal Wound.

So when bold Homer makes the Gods engage,
And heav'nly Breasts with human Passions rage;
'Gainst Pallas, Mars; Latona, Hermes arms;
And all Olympus rings with loud Alarms.
Jove's Thunder roars, Heav'n trembles all around;
Blue Neptune storms, the bellowing Deeps resound;
Earth shakes her nodding Tow'rs, the Ground gives way;
And the pale Ghosts start at the Flash of Day!

Triumphant Umbriel on a Sconce's Height
Clapt his glad Wings, and sate to view the Fight,
Propt on their Bodkin Spears, the Sprights survey
The growing Combat, or assist the Fray.
While thro' the Press enrag'd Thalestries flies,
And scatters Deaths around from both her Eyes,
A Beau and Witling perish'd in the Throng,
One dy'd in Metaphor, and one in Song.
O cruel Nymph! a living Death I bear,
Cry'd Dapperwit, and sunk beside his Chair.
A mournful Glance Sir Fopling upwards cast,
Those Eyes are made so killing---was his last:
Thus on Meander's flow'ry Margin lies
Th' expiring Swan, and as he sings he dies.

When bold Sir Plume had drawn Clarissa down,
Chloe stept in, and kill'd him with a Frown;
She smil'd to see the doughty Hero slain,
But at her Smile, the Beau reviv'd again.

Now Jove suspends his golden Scales in Air,
Weighs the Mens Wits against the Lady's Hair;
The doubtful Beam long nods from side to side;
At length the Wits mount up, the Hairs subside.

See fierce Belinda on the Baron flies,
With more than usual Lightning in her Eyes;
Nor fear'd the Chief th' unequal Fight to try,
Who sought no more than on his Foe to die.
But this bold Lord, with manly Strength indu'd,
She with one Finger and a Thumb subdu'd,
Just where the Breath of Life his Nostrils drew,
A Charge of Snuff the wily Virgin threw;
The Gnomes direct, to ev'ry Atome just,
The pungent Grains of titillating Dust.
Sudden, with starting Tears each Eye o'erflows,
And the high Dome re-ecchoes to his Nose.

Now meet thy Fate, incens'd Belinda cry'd,
And drew a deadly Bodkin from her Side.
(The same, his ancient Personage to deck,
Her great great Grandsire wore about his Neck
In three Seal-Rings which after, melted down,
Form'd a vast Buckle for his Widow's Gown:
Her infant Grandame's Whistle next it grew,
The Bells she gingled, and the Whistle blew;
Then in a Bodkin grac'd her Mother's Hairs,
Which long she wore, and now Belinda wears.)

Boast not my Fall (he cry'd) insulting Foe!
Thou by some other shalt be laid as low.
Nor think, to die dejects my lofty Mind;
All that I dread, is leaving you behind!
Rather than so, ah let me still survive,
And burn in Cupid's Flames,---but burn alive.

Restore the Lock! she cries; and all around
Restore the Lock! the vaulted Roofs rebound.
Not fierce Othello in so loud a Strain
Roar'd for the Handkerchief that caus'd his Pain.
But see how oft Ambitious Aims are cross'd,
And Chiefs contend 'till all the Prize is lost!
The Lock, obtain'd with Guilt, and kept with Pain,
In ev'ry place is sought, but sought in vain:
With such a Prize no Mortal must be blest,
So Heav'n decrees! with Heav'n who can contest?

Some thought it mounted to the Lunar Sphere,
Since all things lost on Earth, are treasur'd there.
There Heroe's Wits are kept in pondrous Vases,
And Beau's in Snuff-boxes and Tweezer-Cases.
There broken Vows, and Death-bed Alms are found,
And Lovers Hearts with Ends of Riband bound;
The Courtiers Promises, and Sick Man's Pray'rs,
The Smiles of Harlots, and the Tears of Heirs,
Cages for Gnats, and Chains to Yoak a Flea;
Dry'd Butterflies, and Tomes of Casuistry.

But trust the Muse---she saw it upward rise,
Tho' mark'd by none but quick Poetic Eyes:
(So Rome's great Founder to the Heav'ns withdrew,
To Proculus alone confess'd in view.)
A sudden Star, it shot thro' liquid Air,
And drew behind a radiant Trail of Hair.
Not Berenice's Locks first rose so bright,
The heav'ns bespangling with dishevel'd light.
The Sylphs behold it kindling as it flies,
And pleas'd pursue its Progress thro' the Skies.

