Alexander Pope's An Essay On Man

1151 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Literary analysis of "essay on man" by alexander pope

Alexander Pope's An Essay On Man

Alexander Pope's An Essay On Man is generally accepted as a wonderfully harmonious mass of couplets that gather a variety of philosophical doctrines in an eclectic and (because of its philosophic nature) antithetic muddle. No critic denies that Pope's Essay On Man is among the most beautifully written and best of his works, but few also deny that Pope's Essay On Man is an incoherent conglomeration of "incongruous scraps" ("A Letter..." 88) of philosophical axioms. In forming An Essay On Man into perhaps the greatest philosophical poem ever written, Pope masterfully incorporates allusions and metaphors in which to constrict a world of meaning into the compact work that verse must be, in comparison to prose. Perhaps, then, Pope's greatest flaw is that, because a work of philosophy must be coherent and complete in order to be successful in most cases, An Essay On Man is too difficult to decipher because the structure and sequence of the work, as well as allusions and metaphors, while adding to the quality of verse, diminish the quality of the philosophical work.

Pope's only mistake in writing An Essay On Man is his attempt to fit too much information into such a compressed work. However, viewed as separate thoughts, the majority of passages in the Essay seem to hold true - not a central and coherent truth, but an "angular and splintered" truth (De Quincey 224). As a philosophical argument represented in verse, the simplification of so many varying theories cannot be avoided. While the Essay lacks central doctrinal coherence, it still succeeds as a poem, even at the expense of its philosophy (Edwards 37). One must also recognize the greatness of the work itself, despite its lack of centra...

... middle of paper ...

...ondsworth: Penguin Books, 1971. 224.

Edwards, Thomas. "The Mighty Maze: An Essay on Man." Modern Critical Views: Alexander Pope. Ed. Harold Bloom. New York: Chelsea House, 1986. 37-50.

Hazlitt, William. From "On Dryden and Pope." Penguin Critical Anthologies: Alexander Pope. Eds. F.W. Bateson and N.A. Joukovsky. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1971. 197.

Keener, Frederick. Introduction. An Essay on Pope. New York: Columbia University Press, 1974. 8.

Magill, Frank, ed. Critical Survey of Poetry: Revised Edition. Vol. 6. Pasadena: Salem Press, 1992. 2632-2635.

Pope, Alexander. An Essay On Man. Ed. Maynard Mack. Twickenham Edition. London: Methuen, 1950.

Warton, Joseph. From "An Essay on the Genius and Writings of Pope." Penguin Critical Anthologies: Alexander Pope. Eds. F.W. Bateson and N.A. Joukovsky. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1971. 111-115.

Show More
Related

  • The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven, by Sherman Alexie

    1479 Words  | 3 Pages

    In this essay, McFarland discusses Native American poetry and Sherman Alexie’s works. He provides an overview of Alexie’s writing in both his poems and short stories. A brief analysis of Alexie’s use of humor is also included.

    Read More

  • Crohn's Disease Case Study

    1315 Words  | 3 Pages

    Crohn’s disease is an inflammatory bowel disease. It is a fairly common disease that affects a large population causing abdominal pain, frequent bloody stools, and fatigue

    Read More

  • Untitled and Advice to My Son, by Peter Meinke

    1107 Words  | 3 Pages

    Meinke, Peter. “Untitled” Poetry: An Introduction. Ed. Michael Meyer. 6th ed. Boston: Bedford/ St. Martin’s 2010. 89. Print

    Read More

  • Ulcerative Colitis Essay

    1123 Words  | 3 Pages

    There are quite a few differences between Crohn’s Disease and Ulcerative Colitis. Both of which have symptoms ranging in severity, which vary widely from person to person. In Crohn’s Disease, these symptoms and complications can include abdominal pain and cramping. Others include frequent diarrhea, rectal bleeding, feeling of need to move bowels, and constipation.

    Read More

  • Edgar Allen Poe 's The Raven And For Annie

    1934 Words  | 4 Pages

    Ferguson, Margaret W., Salter, Mary J., and Stallworthy, Jon. The Norton Anthology of Poetry. fifth ed. N.p.: W.W. Norton, 2005. 2120-2121. 2 Print.

    Read More

  • Concrete Poetry - A Unique Genre

    2413 Words  | 5 Pages

    Rothenberg, Jerome and Pierre Joris, eds. Poems for the Millennium: The University of California Book of Modern and Postmodern Poetry, Vol. 2. Berkeley: University of California, 1998.

