No More Learning

'341 haunt Parnassus:

read poetry. --ear:' note that in Pope's day this word rhymed with
"repair" and "there. "


'344 These:'

critics who care for the meter only in poetry insist on the proper
number of syllables in a line, no matter what sort of sound or sense
results. For instance, they do not object to a series of "open vowels,"
'i. e. ' hiatuses caused by the juxtaposition of such words as "tho" and
"oft," "the" and "ear. " Line 345 is composed especially to show how
feeble a rhythm results from such a succession of "open vowels. " They do
not object to bolstering up a line with "expletives," such as "do" in l.
346, nor to using ten "low words," 'i. e. ' short, monosyllabic words to
make up a line.


'347'

With this line Pope passes unconsciously from speaking of bad critics to
denouncing some of the errors of bad poets, who keep on using hackneyed
phrases and worn-out metrical devices.


'356 Alexandrine:'

a line of six iambic feet, such as l. 357, written especially to
illustrate this form. Why does Pope use the adjective "needless" here?
'361 Denham's strength . . . Waller's sweetness:'

Waller and Denham were poets of the century before Pope; they are almost
forgotten to-day, but were extravagantly admired in his time. Waller
began and Denham continued the fashion of writing in "closed" heroic
couplets, 'i. e. ' in verses where the sense is for the most part
contained within one couplet and does not run over into the next as had
been the fashion in earlier verse. Dryden said that "the excellence and
dignity of rhyme were never fully known till Mr. Waller taught it," and
the same critic spoke of Denham's poetry as "majestic and correct. "


'370 Ajax:'

one of the heroes of the 'Iliad'. He is represented more than once as
hurling huge stones at his enemies. Note that Pope has endeavored in
this and the following line to convey the sense of effort and struggle.
What means does he employ? Do you think he succeeds?


'372 Camilla:'

a heroine who appears in the latter part of the 'AEneid' fighting against
the Trojan invaders of Italy. Virgil says that she was so swift of foot
that she might have run over a field of wheat without breaking the
stalks, or across the sea without wetting her feet.