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Alexander PopeAn Essay on Man
Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1734A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Background
Literary Context
During the Neoclassical age in literature, poets imitated the polished refinement of classical writers such as Horace, Virgil, and Ovid. There was a greater focus on the craft of poetry and writing, as opposed to its originality or innovation. In this environment, Pope rose to literary fame through his couplets, satire, and ability to combine “sound” and “sense.” He famously wrote in his “Essay on Criticism” that the way verse sounds and its meaning should be intertwined: “The sound must seem an echo to the sense.” (Pope, Alexander. “Essay on Criticism.” Poetryfoundation.org.) In “An Essay on Man,” Pope combines his meditations and sonic qualities to develop a unified whole.
In his introduction to “An Essay on Man,” which he titled “The Design,” Pope explains that he chose to write his philosophy in verse form because poetry, and especially rhyming poetry, is more easily remembered. He also found that he was able to express his ideas more concisely in couplets than in prose, or sentence form. He says that even the design of the poem is in accordance with the chain of being, as he sought to balance substance with beauty, insight with pleasure.
Pope was one of the leaders of the Augustan age in literature, the middle period of the Neoclassical age. Augustan age poets sought to emulate the works of the Golden age of Roman literature, which was the 1st century during Augustus’s reign. Though he was self-taught, Pope learned Latin and Greek. Homer, Ovid, Horace, and Virgil deeply influenced him. He also had more recent influences in John Milton, William Shakespeare, and John Dryden, who made the heroic couplet one of the most popular forms of English poetry in the late 17th century. Geoffrey Chaucer, who used heroic couplets in The Canterbury Tales in the 14th century, also influenced Pope.
Romanticism in the 19th century rejected what was seen as the excesses of the Neoclassical age. Poets began to embrace open forms and favor sincerity and emotional depth. Despite this, Romantic poets such as Lord Byron still hailed Pope as an important influence.
Historical Context
Enlightenment ideals and philosophy influenced Pope’s style and content in “An Essay on Man.” The era in which Pope wrote the poem was part of the Age of Enlightenment, also known as the Age of Reason. The speaker’s exaltation of reason above sentimentality and intellect above emotion reflects this era’s priorities. While the speaker criticizes some aspects of society, they ultimately justify its organization, arguing that the world is as God intends it to be.
During the early 1700s, with the introduction of the pamphlet and a growing literary audience in the middle class, political and satirical writing became immensely popular. Poets, philosophers, and other intellectuals had lively discussions in coffee houses and formed associations. In addition, politicians of the Whig and Tory parties in England paid writers to produce political propaganda for them. However, Pope was unique in that he was a self-made writer and thus free to speak his mind.
Pope Jonathan Swift and other luminaries, including Henry St. John (to whom “Essay on Man” is dedicated), formed one of the most famous of the coffee house groups, “The Scriblerus Group.” Their purpose was to mock society. They published pieces deriding writers, critics, and those with whom they disagreed. Using pseudonyms, such as “Martinus Scriblerus,” they published scathing critiques. Though “An Essay on Man” is a didactic poem more concerned with the universal condition of humanity than the political situation in England, the poem’s speaker makes many references to class division, status hierarchies, and historical figures such as Oliver Cromwell. Cromwell was an English general who was defeated and beheaded, his head displayed for all to see. When speaking of Cromwell, the speaker writes that people might achieve their goals and still live in infamy.
Pope strongly influenced Voltaire, a political philosopher of the French Enlightenment. However, when Voltaire wrote Candide (1759), he argued against Pope’s optimistic understanding of the universe. He satirized Pope’s concept of “Whatever is, is right” (Epistle 1, Line 294), the foundation of “An Essay on Man.”
Related Titles
By Alexander Pope