    Read More

  • Contrast Between Satire in The Rape Of The Lock and A Modest Proposal

    1669 Words  | 4 Pages

    Allison, Barrows, Blake, et al. eds. The Norton Anthology Of Poetry . 3rd Shorter ed. New York: Norton, 1983. 211.

    Read More

  • Organic Evolution Of Change Case Study

    1242 Words  | 3 Pages

    Change affects more than just a program or a process within an organization, change affects employees, collecting data on employee’s readiness and willingness to accept a change will help leaders know if the organization is socially ready for change (Cole, Harris, and Bernerth, 2006). A change might be positive for an organization but if the employees who will be affect by the change are lost in the process then it could create a greater issue than not making the change. Leadership needs to communicate and inspire the employees to be positive toward the change, seeking to enhance their job satisfaction not make changes that will increase their desire to leave. This data is best collected early in the change initiative allowing leadership to properly cast the vision while addressing concerns. This requires leadership to create platforms for employees to engage in the change initiative freely (Ford, 2006). Employee attitudes can be measured through these dialogues providing leadership with necessary measureable data (Hughes, 2007).

    Read More

  • Crohns Disease

    981 Words  | 2 Pages

    Crohn's disease is the generic name for regional enteritis, which is a type of Irritable Bowel Disease. The initial onset of this disease is between the ages of 15 to 30 years old with about 4 out of 1000 people being affected (CDC, 2014). The CDC (2014) also states that the United States has a “1.7 billon dollar” annual financial burden resulting from ”700,000 physician visits, 100,000 hospitalizations, and disability in 119,000 patients” yearly. There is presently no cure for Crohn's, although certain medications and treatments have been proven to take the disease into remission. Crohn’s disease is a realitivly new disease, without a cure, than can be controlled and let the patient live a normal life.

    Read More

  • The Common Man And Alexander Pope And Pope's Essay On Man

    1296 Words  | 3 Pages

    Pope, in his Essay on Man, takes the religious approach when thinking about the common man. In the epistles, Pope suggests that the common man is ungrateful of God. He claims that man only blames God for their hardships, but does not thank him for their bounty. Pope brings to light a theological theory that man attempts to claim that they are better than God, to which he responds with scathing regard. Pope regards the common man as disrespecting because of their blasphemous lack of appreciation of their lord. In this philosophical poem, it could be seen that his distaste for the common man’s disregard of God is relates to Pope’s presentation of his view on the Universe; that no matter how imperfect, complex, inscrutable and disturbing the Universe

    Read More

  • Physiology Of Crohn's Disease

    1361 Words  | 3 Pages

    Crohn’s disease is a chronic inflammatory condition of the gastrointestinal tract that belongs to a group of conditions known as Inflammatory Bowel Diseases (IBD). Crohn’s disease is defined as a transmural inflammation with skip lesions that can affect the gastrointestinal tract from mouth to anus (Mulder, Noble, Justinich, & Duffin, 2013). In Crohn’s disease the immune system attacks the gastrointestinal system and can cause the digestive tract to be chronically inflamed. Crohn’s disease has a variety of symptoms that include abdominal discomfort, diarrhea, rectal bleeding, fever, and weight loss. Crohn’s disease can also affect the joints, skin, eyes, and cause kidney stones, gallstones and other ailments (Warner & Barto, 2007).

    Read More

  • A Doll's House by Henrik Ibsen

    1127 Words  | 3 Pages

    Mays, Kelly. "Poems for Further Study." Norton Introduction to Literature. Eleventh Edition. New York: W.W. Norton and Company Inc., 2013. 771-772. Print.

    Read More

  • Acceptance of Death in Yeats’s ‘An Irish Airman Foresees his Death’ and Shakespeare’s ‘Come Away, Come Away, Death’

    707 Words  | 2 Pages

    Works Cited Norton Anthology of Poetry, ed. Margaret Ferguson, Mary Jo Salter, Jon Stallworthy, 5th edn (London: W. W. Norton & Company, 2005).

    Read More

  • Connotations of Marriage and Social Morals in Alexander Pope´s Poem "The Rape of the Lock"

    1355 Words  | 3 Pages

    Butt, John (Ed). The Poems of Alexander Pope. A one-volume edition of the Twickenham text with selected annotations. London. Methuen & Co Ltd. 1963. First published in University Paperbacks 1965, Reprinted with corrections 1968. Reprinted 1977;

    Read More

  • Invisible Man Essay: Identity and Invisibility

    1163 Words  | 3 Pages

    Mar. 1972: 86-100. pp. 86-100. Major, Clarence. American Poetry Review.

    Read More

More about Alexander Pope's An Essay On Man

Open Document