Background on Alexander Pope’s “The Rape of the Lock”

Self-taught to a great extent A diligent scholar from a very early age On Pope: Roman Catholic living during a time of Protestant consolidation in England Self-taught to a great extent A diligent scholar from a very early age

18th-Century Poetry Neoclassical Valued poetry with many allusions to classic works of antiquity Works were often morally charged and often politically engaged Many poems privileged satire as their dominant mode

“The Rape of the Lock” One of the most famous English-language examples of the mock-epic Published in 1712, when Pope was only 23 years old Poem served to Pope’s his reputation as a poet; remains his most frequently studied work Poem inspired by an actual incident among Pope’s acquaintances in which Robert, Lord Petre, cut off a lock of Arabella Fermor’s hair, and the young people’s families fell into strife as a result

Device: Satire The strategy of Pope’s mock-epic is not to mock epic poetry Mocks Pope’s society in its very failure to rise to epic standards Meant to expose pettiness by casting events against the grandeur of the traditional epic subjects and the bravery and fortitude of epic heroes

Terms to Know “Rape” has several meanings in this era, and in Pope's time the most common meaning was something like "kidnapping" Sylph: is a mythological creature in the Western tradition; a “invisible spirit of the air”; in Pope’s poem, they are guardian spirits of virgins Nymph: is a minor female nature deity typically associated with a particular location or landform