• Epic: An epic (from Greek: έπος or επικό "word, story, poem") is a lengthy narrative poem, usually concerning a serious subject containing details of heroic deeds and events significant to a culture or nation.
• Mock-Heroic works are typically satires or parodies that mock common Classical stereotypes of heroes and heroic literature. Typically, mock-heric works invert the heroic work by either putting a fool in the role of the hero or by exaggeration the heroic qualities to such a point that they become absurd.
• Rhyming Couplet A couplet is a pair of lines of verse. It usually consists of two lines that rhyme and have the same meter. Traditionally, couplets are smart rhyme, although not all couplets rhyme (a poem may use white space to mark out couplets as well). Couplets with a meter of iambic pentameter are called heroic couplets. The poetic epigram is also in the couplet form. Couplets can also appear in more complex rhyme schemes. For example, Shakespearean sonnets end with a couplet.
4.6.1 An extract from “The Rape of a Lock” (Canto Lines 1-26)
Poetic Conventions in The Rape of the Lock
• Invocation of the Muse: In Greek mythology there were nine muses, all sisters, who were believed to inspire poets, historians, flutists, dancers, singers, astronomers, philosophers and other thinkers and artists. In “The Rape of the Lock”, Pope does not invoke a goddess; instead he invokes his friends, John Caryll, who asked Pope to write a literary work focusing on an event (the snipping of a lock of hair) that turned the members of two families into bitter enemies.
• Division of the poem into Books or Cantos: the traditional epic is long, requiring several days of reading. Pope presents only five cantos containing less than six hundred lines. Such miniaturizing helps Pope demonstrate the smallness or pettiness of the behaviour exhibited by the main characters in the poem.
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• Description of Soldiers preparing for Battle: in the Iliad, Homer describes in
considerable detail the armour and weaponry of the great Achilles, as well as the battle field trappings of other heros. In the Rape of the Lock, Pope described Belinda preparing herself with combs and pins: with “ puffs, powders, patches”: nothing that “ Now awful beauty puts on all its arms”
• Descriptions of Heroic Deeds: Pope describes the exploits of Belinda and the Baron
during a card game called Ombre, which involves three players and a deck of forty cards.
• Account of a great sea voyage: Belinda travels up the Thames in a boat.
• Participation of Deities or Spirits in the actions: supernatural beings take part in the action.
• Presentation of scenes in the underworld: the gnome Umbriel visits the underworld in the Rape of the Lock
The Setting
• Canto 1: London and its environs in the early 1700, on a single day, and at the London residence of Belinda as she prepares herself for a gala social gathering.
• Canto 2: On a boat carrying Belinda up the Thames
• Canto 3-5: Hampton Court Palace, a former residence of King Henry VIII
Background to Rape of the Lock
The Rape of the Lock had its origins in an actual, if trivial, incident in polite society: in 1711, the twenty-one year old Robert, Lord Petre, had, at Bedinfield, surreptitiously cut a lock of hair from the head of the beautiful Arabella Fermor, whom he had been courting. Arabella took offense, and a schism developed between her family and Petre’s. John Caryll, a friend of both families and an old friend of Pope’s, suggested that he creates a humorous poem about the episode which would demonstrate to both sides that the whole affair had blown out of proportion and thus effect a reconciliation between them. Pope produced his poem, and it seemed to have achieved its purpose, though Petre never married Arabella. It became obvious in the course of time, however (especially after a revised and enlarged version of the poem, which existed at first only in manuscript copies, was published in 1714) that the poem, which Pope maintained “was intended only to divert a few young ladies”, was in fact something rather more substantial, and the
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Fermors again took offense -- this time at Pope himself, who had to placate them with a letter to explain that Arabella and Belinda, the heroine of the poem, are not identical. This letter is usually printed before the text of the poem.
Canto 1 (the opening of the poem follows the typical epic manner which is an invocation to the Muse).
Dire-offense – serious mischief, terrible misunderstanding Amorous causes – love affairs
Mighty contents – great disputes I sing – writing poems
Caryll – John Caryll (1666-1738) was an intimate friend of Pope
Muse – the Goddess who presides over the writing of poetry (there were nine muses in Greek mythology, each presiding over a different kind of art.
Belinda – it is by this name that Pope calls Miss Arabella Fermor the principle character of the poem.
Vouchsafe to view – to read (the poet means that Belinda might do him the favour of reading this poem.
Goddess – the Muse of poetry Belle – beautiful lady, Belinda
To assault – go attack violently (referring to the act of cutting a lock of hair from the ladies head.)
Yet unexplored – still unknown
Sol – sun (Sol derives from the Latin word meaning sun) Timorous – timid
Oped – opened Eclipse – dazzle The day – the sun Lapdogs – small pet dog
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Downy pillow – a pillow stuff with feathers
Her guardian Sylph – a spirit of the air (this particular Sylph is regarded as Belinda’s guardian). A youth more glittering than a birth- night beau – This is a description of Belinda’s guardian Sylph who appears to Belinda in a dream in the shape of a young man more gaudily dressed than a fashionable courtier attending an evening party held in honour of the birth anniversary of a king or a queen.
That even in slumber caused her cheek to glow – Even though Belinda was asleep, a blush appeared on her cheek when she saw in her dream a handsome young man in fine clothes. This young man, we are told in lines 25‐26, speaks to Belinda’s ear in a low voice.
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4.7 William Blake
Biographical sketch
Born in 1757, in London, father a hosier living in Broad Street, Soho, Blake was the second son of four boys and a girl.
His younger brother Robert was significant in his life, shared his love for art.
He was determined to become an artist from a very young age, and joined a drawing school at age 10.
However, his father couldn’t afford the apprenticeship fee at the end of his training, so he joined a master engraver’s workshop, where he learnt all the techniques of engraving, etching, stippling and copying, working there for seven years, becoming a master craftsman.
Though he left formal school at 10, his learning was not affected. He was a voracious reader, and by 12 was writing his own, original and distinctive poetry.
He entered the Royal Academy in 1997 after his apprenticeship. Here he started ‘copying nature’ but soon gave it up for more imaginative art, which was very unconventional and almost too adventurous at the time.
In 1783, at the age of 25, he printed Poetical Sketches with help from his friends. During this time he also married Catherine Boucher, the daughter of a gardener, who was illiterate. Blake taught her to read and write. They had no children.
He attended gatherings of poets and intellectuals, sharing his writing with them, sometimes singing his poems in tunes of his own composition. He was well known in his literary circles, but his books did not sell.
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Blake also wrote a burlesque novel in 1784 called An Island in the Moon, ridiculing contemporary manners and conventions, including himself. Some of the Songs of Innocence were originally in this text. Blake took them out and began assembling a collection after realizing their value.
His younger brother Robert, whom he was teaching, died after a serious illness in 1787. This was a great blow to the poet, who nursed him throughout. It is said that Blake did not sleep for two weeks leading up to his brother’s death, and it is after this that he began to see visions and spirits. Blake claims that he saw his brother’s spirit at the moment of his death. The spirit appeared to give him advice several times later during Blake’s live.
Blake’s works were all illustrated, etched and produced by him. It was a laborious and intricate process, which meant that not many copies were produced.
Blakes poetry was not widely read and he was unknown during his lifetime. Neither his art nor his poetry was fully understood until the 20th century. He is now considered a great, visionary poet.