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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.
Epistle 1Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Summary Epistle 1: “Of the Nature and State of Man with Respect to the Universe”
Lines 1-16 are a dedication to Henry St. John, a friend of Pope’s. The speaker urges St. John to abandon the “meaner things” (Line 1) in life and turn his attention toward the higher, grander sphere by reflecting on human nature and God.
In section 1 (Lines 17-34), the speaker argues that humans cannot see the universe from God’s perspective. Therefore, people cannot understand the entirety of the universe. The universe is composed of “worlds unnumber’d” (Line 21); only God can see how everything is connected through “nice dependencies” (Line 30). The speaker compares these connections to a “great chain” (Line 33).
In section 2 (Line 35-76), the speaker says that humans are “presumptuous” (Line 35) in believing that they are at the center of the universe. The speaker appoints God as the universe’s center. The speaker argues that everything is supported by God’s existence and reason, not by the existence or actions of humans. Humans are small and weak and lesser than God. Just as the oak tree is larger than the weeds surrounding it, and Jupiter’s moons are smaller than Jupiter, humans are smaller and frailer than God. The speaker compares the relationship between humans and God to the relationship between a horse and his master, saying that all human behaviors and emotions are part of God’s larger vision. Humans are made to fulfill God’s vision for humanity and the universe: “Man’s as perfect as he ought” (Line 70).
In section 3 (Line 77-112), the speaker says that creatures are not given knowledge of their mortality because this would harm them. If the lamb knew what was going to happen to it when it died, it would not “skip and play” (82). Humans are aware of their own mortality, but they are also given the ability to hope. Hope allows people to emotionally endure knowledge; humans believe that their souls will live on after their physical deaths. The speaker describes the “poor Indian” (Line 99) who does not know about God from the Bible but feels God’s presence in the natural world.
In section 4 (Lines 113-130), the speaker names pride as the origin of human error. When people experience unhappiness, they call God “unjust” (Line 118). The speaker says that pride is a form of rebellion against God, as humans seek to be like “angels” and make angels “into Gods” (Line 126). By trying to become greater than what God has made them, humans act against God’s laws.
In section 5 (Lines 131-172), the speaker says that pride leads people to falsely believe that nature provides solely for humanity’s benefit. This is false because Nature also causes destruction, bringing tempests that “sweep/Towns to one grave, whole nations to the deep” (144). Since Nature, an incredibly powerful force, cannot act against God, humans should not fear powerful rulers or kings either, such as “Borgia” or “Catiline” (Line 156). The ambition of these rulers exists for a purpose and is part of God’s orderly universe. The speaker says that strife and passion exist for a reason.
In section 6 (Lines 173-206), the speaker clarifies the place of humans between angels and beasts: Humans look “upward” (Line 173) to the angels and “downwards” (Line 175) to the animals. People have “proper organs, proper pow’rs assign’d” (Line 180), meaning that humans have specific abilities and skills because these fulfill their purpose in the hierarchy of all things. The speaker uses the example of a fly, claiming that flies can see minuscule things because they make use of their “finer optics” (Line 195), while humans have no need for this.
Section 7 (Lines 207-232) discusses nature’s hierarchy. The speaker explains how each animal’s instincts and abilities are harmonious with its purpose. For instance, “the spider’s touch, how exquisitely fine! /Feels at each thread, and lives along the line,” (Line 217-218). Reason separates humans from the rest of animals, while still sharing some qualities.
Section 8 (Lines 223-258) describes the “vast chain of being” (Line 237). This chain includes everything from God, the angels, and humans down to the invisible creatures that “no eye can see” (Line 239).
Section 9 (Lines 259-280) compares a creature in the chain of being rebelling against its place to a foot telling the dust “to tread” (Line 259) or a hand trying to think like a mind (Line 260). The speaker calls this ridiculous because each creature in the chain must fulfill its role so that the “stupendous whole” (Line 267) can be preserved. In the harmonious order of the universe, Nature is “the body” and God is “the soul” (Line 268).
Section 10 (Lines 281-294) returns to the human tendency toward pride. People should not rage against God for events they perceive as unjust or evil. Instead of fighting, the speaker advocates humbly submitting to God’s will. The speaker sums this up in the final line of this epistle: “Whatever is, is right” (Line 294).
