You will read selected critical statements, You will reflect on the ways these critical statements have influenced literary analyses.
In Alexander Pope’s, “An Essay on Criticism”Select, use one of the critical statements (theories) studied to interpret the work (one page). I have attached the document.
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1380
ALEXANDER POPE
of rhyming pairs of iambic pentameter lines, Pope was able to vary the mood and tone of his work
enormously, and to convey the richness of the society he saw around him. Pope died at his villa in
Twickenham, surrounded by numerous friends.
from
An Essay on Criticism
An Essay on Criticism,
Pope’s second major poem,
established him as a leading poet of his day. Samuel
Johnson, in his biography of Pope, declared that
even if Pope “had written nothing else;,”
An Essay on
Criticism
“would have placed him among the first
critics and the first poets, as it exhibits every mode
of excellence that can embellish or dignify didactic
composition.” The poem reflects the range of Pope’s
reading, including all
r
the well-known English,
French, and Latin poets, as well as many Greek
poets in the original. Pope’s discursive essay in verse
is in the traditionof Horace’s
Ars Poetica( The Art of
Poetry)
and French poet Nicolas Boileau’s
Art
Poetique
(1674). Like these poems, the
Essay on
Criticism
uses simple and conversational language.
It draws together a range of historical arid
intellectual knowledge, but does not aim for novelty;
instead, it attempts to express generally accepted
doctrines in a pleasing style, setting out precepts in
language that exemplifies the precepts themselves.
Covering topics from divinity to freedom of the
press to everyday follies, the poem is characterized
by its lively style, by its wide range of comic
expression, and by its use of maxim and epigram.
Many
phrases in the poem have become
proverbial?notable among them, line 625, “For
fools rush in where angels fear to- tread,” and line
525, “To err is human, to forgive, divine.”
An Essay on Criticism
consists of three parts. The
first describes an Edenic, golden e
:
ra of art and
criticism exemplified by Homer and other classical
writers, considered to be especially well placed to
observe Nature directly and reflect it in:their art.
The subject of the poem’s second part is the decay
and disorder Pope observes in the criticism of his
day, which he attributes very largely to the divisive,
1
egotistic nature of critics. The third part sets out a
Pope’s goals are generally conciliatory, and he
attempts to accommodate seemingly conflicting
artistic values and views, there were nonetheless
several people who took offense to parts of the
poem. Many of Pope*s fellow Catholics objected to
his critical representation of their Church, and
Pope’s mocking allusions to dramatist John Dennis
(1658-1734) sparked a public feud between the two
that would last through both of their careers?the
first of many such literary feuds Pope’s writing
would instigate.
An Essay on Criticism
PART i
V I *is hard to say, if greater want of skill
X Appear in writing or in judging ill;
But of the two less dang’rous is th’offense
To tire our patience than mislead our sense.
5
Some few in that, but numbers err in this,
Ten censure wrong for one who writes amiss;
A fool might once himself alone expose,
,
c
, Now one in ver
t
se makes many more in prose.
‘Tis with our judgments as our watches, none
10
Go just alike, yet each believes his own.
In poets as true genius is but rare,
True taste as seldom is the critic’s share;
Both must alike from Heaven derive their light,
These born to judge, as well as those to write.
15
Let such teach others who themselves excel,
And censure freely who have written well.
Authors are partial to their wit, ’tis true,
But are not critics to their judgment too?
Yet if we look more closely, we shall find
20
Most have the seeds of judgment in their mind:
Nature affords at least a glimm’ring light;
View the Answer
Is by ill colouring but the more disgraced,
So by false learning is good sense defaced:
Some are bewildered in the maze of schools,
And some made coxcombs Nature meant but fools.
In search of wit these lose their common sense,
And then turn critics in their own defence:
Each burns alike, who can, or cannot write,
Or
0
with a rival’s, or an eunuch’s spite.
Either
All fools have still an itching to deride,
And fain would be upon the laughing side.
If Maevius
1
scribble in Apollo’s
2
spite,
There are who judge still worse than he can write.
Some have at first for wits, then poets passed,
Turned critics next, and proved plain fools at last.
Some neither can for wits nor critics pass,
As heavy mules are neither horse nor ass.
Those half-learned witlings, num’rous in our isle,
As half-formed insects on the banks of Nile;
Unfinished things, one knows not what to call,
Their generation’s so equivocal:
To tell
0
them would a hundred tongues require,
count
Or one vain wit’s, that might a hundred tire.
But you who seek to give and merit fame,
And justly bear a critic’s noble name,
Be sure yourself and your own reach to know,
How far your genius, taste, and learning go;
Launch not beyond your depth, but be discreet,
And mark that point where sense and dullness meet.
Nature to all things fixed the limits fit,
And wisely curbed proud man’s pretending
0
wit.
aspiring
As on the land while here the ocean gains,
In other parts it leaves wide sandy plains;
Thus in the soul while memory prevails,
The solid power of understanding fails;
Where beams of warm imagination play,
The memory’s soft figures melt away.
One science only will one genius fit,
So Vast is art,
0
so harrow human wit:
scholarship
Not only bounded to peculiar arts,
But oft in those confined to single parts.
Like kings we lose the conquests gained before,
1
Maevius
Notorious critic of the Augustan age who attacked,
among others, Virgil (70-19 BCE) and Horace (65-8 BCE).
2
Apollo
In classical mythology, the god of poetry and the arts,
among other things.
65
By vain ambition still
0
to make them more;
always
Each might his sev’ral province well command,
Would all but stoop to what they understand.
First follow Nature, and your judgment frame
By her just standard, which is still the same;
70
Unerring Nature, still divinely bright,
One clear, unchanged, and universal light, *
Life, force, and beauty must to all impart.
At once the source, and end, and test of art.
Art from that fund each just supply provides,
75
Works without show, and without pomp presides.
In some fair body thus th’informing
0
soul
animating
With spirits feeds, with vigour fills the whole,
Each motion guides, and every nerve sustains;
Itself unseen, but in th’effects remains.
so
Some, to whom Heaven in wit has been profuse,
Want as much more to turn it to its use;
For wit and judgment often are at strife,
Though meant each other’s aid, like man and wife.
Tis more to guide than spur the Muse’s steed,
85
Restrain his fury than provoke his speed;
The winged courser,
3
like a gen’rous
0
horse,
thoroughbred
Shows most true mettle
0
when you check his
character
course.
Those rules of old discovered, not devised,
Are Nature still, but Nature methodized;
90
Nature, like liberty, is but restrained
By the same laws which first herself ordained.
You then whose judgment the right course would
steer,
Know well each ancient’s proper character;
His fable,
0
subject, scope
0
in every page;
story, plot/purpose
Religion, country, genius of his age:
Without all these at once before your eyes,
Cavil you may, but never criticize.
Be Homer’s
4
works your study and delight,
Read them by day, and meditate by night;
Thence form your judgment, thence your maxims
bring,
And trace the Muses upward to their spring.
3
courser
I.e., .Pegasus, a winged horse of classical mythology
associated with Muses and poetic inspiration.
4
Homer
Ancient Greek epic poet (c. 8th century BCE).
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Essay on Criticism by Alexander Pope
In Essay on Criticism, Alexander Pope suggests that poets and critics should follow
general rules and principles of poetry… Here is a detailed explanation… View the full answer