No More Learning

'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. Pope attempts in l.
373 to reproduce in the sound and movement of his verse the sense of
swift flight.


'374 Timotheus:'

a Greek poet and singer who was said to have played and sung before
Alexander the Great. The reference in this passage is to Dryden's famous
poem, 'Alexander's Feast'.


'376 the son of Libyan Jove:'

Alexander the Great, who boasted that he was the son of Jupiter. The
famous oracle of Jupiter Ammon situated in the Libyan desert was visited
by Alexander, who was said to have learned there the secret of his
parentage.


'383 Dryden:'

this fine compliment is paid to a poet whom Pope was proud to
acknowledge as his master. "I learned versification wholly from Dryden's
works," he once said. Pope's admiration for Dryden dated from early
youth, and while still a boy he induced a friend to take him to see the
old poet in his favorite coffee-house.


'391' admire:

not used in our modern sense, but in its original meaning, "to wonder
at. " According to Pope, it is only fools who are lost in wonder at the
beauties of a poem; wise men "approve," 'i. e. ' test and pronounce them
good.


'396-397'

Pope acknowledged that in these lines he was alluding to the
uncharitable belief of his fellow-Catholics that all outside the fold of
the Catholic church were sure to be damned.


'400 sublimes:'

purifies.