This the Beau-monde shall from the Mall survey,
And hail with Musick its propitious Ray.
This, the blest Lover shall for Venus take,
And send up Vows from Rosamonda's Lake.
This Partridge soon shall view in cloudless Skies,
When next he looks thro' Galilaeo's Eyes;
And hence th' Egregious Wizard shall foredoom
The Fate of Louis, and the Fall of Rome.

Then cease, bright Nymph! to mourn the ravish'd Hair
Which adds new Glory to the shining Sphere!
Not all the Tresses that fair Head can boast
Shall draw such Envy as the Lock you lost.
For, after all the Murders of your Eye,
When, after Millions slain, your self shall die;
When those fair Suns shall sett, as sett they must,
And all those Tresses shall be laid in Dust;
This Lock, the Muse shall consecrate to Fame,
And mid'st the Stars inscribe Belinda's Name!.

[Tadiana ✩Night Owl☽ · Rating 5 out of 5]

"At ev'ry Word a Reputation dies"

"The Battle of the Beaux and Belles" by Aubrey Beardsley

One of the wittiest poems ever written, and one of my very favorites from my college English literature studies. "The Rape* of the Lock" (first published in 1712) makes good-natured fun of a real-life situation: a 21 year old Baron, Lord Robert Petre, rudely snipped off of a lock of hair from Arabella Fermor, a lovely young lady of his acquaintance, without her consent. Arabella was incensed (the situation wasn't helped when Lord Petre went and married someone else the next year), and the fall-out was causing a feud between their two prominent families.


Alexander Pope's friend John Caryll suggest that Pope write a humorous poem about the event, in the hope that it would help everyone involved to lighten up. I'm not sure he succeeded there, but this poem did make a lot of other people extremely happy.

What dire Offence from am'rous Causes springs,
What mighty Contests rise from trivial Things,
I sing — This Verse to Caryll, Muse! is due ...

Pope wrote a mock epic version of the story, with Arabella (or Belle) renamed as Belinda.

Say what strange Motive, Goddess! could compel
A well-bred Lord to assault a gentle Belle?
Oh say what stranger Cause, yet unexplored,
Could make a gentle Belle reject a Lord?

The poem follows the elaborate epic literary traditions of classics like The Iliad and Paradise Lost, but subverts them: it has supernatural beings (Bella's rather ineffective fairies), the arming of the heroine for war (with clothing, jewelry, etc.), a descent into the underworld, and an epic battle (of the sexes) where the heroine slays men with her eyes. The juxtaposition between grand ideas and trivial concerns is delightful:

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 Pray'rs, or miss a Masquerade,
Or lose her Heart, or Necklace, at a Ball ...

This poem is a bit on the long side for modern readers, and some parts are more interesting and amusing than others, but it's worth taking the time to savor it and delve into its humor and subtler meanings.

*"Rape," by the way, didn't have quite the meaning in the 1700s that it does now. I remember my English professor talking about this, and Shmoop agrees:

Words are a lot like snowballs in that respect: as they roll through history, they gather layers and layers of meanings. In the 18th century, in Pope's day, "rape" also meant to carry away or take something from someone by force... "Rape" did have a sexual connotation, but in no way as strongly as it does now. By using it in the title as the verb to describe what happens to Belinda's hair, Pope is playing on both layers of meaning: seizing something by force and personal violation.

Reportedly Arabella Fermor was quite charmed with this poem until she realized (or, more likely, it was pointed out to her by friends) that there are some rather risqué double entendres in the poem. Oops.

[Lynne King · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’ve always believed that miracles can happen and that great physical and/or mental suffering can engender greatness. This indeed proved to be the case with this splendid work by Alexander Pope.

I find Pope a fascinating individual. He was a catholic, at a time when legislation was repressive with regard to this religion; he was practically self-educated, a semi-invalid all his life, in fact he contracted Pott’s disease, a tubercular affection of the bones, which may have been transmitted through his wet-nurses milk, or through unpasteurized cow's milk. He also suffered from asthma and headaches, and his humpback was a constant target for his critics in literary battles - Pope was called a "hunchbacked toad". In middle age he was 4ft 6in tall and wore a stiffened canvas bodice to support his spine, which twisted like a question mark. Also being a catholic he knew that he could never attend university and so he spent many hours reading and writing in his father’s library during his youth.

And yet despite all of this, he was driven on with his dream to become a great poet on a par with Shakespeare, Milton, Chaucer and Spenser and a satirical one at that and by sheer doggedness and determination he achieved that with this masterpiece.