Analysis: Epistle 1
St. John, Lord of Bolingbroke, had a philosophy of nature and the universe that influenced “Essay on Man.” The speaker of “Essay on Man” wants readers to contemplate the nature of the universe’s pattern, from the depths where the blind “creep” to the heights where the “sightless soar” (Line 12).
Line 16—“vindicate the ways of God to man”—alludes to a famous line from John Milton’s Paradise Lost, in which Milton says that he wishes to “justify the ways of God to man” (Milton, John. Paradise Lost, Samuel Simmons, 1667, pp 25.) Though the speaker is alluding to Milton, they do not want to suggest an apocalyptic view of the future or even a heavily biblical perspective. Instead, the speaker uses philosophical reasoning and poetic expression to portray the organization of life in accordance with God’s law. The poem’s goal is to defend the world by showing that God’s wisdom made it the way it is.
The speaker approaches this systematically, with each of the epistles focusing on a particular aspect of the human condition. This epistle focuses on the relationship of human beings to the world around them, from the universe and nature to the living creatures that share the earth with humans.
The speaker uses rhetorical questions to argue that the limited information we have about the universe constrains human reason. These questions invite the reader to reflect. The question: “What can we reason, but from what we know?” (Line 18) inspires the reader to reflect on the fact that their comprehension of the world is limited to the information available to them. Because humans cannot know everything and know less than God (who the speaker believes is all-knowing or omniscient), human reasoning is, therefore, inferior to God’s. The speaker says that humans’ partial view can convince them—erroneously—that they are alone at the top of the great chain of all living things. The speaker asserts that humans are beneath “some sphere unknown” (Line 58). When the world seems askew or appears unjust, the speaker argues that it is due to the folly of human reasoning.
The speaker has a Eurocentric perspective on Indigenous people. This suggests that they believe that some people are superior to others. During Pope’s era, this perspective was relatively commonplace: Dehumanizing views of Indigenous people were part of how Europe justified colonizing the Americas and destroying Indigenous cultures. The speaker feels superior to Indigenous people, pitying them for their ignorance of Christianity. They also write that an Indigenous person’s idea of heaven might be a world of safety and security where no Christians are “searching for gold” (Line 108). This does not erase the destructive views the speaker expresses, but it does demonstrate awareness that Indigenous people viewed colonizers with fear and contempt. It also implies that the speaker viewed Christian colonizers with skepticism; they suggest that the colonizers went to the New World in search of riches, rather than out of missionary zeal.
The poem uses anaphora in section four. Anaphora, or the repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of at least two lines in a row, builds momentum. In this case, it emphasizes the speaker’s point about human pride, repeating “aspiring to be gods, if angels fell/aspiring to be angels, men rebel” (Line 127-128).
The poem uses anaphora and parallelism to show an analogous relationship between God and angels and angels and men: Just as angels who aspired to be like God fell from heaven, humans who try to be like angels disrupt God’s orderly universe. Lines 167-168 contain another example of anaphora: “That never air or ocean felt the wind/That never passion discompos’d the mind.” The repetition of “that never” emphasizes its importance to the poem. Just like the wind ruffles the air and ocean due to the earth’s natural processes, logical thought becomes muddied by emotion for a larger purpose.
The speaker personifies pride in section 5. Personification is a device where a writer gives a nonhuman entity or an abstract idea human qualities. In “Essay on Man,” Pope personifies pride as a foolish and self-absorbed person who believes that earth is a “foot-stool” for humans and the skies are “a canopy” (Line 140). Historical references to Borgia and Catiline are examples of extreme pride. The poem says that such prideful tyrants should not be cause for concern, as God uses all beings to serve his larger purpose.
In the phrase “The whispering zephyr, and the purling rill” (206) we see assonance, or the repetition of vowel sounds, with an emphasis on the “I” sound in “whispering,” “zephyr,” “purling,” and “rill.” The metaphor of the chain that contains millions of links reflects in the “chain of being” (Line 237). The poem uses imagery that describes mayhem on a large scale—“earth unbalanc’e from her orbit fly” and “planets and sun run lawless” (Lines 251-252)—to depict the importance of every creature in the chain that connects all living things. The speaker believes that this hierarchical, orderly view of the universe places humans under God. It implies that if humans try to be like God they are going against the universe’s natural order, and this will have terrible consequences.
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By Alexander Pope
