The Rape of the Lock, and Other Poems

Pope inserted these lines in a late revision in 1717, in order, as he said, to open more clearly the moral of the poem. The speech of Clarissa is a parody of a famous speech by...

'Tis hard to say, if greater want of skill Appear in writing or in judging ill; But, of the two, less dang'rous is th' offence To tire our patience, than mislead our sense. Some...

But anxious cares the pensive nymph oppressed, And secret passions laboured in her breast. Not youthful kings in battle seized alive, Not scornful virgins who their charms survi...

Close by those meads, for ever crown'd with flow'rs, Where Thames with pride surveys his rising tow'rs, There stands a structure of majestic frame, Which from the neighb'ring Ha...

But anxious cares the pensive nymph oppress'd, And secret passions labour'd in her breast. Not youthful kings in battle seiz'd alive, Not scornful virgins who their charms survi...

Hampton Court, a palace on the Thames, a few miles above London. It was begun by Wolsey, and much enlarged by William III. Queen Anne visited it occasionally, and cabinet meetin...

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?...

What dire offence from am'rous causes springs, What mighty contests rise from trivial things, I sing--This verse to CARYL, Muse! is due: This, ev'n Belinda may vouchsafe to view...

the word is used here as a personification of melancholy, or low spirits. It was not an uncommon affectation in England at this time. A letter to the 'Spectator', No. 53, calls...

What dire offence from am'rous causes springs, What mighty quarrels rise from trivial things, I sing--This verse to C--l, Muse! is due: This, ev'n Belinda may vouchsafe to view:...

Not with more glories, in th' etherial plain, The Sun first rises o'er the purpled main, Than, issuing forth, the rival of his beams Launch'd on the bosom of the silver Thames....

Pope opens his mock-epic with the usual epic formula, the statement of the subject. Compare the first lines of the 'Iliad', the 'AEneid', and 'Paradise Lost'. In l. 7 he goes on...

these romances were the customary reading of society in Pope's day when there were as yet no English novels. Some of them were of enormous length. Addison found several of them...

the deities that preside over a lady's toilet. Note the playful satire with which Pope describes Belinda's toilet as if it were a religious ceremony. Who is "th' inferior priest...