Pope was desperate for fame and his opportunity came when his friend and neighbour, John Caryll told him about a lover’s quarrel that had occurred between Arabella Fermor and Lord Petre, when the latter stealthily removed a lock of her hair with a pair of scissors but the sinful fact was that he hadn’t asked her permission. The result of this lack of decorum was a rift between the two families as the Fermor family felt slighted. There was a tacit understanding that the couple would become engaged but Lord Petre never pursued the matter and subsequently married someone else. This removal of hair was evidently seen as a significant intimate and sexual act that implied that marriage was in the air.

As Caryll was friendly with both families, he wanted Pope to write an amusing poem of the affair to reunite the two families and the outcome was this wonderful poem.

The book comprises five cantos known as An Heroi-comical Poem of Five Cantos beginning with Ariel, a sylph carefully keeping an eye on Belinda (interestingly enough Arabella was known as Bell). Pope had originally written two cantos when he was twenty three and expanded these to five over the following three years. But what is really exciting about this work is that the nine drawings (known as “embroidery” because of their finely detailed style) by Aubrey Beardsley are masterpieces in their own right. There’s a central motif running through five of them. There is a specific individual involved but I can still only find four. See if you can find them when you read the poem.

All of the couplets are excellent but the two I particularly liked were:

Of these am I, who thy Protection Claim,
A watchful Sprite, and Ariel is my Name.
Late as I rang’d the crystal Wilds of Air,
In the clear Mirror of thy ruling Star
I saw, alas! some dread Event impend,
Ere to the Main this morning’s Sun descend,
But Heav’n reveals not what, or how, or where:
Warn’d by thy Sylph, oh pious Maid beware!
This is to disclose is all thy Guardian can.
Beware of all, but most beware of Man!

and,

It grieves me much (replied the Peer again)
Who speaks so well shou’d ever speak in vain
But by this lock; this sacred Lock I swear,
(Which never more shall join its parted Hair;
Which never more its Honours shall renew,
Clipp’d from the lovely Head where late it grew)
That while my Nostrils draw the vital Air,
This Hand, which won it, shall for ever wear.
He spoke, and speaking, in proud Triumph spread
The long-contended Honours of her Head.

If you are a couplet lover then this exquisite poem will be ideal for you. I read it purely for the pleasure of reading the first time around but when I reread it I could see that throughout this amusing and satirical epic, there were layers hiding a dark side. There’s also the magical faerie aspect of the book which is enchanting and one can see that Pope was influenced by Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

I originally read this on Kindle, but I’ve ordered the hardcover today as Kindle, I believe, has not quite captured the essence of Beardsley’s remarkable and delicate drawings; also I want to find the individual who, so far, I cannot find in one of Beardsley's drawings.

Even after all these years, this is indeed a wonderful work.

[Roy Lotz · Rating 4 out of 5]

How to Write Poetry like Pope

Poetry looks hard, but it’s really not;
It is an art that has been largely forgot.
So hear me now; to me bend your ear—
The ideal pupil makes his mind a mirror.
I will lay steps, the mystery unfold
Things long-known, though never grow they old.

First of all, the grammar you must change;
The normal order of words, you rearrange.
The verb at the end, you can put.
(Really, it’s easier than it looks.)
Then sweet-sounding symmetries you find;
Put the last before, the first behind.
Once in a while you may a word elide
(That is, if the meaning is strong enough implied!)
Aphorisms next, you must create.
Something witty, snappy—but don’t prate
About morals and good conduct; simply say
What no one else can better; simply play
With words, shaking them, until a phrase
Comes out, like how Jackson Pollock paints.
A good metaphor is next; a good symbol
Is to poetry what to sewing is a thimble.
(Well, that wasn’t very good, but I suspect
You get the idea.) So what’s next?
One can an abstract image personify—
What is a Muse but inspiration disguised?
Clothe a concept in a fleshy robe
So she can walk and dance in your poem
Like a goddess. Speaking of which,
Mythology is as useful as Hephaestus’s
Gift to was Achilles—a shining Shield!
(He should have asked for armor for his heel.)
And don’t forget this tool: alliteration.
Very valuable for verdant versification.
(Sometimes a verse doesn’t have to quite make sense;
If it sounds good, it won’t cause offense.)
If you wish, you can your rhyme scheme break
Whereas before two lines, now it three takes
To a complete stanza make.
But just remember, if you meet frustration:
No tool is more valuable than inspiration.

