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Answer:-
Samuel
Johnson’s “Lives of the Poets” is a landmark in English biographical writing
and the particular biography of the “Life of Pope” has been highly regarded it
as “The Best of his Lives” and Boswell praised it as the richest the most
beautiful and the most perfect of his life. This biography was published in
1761 and it is easily the most satisfactory of the lives ever written. Johnson
had a sound sense of Pope’s merit as a poet, his understood Pope’s personality better than anyone else
did. “The richness of the life of Pope arises from the more elaborate and
detailed treatment of the facts and figures of Pope’s life of which Dr. Johnson
had a firsthand knowledge acquired with diligence (hard work) from numerous
sources. This is because a number of close contemporaries of Pope were known of
Johnson as well from whom he could collect much more accurate information than
from the other lives. There is a lot of biographical information and the
analysis of Pope’s character, personality and poetic gifts together with the
discussion of at least the major poem of Popes makes it remarkable.
Johnson’s “Life of Pope” is closely devisable
into three parts. In part I he gives an account of the life and career of Pope
and the various quarrels in which he was engaged. Part II his devoted to a
consideration of the character of Pope and in Part III Johnson examines
critically the various work of Pope and makes an assessment of his poetic
achievement. From the very beginning of his career, Pope was a remarkable
genius and was a precious child. At the early age of Pope translated a part of Ovid’s
“Metamorphosis” which was a rare feat (epic) at that tender age. He had in born
poetic gifts’. From the very beginning Pope had great attraction for Dryden and
his earliest published poem “Ode to Solitude” shows considerable influence of
driven. In the only early part of his life Pope overcame the problems of his
financial security by translating the two epics of Homer, “Iliad” and “Odyssey”
which were among the most successful epics of the 18th century. It
was the composition of his Pastorals at the age of 16 which ultimately
announced a definite beginning of Pope as a great poet. In all these poetic
creations in the early part of his life highlights the mark of future genius of
a poet like Pope. Dr. Johnson was once asked whether Pope was a poet and he
asked in return, “If Pope be not poet, where is poetry to be found?” still Pope
cannot be regarded as the greatest poet or poet on the first rank. His poetry
suffers from a number of draw backs, first of all he cannot sing; he has no
ears melodies of verse. Secondly, he
is not a lyric poet; he locked the intensity, spontaneity, music and melody of
a lyric poet like Shelly or Keats. Thirdly,
his poetry is limited, he has no eye like Wordsworth for the beauties of Nature
and 4th ly epic and drama
which are regarded the greatest forms of poetry but Pope cannot rise up to them
or compose them like Shakespeare or Milton.
Within these limitations mentions above, Pope
is certainly one of the greatest poets of England. In the words of Dennis, “Pope’s
sensibility to the claims of his art is exquisite; the adoption of his style to
his subject shows the hand of a master.” In other words Pope takes the
first page in the second order of
English poets. Every writers of his age is influenced by his style and poetic
imagination. Pope’s age demanded from him wit, refinement and correctness of
words and there is no doubt that Pope is wittier, more refine and more correct than
anyone else.
Pope possessed all the qualities which constitute
a great poet. He had invention which forms new sequence of events and displays
new images as in “The Rape of the Lock”. It is a brilliant exposition of mock
heroic verse and it amply demonstrates Pope’s ability to sustain satire in
lengthy stretches of narrative verse. It is this power of invention which
enables the poet to connect various illustrations with the main subject. Pope
displayed this art of narrative writings “Essays on Criticism”, Pope’s “An
Epistle to Dr. Arbuthnot” is based on his autobiographical elements where he
comments on his poor health and parentage. Pope also had a strong imagination
which he revealed in the poems like “Windsor Forest” and “The Ethic Epistles”.
In this way Dr. Johnson provided a complete life sketch of Alexander Pope and
it is the most perfect specimen of Johnson’s biographical criticism.
