Literary Essays

Rating:
Summary: The essay on Pope is excellent.
Review: Alexander Pope's status as the greatest poet of the eighteenth century was unchallenged in his time, but later on the Romantics and Victorians tore him down relentlessly. Not until the middle of the twentieth century did his status rise again.

I don't know if this essay (from a 1926 speech) by Lytton Strachey contributed to the revival of Pope's reputation, nor do I know if Strachey is regarded as a great literary critic (he was undeniably a great biographer). Yet I haven't found an essay on Pope that could serve as a better introduction to his work.

Strachey understands the significance of the heroic couplet, how the simplicity of Pope's earlier pastoral writings was in its own way a highly surprising and refreshing departure from the complexities of seventeenth century verse, and at the same time a mere framework for Pope's true gift: satire.

Strachey is cold but fair in his depiction of Pope's venom, the hatred in his verse which held his contemporaries in fear and awe. Strachey's explanation of the logical and rhythmic structure of the heroic couplet is a wonderful thing to read. And it was with great satisfaction that I read Strachey's dismantling of the narrow views of Pope stated by Macauley and Matthew Arnold. Clearly, they did not understand Pope; Strachey did.

Pope's greatness was such that English poetry was forced to revolt against his rule, first the poetry of Wordsworth and other Romantics, and (less successfully) that of the Victorians. But some of the qualities which were part of their revolt were actually present in Pope's verse. Strachey cites excellent examples of how Pope's art did in fact have a sensitive eye to details in Nature and common life, but that his "correctness" and stinging characters are their own kind of poetic perfection.

I recommend that all students of eighteenth century literature, and all readers of verse from every century, take a look at this essay on Pope which does so much justice to his greatness.