Here concludes your lesson for today.
It can be all summed up in one word: play!
To language is poetry, what to food is spice:
Add it to make something bland taste nice.
A thought which would be boring, if expressed
Exquisitely, can be on the mind impressed.
In other words, if you master poetry,
In the minds of generations you can remembered be.

[J.G. Keely · Rating 5 out of 5]

Compared to the Nineteenth Century's Romantic movement and the Seventeenth's Shakespeare and Milton, the Eighteenth has always felt a veritable void to me. There was a little bit going on in France with Diderot and Voltaire, and some minor British works by Swift and Defoe, but by and large, Eighteenth Century literature is Fielding and Pope.

He began his inimitable wit and wordly mastery with 'An Essay on Criticism' when he was only 21. It was a varied, vivid exploration of what makes writing good, and includes such oft-quoted lines as "To err is human, to forgive divine", "A little learning is a dangerous thing", and "fools rush in where angels fear to tread".

Four years later he added his contribution to the Epic Tradition with 'The Rape of the Lock'. One of the reasons that this was a slow century for literature was that it was a century obsessed with the superficial. Like all great Epicists before him, Pope captured the spirit of his age, but in this case, instead of capturing it in a broad net of climactic action, beautiful language, and political posturing, he speared it with an acerbic tongue.

His epic was a small one, but just as Milton reinvented the genre by replacing the hero with the villain, Pope revolutionized the genre by replacing the epic with the everyday. His lampooning of the high nobility and their self-importance allied him literarily with his contemporaries, such as Voltaire, who all prefigured the social and literary revolution of the coming century.

Pope plays a very delicate instrument with his epic, often balancing a thin line between respect and ridicule: the same line the nobility had to walk every day. His linguistic and conceptual abilities shine here, as does his humor, which lies on the upper borders of the clever and the witty.

Pope had an unfortunately backward view of women, nowhere reaching the subtle implications of Milton's autoerotic Eve or Shakespeare's Cleopatra, or even the powerful women of the Greek and Roman Epics. Yet his portrayals here do not show the same bias as his 'Epistle to a Lady', since he lets his mockery fall equally on the foolish men and women of his period, and often for the same superficialities.

His later works consisted of translations and numerous political treatises, which though scathing and brilliant in their way, do not continue the philosophic and artistic exploration begun in 'An Essay on Criticism' and expanded in 'The Rape of the Lock'. The Dunciad certainly has a similar bent, but is too historo-specific to really have the same effect, so 'The Rape of The Lock' is probably the best work of the best British poet of the Eighteenth.

[Tahera · Rating 4 out of 5]

Light hearted and satirical, I feel the whole point of Alexander Pope for writing this poem was to portray the pettiness and shallowness of the society and time he was living in...the Restoration period, a time when society gave more importance to physical beauty and material things...I think he meant for this work to be simply satirical and not inspirational.

[Adam Floridia · Rating 4 out of 5]

On re-reading:

Ooooh, I do love me a good satire. I don't think I was as familiar with mythology during any of my previous readings, so I definitely picked up on more allusions this time through the mock-epic.

For those unfamiliar, this treats, in epic terms (heroic couplets and all), a most tragic event that happened to a young lady: a bold Baron covertly cuts a lustrous lock of her hair. I picture our heroine, Belinda, with her cherubic face and heavenly hair looking something like this:



which would make it understandable for her to lament "Forever cursed be this detested day, / Which snatched my best, my favorite curl away."

Some favorite zeugma (there's a lot!): "Here Britain's statesmen oft the fall foredoom / Of foreign tyrants and of nymphs at home"

And

"Whether the nymph shall break Diana's law,
Or some frail china jar receive a flaw,
O stain her honor or her brocade,
Forget her prayers, or miss a masquerade,
Or lose her heart, or necklace, at a ball,
Or whether Heaven has doomed that Shock must fall."

[Mia · Rating 2 out of 5]

Update : Not doing it just yet for me. Satirical indeed, sure, and I enjoy those. But satire for the sake of satire when you have no improvements to follow them up with is quite narrow of you. And not to mention, the hypocrisy he demonstrates while writing a mock-epic about things he calls trivial.. and yet he is choosing those only as his subject matter, adding more to the hype. Sure, he criticizes them and that makes it different. But I grieve because this man obviously had the wit and genius to use those "weapons" on better subjects, and remark/snark at society's fancies as a side dish to the main course. But to mock is his main aim, because he's so much BETTER than these people. He could've done better, been a better writer and a better man. But his goal wasn't to be didactic or to teach, it was just to ridicule.

