" How happy is the blameless vestal's lot!
The world forgetting, by the world forgot.
Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind!
Each pray'r accepted, and each wish resign'd"
Beautiful!!! Who here likes Pope?
peace
Alexander Pope
" How happy is the blameless vestal's lot!
The world forgetting, by the world forgot.
Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind!
Each pray'r accepted, and each wish resign'd"
Beautiful!!! Who here likes Pope?
peace
From the movie right?
What I have read of him I have not really liked.
"bruised reed" Isaiah 42:3
Me likes Pope very much
All sudden Gorgons hiss, and Dragons glare,
And ten-horn'd fiends and Giants rush to war.
Hell rises, Heav'n descends, and dance on Earth;
Gods, imps, and monsters, music, rage, and mirth,
A fire, a jigg, a battle, and a ball,
'Till one wide conflagration swallows all.
Thence a new world to Nature's laws unknown,
Breaks out refulgent, with a heav'n its own.
(from the satire The Dunciad (1728), B III 235-42)
Yet graceful Ease, and Sweetness void of Pride,
Might hide her Faults, if Belles had Faults to hide:
If to her share some Female Errors fall,
Look on her Face, and you'll forget 'em all.
(canto II, Rape of the Lock)
I haven't read him for a few years, not since studying him, but I remember really liking him at the time. There's a wealth of famous quotes which come from him, which some people may not realise.
A little learning is a dangerous thing; Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring.
Fools rush in where angels fear to tread.
Hope springs eternal in the human breast: Man never is, but always To be Blest.
Nature and nature's laws lay hid in night. God said, Let Newton be! and all was light!
To err is human; to forgive, divine.
Wit is the lowest form of humour.
etc. Excellent stuff. I really should dig out my books on him. That's the trouble with this forum, being reminded of great writers to return to, or finding new ones to try. As if my TBR piles aren't high enough as it is.
I have recently found that Pope is the third most quoted poet in English literature, after Shakespeare and Tennyson if I'm not wrong
aha, aye, it is a frustrating occurrenceOriginally Posted by wessexgirl
That's the trouble with this forum, being reminded of great writers to return to, or finding new ones to try. As if my TBR piles aren't high enough as it is
I'm not sure, but I feel that what draws me to Pope is his meter, and relevant rhetoric that never loses its vibrancy, whatever the subject.
Also the first poet to make money from his trade I believe, I think he started by translating foreign books? I can't be sure.
Peace
Read the Rape of the Lock in college. Liked it. It seemed to me to be more than satire - also a celebration of the human imagination.
Didn't he also write translations of the Iliad and Odyssey?
Last edited by David R; 08-19-2009 at 05:03 PM.
As works with his name on them he translated The Iliad and The Odyssey, but he had written a poem before that, "An Essay on Criticism", which was first published anonymously on 15 May 1711. It took him about three years to give the poem its final shape.
His translation of the Iliad appeared between 1715 and 1720. It was acclaimed by Samuel Johnson as "a performance which no age or nation could hope to equal". Pope's translation of The Odyssey appeared in 1726, but this time he worked with William Broome and Elijah Fenton. He himself translated twelve books, Broome eight and Fenton four.
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