Q-2: Discuss Pope one of the
greatest satirist of English Literature. Or “Personal and social causes
combine together make Pope one of the greatest satirist of England” Discuss. Or
“Pope was a satirist not by nature, but by circumstances- “Discuss”
Answer:-
“The Life of Pope” is the
most perfect specimen of Dr. Johnson’s biographical criticism. Because with all
his prejudice and particularities, he has been able to present a true, vivid
and complete account of Pope’s life, his nature and character, his poetic gifts
and achievements. Pope has been regarded as one of perfect satirist of English
Literature and it is true fact that satire and mockery predominates in the
works of Pope. Even a glance at his poetic creation reveals that the major part
of Pope’s poetic contribution consists of satire or is satiric in spirit. “The
Rape of the Lock”, “The Dunciad”, “Moral essays”, “The Epistle to Dr. Arbuthnot”,
and “Epistle of Horace” are the best of his satires.
There were various factors
which gave a satiric turn to genius of Pope. The spirit of the period fevered
the growth of this literary pattern. More over it was believed that the
function of literature is not merely to entertain but also to reform the
society. The contemporary authors of Pope tried to improve the manners and
morals of the people. Thus the aim of Addison and Steele was to enliven
morality with wit and wit with morality. The result was the predominance of
satire in the literary field and Pope couldn’t escaped the influenced of his
age.
The circumstances of Pope’s
life and his character compelled him to become a satirist. He suffered from a
number of disabilities, weakness and ill health. His life was a long disease
and he also suffered much at the hands of his enemies who left neither his
family nor his creative work and also his physical deformities. His ill health
made him ill tempered. He was quick to take oftenest and was extremely
vindictive. The aim of much of his satires is to cause pain to his enemies and to take revenge
upon them. His vindictive nature did not spare even ladies with whom he had
once been on family farms. Pope had a cunning nature. The planed his attack
with great cunningness because he used sweet decorative words to defame his
enemies. Moreover he was a Catholic and Catholics in that age suffered from a
number of hardships. They couldn’t lead a full, normal life, Pope wanted to
have his revenge upon the Protestants who were the cause of their misery. He
therefore used the weapon of satire to have revenge upon them.
Many of the evils of contemporary
social life where intolerant to Pope and he satire them. Particularly in his
“Rape of the Lock”, which has been praised by his friends and enemies alike.
“The Rape of the Lock” is a brilliant exposition of mock heroic verse and it
perfectly demonstrates Pope Ability to sustain satire in a long narrative
verse.
This masterpiece is unique
because it mocks at the maximum amount of the epic. The mockery of the epic is
an old as the epic itself. So Pope was doing nothing new but he was doing what had
already been done before. But he dealt with the subject with complete
perfection, delicacy and wit. It expresses the subject matter in the most
refined and purest form with the sentiments and characteristics of the age. Its
language is the distilled essence of drawing room conversation. It has the
boldness, brilliance and the rapidity of movement of that sophisticated conversation. The poem has
been regarded as the classic of the mock epic as well as the epitome of the
time.
In his social satire Pope
has ridiculed the follies of the ladies of his contemporary period. His
“Dunciad” is Pope wrote the mock epic to hate his revenge on all those who had
criticized him unjustly.
The personal circumstances
did contribute to his fascination for satire. But, it was also the inspiration
he received from his demitted loyal circle of French who helped him immensely.
William Wales, Richard Steele, Jonathon Swift and Dr. Arbuthnot were some of
the members of the group. Throughout his poetic career, Pope faced criticism
from various sources. His edition of Shakespeare was not appreciated by the
public. His translations of Homer too were not well spread. In an age where
satire was one of the most used aesthetic tools of both defense an attack, Pope
wrote satirical verses that reflected his brilliance. His aim was to reform the
society with some witty remarks. Pope experimented with a variety of style
which dealt the subjects like social corruption and human nature. Pope’s range
of poetic experimentation was unparallel in the 18th century.
In short Pope’s own
temperament, a number of social factors, hostile attack on his personality and
his poetry conditioned his genius and gave it a satirical turn. He works diligently
and his perfection of diction and versification raised him to the rank of one
of the greatest satirist in English Literature.
Note: This note is only for a little help and better understanding, you should add some more to get score marks & advised to read the main text. By P.B.