AND his subject matter seemed to be coming from his bitterness at the world and especially women who wouldn't wanna date a hunchback. :(

These 17th century satirists. Chaucer did it better.

Update : This is getting more and more infuriating. I would've given it a chance if THAT wasn't the subject matter. But Pope continues to amaze me by being a stupid idiot buffoon. Last Canto left.

Finished :

The rest of the review deleted by Goodreads. Yeah, fuck them.

[Preetam Chatterjee · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Rape of the Lock is a remarkable lampoon, which gives Pope the title to immensity. Pope affirms that the rationale of the poem "is to laugh at the little unguarded follies of the female sex." Even so, he merely does not snicker at them; he seems to take pleasure in intentional derision and even odious repartee cloaked underneath a slender swathe of drollness and slapstick.

In The Rape of the Lock, Pope has created a universe with its own laws, its own method of maneuver. The landscape here is a fine lady's dressing room. The the kit of feminine egotism is seen in the perplexing and disfigured glow of the poet's lampoon.

This is a spoof on the early life of London beauty. We see Belinda opulently slumbering on pending midday, when her lap-dog Shock arouses her. We are present at her toilet and, watch the advancement of "the Sacred rites of pride". We see her with a gay party on its way up the Thames to Hampton Court, jovial with detachment upon the well dressed youths that crowd about her - the very type of sparkle, diplomacy and coquetry. We follow the party through the game of cards and the coffee, until we reach the tragic cataclysm of things which we think of as trifling and commonplace. Pope proposes the narcissism and inconsequentiality of this life by suggesting a contrast with the disdainful decorum of the large standard of the heroic age.

The poem is not only a satire on the inconsequential; it is effectual as a sham on the transcendent. Its smartness consists chiefly in placing the sacred or the admirable on an ostensible parity with the trifling of the ridiculous.

The reader is amused because all commonplace regulars are changed; the disorder comes as a fright to us. We hear in the same breath of the State Councils and the tea­drinking of a queen, of the deaths of husbands and lap-dogs, of the disregard of prayers and the failure of a masquerade. We are entertained by a turnaround of moral and spiritual ideas and in its broadminded pessimism - the trivial becomes enormous, the enormous trivial.

There is no doubt that Pope had influence of observing the petite weaknesses in all persons, principally the women of rank and fashion. Moreover, this power of inspection was coupled with an antagonism. This is indicated by the premeditated double meanings of many of his expressions and of the plain innuendos of others.

The poem is a satire upon feminine giddiness.

[Abubakar Mehdi · Rating 4 out of 5]

It is a masterpiece of satire in English literature.

[Erik Graff · Rating 2 out of 5]

We were ordered to read this thing in senior English. It was a bad choice. Perhaps our teacher thought we'd think it funny while appreciating how subtle our understanding had become by virtue of having read the classical sources which Pope imitates. Well, we could see how he was trying to be funny, but humor evolves with culture and no one laughed. Besides, the original intention of the poem was personal, referring to actual persons and events which might have meant something to his readership, but meant nothing to us.

[Garth · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Rape of the Lock is a humorous indictment of the vanities and idleness of 18th-century high society. Basing his poem on a real incident among families of his acquaintance, Pope intended his verses to cool hot tempers and to encourage his friends to laugh at their own folly.

The poem is perhaps the most outstanding example in the English language of the genre of mock-epic. The epic had long been considered one of the most serious of literary forms; it had been applied, in the classical period, to the lofty subject matter of love and war, and, more recently, by Milton, to the intricacies of the Christian faith. The strategy of Pope’s mock-epic is not to mock the form itself, but to mock his society in its very failure to rise to epic standards, exposing its pettiness by casting it against the grandeur of the traditional epic subjects and the bravery and fortitude of epic heroes: Pope’s mock-heroic treatment in The Rape of the Lock underscores the ridiculousness of a society in which values have lost all proportion, and the trivial is handled with the gravity and solemnity that ought to be accorded to truly important issues. The society on display in this poem is one that fails to distinguish between things that matter and things that do not. The poem mocks the men it portrays by showing them as unworthy of a form that suited a more heroic culture. Thus the mock-epic resembles the epic in that its central concerns are serious and often moral, but the fact that the approach must now be satirical rather than earnest is symptomatic of how far the culture has fallen.

