Essay on Criticism - Alexander Pope (1688-1744), Essays (university) of Poetry

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Essay on Criticism

Dr K.S.Antonysamy Department of English Loyola College

Alexander Pope (1688-1744)

• Alexander Pope is an English essayist, critic, and satirist. He can be regarded as one of the greatest poets of Enlightenment. He was born in Roman Catholic family in 1688. Alexander Pope started writing poetry when he was 12. actually, first major contribution of Pope to the literary world is An Essay on Criticism , which is published in 1711. When he wrote An Essay on Criticism he was
  23. Then, in 1712 he wrote The Rape of the Lock , which is known as his most popular poem.
• Pope has also some translations. For example, he translated Homer's Iliad in the period of 1715-1720. After this translation, he was encouraged and start to tranlate the Odyssey (1725-1726).
• The Dunciad (1728), is the moral and satiric poems which is written by Pope. His other major poems are Moral Essays (1731-1735), Imitations of Horace (1733-1738), The Epistle to Arbuthnot (1735), the Essay on Man (1734), and an expanded edition of the Dunciad (1742).
• In his works, Pope deals with directly the major religious, political and intellectual problems of his time. He used the heroic couplet.

Part I

• The first part opens by describing the ways literary critics can actually cause harm. Pope argues that critics must be both careful and humble when critiquing a piece of literature, for the writing of bad criticism actually hurts poetry more than the writing of bad poetry does.
• Pope points out that each critic has his or her own opinion, and, if applied incorrectly, a critic can actually censure a talented writer.
• However, Pope argues that if a critic is honest, doesn't fall prey to envy and listens to the seeds of understanding that are naturally a part of him or herself, one can become a wise critic. The Greeks came to understand poetry through following the rules of nature, argues Pope, and contemporary critics must do the same.

• This section offers general principles of good criticism (and of poetry-- since criticism for Pope means determining the merit of a work rather than its meaning , understanding the principles of good criticism means understanding the rules for good poetry and vice versa).
• The problem: Judgments are partial, and true taste is as rare as true genius. Some critics go astray through false learning, others through envy of wit. Self-awareness is therefore a crucial quality for a critic: "Be sure yourself and your own reach you know."
• First solution: "First follow Nature" (68-87). ( Nature here means something like "the universe as God created it" or "that which is permanently true.")
• Second solution: learn the "rules of old," i.e. the precepts of poetry and criticism set down by the classical Greek and Roman authors or deducible from their literature (88-140). Take care, however, not to follow the rules slavishly, but rather "know well each ancient's proper character," especially Homer.
• One reason to be flexible in applying the rules: there are "beauties yet no precepts can declare." Great writers can break the rules successfully. Modern poets should take care, however, that if they break a rule they should "ne'er transgress its end".

Part II

• Pope describes some of the ways that critics develop bad judgment, the chief of which is pride. The key to avoiding this is to know your own faults and limitations. Moreover, critics must study well and focus on conventions passed down from the masters of poetry.
• Pope warns, however, that critics must be careful of becoming slaves to the rules and conventions that others have developed and to not let the popularity of an author misguide a critic's appreciation of an author's work.
• One of the products of adhering too closely to conventions is that critics become fascinated with extremes and forget the essential truth that beauty and good poetry are made up of the combination of all of their parts, rather than each part by itself.

• Flaw #1: “Pride” (201-214) The biggest pitfall, in criticism as in just about everything else.
• Flaw #2: "little learning" (215-232). A little learning makes critics susceptible to pride, by making them think they know more than they do. (Pope is not praising ignorance here; the cure for the pride of little learning is more learning, which teaches the scholar how little he or she knows.)

• #4: love of extremes (384-393)
• #5: liking only "one small sect," e.g. foreign writers, British author, ancients, or moderns, as opposed to approving of merit wherever it is found (394-407).
• #6:judging authors according to the opinions of others rather than the merit of the work. E.g.: - judging the name rather than the work (412-413). - worst case: judging the work on the basis of social rank (414- 424).
• #7: conversely, prizing novelty above everything else (424- 451).
• #8: valuing only those works which agree with one's own point of view, are written by member of one's own party, are written by friends, etc. (452-473). Envy plays a big part here.

• Some premises arising from the above: "Be thou the first true merit to defend," even though we cannot expect modern writers to endure as the ancients did (474-493).; don't let yourself succumb to envy (494-525). Be generous: "To err is human, to forgive divine."
• But shun "provoking crimes" such as obscenity and blasphemy. Here too, however, one must take care not to "mistake an author into vice" (556-559).

• Pope gives the basic characteristics of a good critic. A critic should have a good knowledge, taste, judgment and objectivity.
• Moreover, there is another characteristic, which is more important than others, of a good critic. The characteristic is being friendship. "Be silent always when you doubt your sense; And speak, though sure, with seeming diffidence:”
• If a critic is not sure about his/her opinion, he/she must not speak on a work. On the other hand, a critics should speak, argue with self-confidence.