Selected Poetry

by Pope, Alexander; Rogers, Pat

• ISBN13: 9780192834942
• ISBN10: 0192834940
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1998-08-20
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

Alexander Pope (1688-1744) is regarded as the most important poet of the early eighteenth century. An invalid from infancy, Pope devoted his energies towards literature and achieved remarkable success with his first published work at the age of 21. A succession of brilliant poems followed, including An Essay on Criticism (1711), Windsor Forest (1713), and his masterpiece The Rape of the Lock(1712). A second period of great poetry was begun in 1728 with the appearance of the first Dunciad. All these works, which exhibit Pope's astonishing human insight, his wide sympathies, and powers of social observation (displayed to greatest effect in his talent for satire), feature in thisselection. In his introduction - an eloquent defence of Pope's poetic practice - Pat Rogers argues that we must abandon our Romantic conception of poetry as a record of fleeting and subjective states if we are to understand Pope fully. Instead, we must see him as an accomplished practitioner of thepoetry of ideas and of satirical reflection on human society. This collection is chosen from the Oxford Authors critical edition of Pope's major works.

Table of Contents

Introduction

Chronology An Essay on Criticism Windsor Forest

The Rape of the Lock Epistile to Miss Blount, on her Leaving the

Town after the Coronation Eloisa to Abelard

Elegy to the Memory of an Unfortunate Lady Epitaph

Intended for Sir Isaac Newton

An Epistle to Richard Boyle, Earl of Burlington

An Epistle to Allen Lord Bathurst

The First Satire of the Second Book of Horace

Imitated Epistle to Dr Arbuthnot

An Epistle to a Lady Epilogue to the Satires: Dialogue

I Epilogue to the Satires: Dialogue

II Epigram Engraved on the Collar of a Dog

The Dunciad

Notes

Further Reading

Index of Titles

Index of First Lines

Table of Contents provided by Publisher. All Rights Reserved.