Pope’s use of the mock-epic genre is intricate and exhaustive. The Rape of the Lock is a poem in which every element of the contemporary scene conjures up some image from epic tradition or the classical world view, and the pieces are wrought together with a cleverness and expertise that makes the poem surprising and delightful. Pope’s transformations are numerous, striking, and loaded with moral implications. The great battles of epic become bouts of gambling and flirtatious tiffs. The great, if capricious, Greek and Roman gods are converted into a relatively undifferentiated army of basically ineffectual sprites. Cosmetics, clothing, and jewelry substitute for armor and weapons, and the rituals of religious sacrifice are transplanted to the dressing room and the altar of love.

The verse form of The Rape of the Lock is the heroic couplet; Pope still reigns as the uncontested master of the form. The heroic couplet consists of rhymed pairs of iambic pentameter lines (lines of ten syllables each, alternating stressed and unstressed syllables). Pope’s couplets do not fall into strict iambs, however, flowering instead with a rich rhythmic variation that keeps the highly regular meter from becoming heavy or tedious. Pope distributes his sentences, with their resolutely parallel grammar, across the lines and half-lines of the poem in a way that enhances the judicious quality of his ideas. Moreover, the inherent balance of the couplet form is strikingly well suited to a subject matter that draws on comparisons and contrasts: the form invites configurations in which two ideas or circumstances are balanced, measured, or compared against one another. It is thus perfect for the evaluative, moralizing premise of the poem, particularly in the hands of this brilliant poet.

[Diamond Cowboy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this epic poem very much. Pope speaks of a women's vanity and the adoration of man for her. He is very tongue in cheek. I recommend this poem to all. It is very light compaired to the other poems in this jenre.

[Pink · Rating 2 out of 5]

It was okay, but a bit boring. Oh and also not at all what I thought it would be about! I guess I was concentrating more on the word 'rape' than 'lock'. My mistake.

[W]

A mock heroic epic which I hated because there was no choice but to read it as part of a literature course.

Felt so totally irrelevant.

[Raquel · Rating 4 out of 5]

«"Restore the Lock!" she cries; and all around / “Restore the Lock!" the vaulted roofs rebound. / Not fierce Othello in so loud a strain / Roar’d for the handkerchief that caus'd his pain.»

The Rape of the Lock has been a pleasant surprise for a mandatory reading. A long poem (five cantos - almost 800 lines) in the mock-epic genre, The Rape of the Lock satirises eighteenth-century English upper-classes by giving an epic account of a somewhat trivial real event (Lord Petre stealing of a lock of hair from Arabella Fermor's head), mocking but trying to heal the rift between those two Catholic landowner families.

I have very much enjoyed reading and analysing Pope’s style –using pompous and heroic language for a trivial matter–, form (heroic couplet) and the literary devices used in the poem; and especially the allusions to Greek and Roman mythology, epic classics, Shakespeare, and Milton’s Paradise Lost.
I loved the mastery of Pope portraying eighteenth-century high society by creating an epic poem about supernatural forces helping heroes and heroines, with battles and even a journey to the underworld. But in this instance, with beaux and belles who relish on going to parties and put on makeup, minor spirits (sylphs and gnomes) who help them with day-to-day matters (guardians of their earrings and robes), and with a battleground that is just a card-game table, and latter a tea party where the weapons are powders and hairpins.

I don't know if I will have the time needed to continue reading more of Alexander Pope's works this year, but I'm sure I will come back to his poetry as soon as possible.

«For when success a Lover's toil attends, / Few ask, if fraud or force attain'd his ends»

Required reading. I read the version from The Norton Anthology of English Literature, Vol. C: The Restoration & the Eighteenth Century

[Meem Arafat Manab · Rating 5 out of 5]

কবিতা একটা সমস্যা আমার কাছে, এর একটা কারণ হইলো গিয়ে, কবিতার সংজ্ঞা আমার কাছে পরিষ্কার না। এই বস্তু এতবার চেহারা পাল্টাইছে, এতবার, আজকের দিনেই দেখেন না, শাহ মুহম্মদ সগীরেরে কি আজকের আন্দাজে কবি বলা যায়? বা এদানীং-এর কাউরে তখন টেনে নিয়ে গিয়ে যদি ছেড়ে দেই? এর চেয়ে গল্প নিয়ে, উপন্যাস নিয়ে কথা বলা কত সহজ, তখনো মতানৈক্য থাকে, থাকবে, কিন্তু অন্তত স্পষ্ট করে দেয়া যায় যে আমি কী ধরনের কাজ খুঁজি বা চাই, বা আমার চিন্তার গতিপ্রকৃতি আদপে কী রকম।

রেইপ অফ দা লক আমি কিনলাম মনে হয় একটা পুরান বইয়ের দোকান থেকে এক সপ্তাহ হইছে কি হয় নাই। তখনো জানতাম না এই বই কী নিয়ে, ভুলেও তখনো ভাবি নাই যে এই কবিতার বিষয়ঘাট আসলে খোপা চুরি যাওয়া। কবে পড়া হইত কে জানে, কিন্তু একজন বললেন, না, বইটা নাকী বেশ ভালো, পড়ে ফেললাম তখন।

সেই আমলের লোকের অদ্ভূত সব আচরণরে বিদ্রুপ করে গেছেন কবি একদিকে, আর আরেকদিকে সে কি বয়ান, খোদা। মধুমাখা বয়ান না কোনো, কিন্তু সুন্দর। টীকার দিকে যদি চোখ থাকে, তাহলে বিদ্রুপ আর ঐ প্রাক্তনদের দিকে ছুড়ে দেয়া আঙুলই চোখে পড়বে, কিন্তু তাহলে আবার আপনার হয়ত ভাষার দিকে খেয়াল থাকবে না। পড়ে যাওয়া যায়, দ্বিপদী কাব্যের মাঝ দিয়ে কী তীব্র এক খোঁচা চলে যাচ্ছে তড়তড় করে, চোখেই পড়ে না যেনো, যখনই বা পড়ে, অবাক হয়ে যেতে হয়।
চমৎকার কবিতা। পোপের একটা রেসিপি ছিলো ধ্রুপদী কবিতা নিয়ে, যেখানে সে ধ্রুপদী কবিদের এক হাত দলে দিছে, কিন্তু এই কবিতাটারে সেই ধারার অংশ বলে মনে হইলো না, বরং সন্দেহ হয়, এইটাই মনে হয় সেই যুগের সত্যিকারের ধ্রুপদ, সেই যুগের বিষয়াশয় ত আসলে এইগুলিই।

যা বলতেছিলাম, কবিতা নিয়ে কথা বলতে খুব সমস্যা, এই কবিতা ভালো লাগলো, ছন্দের কারণে, বক্তব্যও মন্দ না, খোঁচাগুলি প্রচণ্ড তীব্র, এই সব মিলায়ে। কিন্তু তবুও, অনেকের ক্ষেত্রে হয়ত আবার খাটবে না এসব কিছুই।

১৭১২-র টুকুও জুড়ে দেয়া ছিলো শেষে। সন্দেহ হচ্ছে, ঐটাই হয়ত ভালো ছিলো আরো, আরো সহজে আগায়, আরো সহজে বলে দেয় সব। পরে পড়াতে বলতে পারতেছি না, তাছাড়া ১৭১৪-রটায় ত এর প্রায় পুরোটাই আছে ভেতরে ভেতরে।
অরজিনাল মালিক বইটারে দাগায়ে খেয়ে ফেলছে। দাগগুলিও সুন্দর, গালমন্দও করতে পারতেছি না আমি।

[Himanshu Karmacharya · Rating 4 out of 5]

“Charms strike the sight, but merit wins the soul.”

The Rape of the Lock is a satirical poem about the battle that ensues after a woman's lock of hair is cut and stolen without her permission. This is actually based on a real life event.

The poem is written beautifully and the satire is on point, mocking the materialism and shallowness of the, then modern society, which unfortunately is still prevalent today.

[Monika · Rating 5 out of 5]

A rift between the Fermors and the Petres drive The Rape of the Lock. This mock-heroic poem is resplendent and catching in its own way. At the first reading, it didn't give me much. But as I continued reading it again and again, it started unfurling itself.

[Vysh]

confused

[aída · Rating 1 out of 5]

i would rather eat a pair of jeans than reading something like this again. torture

[andreea. · Rating 2 out of 5]

.

[Lada · Rating 4 out of 5]

Alexander Pope ( 1688-1744) is a clasical English poet. He lived in the age of classical values and predilections, pure beauty, grand style, the majestic castle Hampton court and its balls. In his Rape of the Lock he criticised false values of the conventional society of Queeen Anne's reign. He puts it to mock heroic parody, imitating heroic style only debasing it and treating it sneeringly. The verse is blankverse, typically English inheritance, which abounds in alliterations present from early English mediaeval poetry but here it has the effect of epic seriousness only debased by subject matter.
The Rape of the Lock is a poem of five Cantos where in a grand manner, in form and content like Homeric epics, Pope presented the fall of the most beautiful girl from high society. It is like Paris taking away Helen, and the consequence of this action , only it is in London high society and the quarrel it ensued from the rape.
The sinister event happened on one evening but was prepard by Arial and his company of phanthoms, sylphs and fays moved to supplication of one baron enamorous of Belinda, the most beautiful girl in balls of the season and happily owning two ravishingly beautiful locks of hair.
The action is like an enchantment, openly so to the extent that the subject matter is treated disparigingly, singing about deeds and actions of conquest og a beautiful mortal, the poet presents the preparation of going to the ball, like dressed to kill, by

enchantment and wichcraft, and prophetic dreams like seeng beaux.
The principal action, the scene of combat is one ball in Hampton court which
Structures of majestic frame where Thou great Anna, doest sometimes counsel take and sometimes tea.Antiphrasis, Zeugmas, antitheses, oxymores and chiasmes are frequeent stylistic features of this mock heroic epic which puts on the same level grand and futile and blatantly so that it becomes artificial at times. Homer himself visits this scene,: of conquest and fall, A pipkin there, like Homer's tripod walks;Here sighs a jar, and there a goose-pie talks:Men prove with child, as powerful fancy works, And maids turn'd bottles call aloud for corks. For there is a war which is ensued in this athmosphere of shallowness, salon talk, affactation and futility which comes down to defending locks and taking it back, with girls and beaux enchanting each other, killing each other, reviving each other in constant play.
The end is impredictable, borrowong Ariosto's only in a mock heroic fashion. The lock is taken away on higher sphere to be preserved for eternity.
The English do not boast of classical literature. This is a Salon comedy. Amusement satire of high class society.The girl taken as goddess and the aristocrat like a knight from olden times, where lapdogs and husbands equally feared and taken care of. The classic, whose author is proud of the knowledge of the past only not so proud of his contemporary world. This short epic poem can be pleasurably read and reread for the enjoyment of love conquest and subdual to it

[Thomas · Rating 3 out of 5]

An entertaining mock-epic concerning women, wealth, and society. Pope's florid writing style concerning such a trivial subject - a woman having her hair cut off - emphasizes the themes within The Rape of the Lock, such as women's superficial facades in that time period. I gleaned more from discussion in class than I did while reading it on my own, so I would recommend reading about the poem's cultural context or talking about it with a friend, peer, teacher, or professor.

[Katie · Rating 2 out of 5]

I think I need to read this again. I didn't really get it. I yawned a lot.

[Ioan · Rating 1 out of 5]

In my opinion; load of bollocks. People must only pretend to enjoy this. First two cantos, enjoyable and he actually says what’s happening. Next few, just random sprites, who haven’t yet been mentioned, rocking up, flitting between the real world and some ethereal plain? without explanation, I mean there’s leaving parts up to the imagination, and then there’s this.

            Enough times he has given up on his rhyming scheme, and too many times for my liking the rhythm goes completely awry. Though sometimes it flows well and rhymes well too, far too often it doesn’t only fail to sound pleasing, but sounds displeasing, whether I understand the contents well enough is by the by, when the poem itself sounds borderline abrasive.

             There isn’t just sexism present, nor is it merely common, the poem is founded on sexism, and rife with it; in fact it seems to just be an attack on women whilst he says “it was intended only to divert a few young ladies, who have sense and good humour enough, to laugh not only at their sex’s little unguarded follies, but at their own”. It’s a shit attack on women, which just proves, maybe they should have been allowed/it shouldn’t have been taboo for them to write poetry sooner.

             Wasted my time!

[vin · Rating 4 out of 5]

what cracked me up was pope describing visions of mpregnancy

[Juliet · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some parts were funny but wayyyyyy too wordy for no reason

[Steven Godin · Rating 4 out of 5]

"The goddess with a discontented Air
Seems to reject him, tho' she grants his Pray'r.
A wondrous Bag with both her Hands she binds,
Like that where once Ulysses held the Winds;
There she collects the Force of Female Lungs,
Sighs, Sobs, and Passions, and the War of Tongues.
A Vial next she fills with fainting Fears,
Soft Sorrows, melting Griefs, and flowing Tears.
The Gnome rejoicing bears her Girts away,
Spreads his black Wings, and slowly mounts Today.
Sunk in Thalestris' Arms the Nymph he found,
Her Eyes dejected and her Hair unbound"

[Veronika · Rating 1 out of 5]

I know it's probably on me that this didn't work for me, but I just can't give it more than 1 star. Maybe if I wasn't forced into reading it for literature.