Alexander Pope's verse often manages to convey far more meaning than his words, taken literally, might suggest. Particularly in The Rape of the Lock, what at first seems like a lighthearted mockery of upper-class concerns soon reads like a multi-layered meditation on class, religion, and social priorities. Certain tensions become clear to the attentive reader, certain ironies and formulated criticisms result from the way the poet has manipulated the form. These individual tensions rarely see resolution, and it is these perpetually competing ideas that keep poetry relevant and worthy of continued consideration. Pope's heroic couplets, using techniques such as unexpected emphasis, antithetical rhyme, and intentional redundancy, build a construct of tensile strength upon which he is able to build complex networks of multiple meanings. It creates a suspended series of intricate tensions that are never resolved, but instead press and clash eternally. It is these eternal pillars of competing ideas that ensure the legacy of poetry. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay In the early part of the eighteenth century, the heroic couplet “was by far the dominant verse form in Anglophone poetry and perhaps the characteristic form of verbal discourse in English” (Hunter 258-9). Pope found a method in it agile through which dynamic linguistic and metaphorical complexities could be presented in The Rape of the Lock A pair of poetic lines written in iambic pentameter, the heroic couplet was popular among contemporary readers and was, therefore, a mechanism through which it could. establishing an instant connection with the audience he hoped to reach However, popularity among his readers was not the only reason Pope may have chosen heroic couplets to write his solicitation to ad-tente between Arabella Fermor and Lord Robert Petre. This particular form gave him easy access to various rhetorical techniques that would allow him to sculpt the messages he wanted to convey in understated ways. J. Paul Hunter explains that “the form . . . it makes demands and has implications. Verse forms are not decorative afterthoughts or neutral message frames” (269). Making definitive determinations about specific forms is an unachievable, perhaps undesirable, undertaking, but patterns and poetic tendencies in how forms are used can be studied to gain a better understanding of their effect on the reader. Forms cannot have ideologies, but “traditions of use create poets with habitual presuppositions and readers with particular expectations, so that it may be possible – indeed obligatory – to think practically about the ideology of the form in particular historical moments and for particular groups of authors and readers” (Hunter 258). Furthermore, just as the reception of a form can change between groups of readers, so too does the nature of a form. While for contemporary readers the heroic couplet provided a comfort of familiarity as well as an acceptable arena for the critical spirit, so over time the couplet has proven, in The Rape of the Lock, an enduring beam for a poem whose relevance has not faltered. Many critics believe that much of the poem's power comes from the fact that its couplets are self-contained statements. The poem's overall themes are significant, but whether they are notable or enduring is due to the power of the individual couplets, many of which, in themselves, are unique in terms of their literary merit. (Although I agree with this idea, not all scholars support it. Hunter, for example, disagrees,arguing that Pope's thought was never complete within the confines of two lines unless he was writing a poem that consisted of only a single couplet (268).) While the nature of this particular poem is narrative and plot-driven, c There is still space among his various couplets for individual analysis. “Heroic couplets were not always written the way Pope wrote them. It can be said that he considered them as if they were independent stanzas; or, if not exactly that, as if it had a beginning, a middle, and even if there was a gate at the end, a gate which on occasion he opened to allow the senses to pass through” (Cunningham 104). Within a self-contained unit, an independent statement can be made. Pope accomplishes this through a dynamic, structural, and linguistic manipulation of meaning and emphasis. For Pope, action takes place within, as opposed to between, couplets, which are “a flexible structure that allows for perpetual activity” (Chico 252). Within the two lines, ten iambs and twenty syllables, the potential for sentence division, rhyme types, and plot advancement is many. Pope seems to have taken up the challenge of looking at this form in new ways. How might it be manipulated to convey various levels of meaning? As forms change, they “bring with them various aesthetic hierarchies, material and theoretical indices, and ideological imperatives” (Chico 264). These layers and levels, if left together by narrative alone, can remain illogically discrete. In the hands of a capable poet, however, they can be woven into an intelligible, if multifaceted, whole thanks to the sophisticated rhetorical techniques the poet may choose to employ. One such technique is the manipulation of reader expectations. Expected levels of emphasis are built into the structure of the heroic couplet. Playing with expectations is an immediate way to snap the reader out of complacency and present a rhetorical tension that may need to be reconciled. The manipulation of these expectations goes a long way towards creating and nurturing a tension that permeates the poem. “Every couplet implies . . . four fundamental units. . . divided rhetorically by a caesura and syntactically by some crucial grammatical relation implying cause and effect” (Hunter 267). These four half-lines and their cause-and-effect relationship elicit certain expectations from the reader regarding which of the half-lines will be emphasized. "The structure of the heroic couplet when divided into half lines creates a primary emphasis for the final half line, culminating in the word rhyme, and a secondary emphasis for the first and second lines, leaving the first half of the second line without major emphasis " (Goosenik 191). This third half of the line serves as a pause for the reader's breath and concentration as he or she prepares for the punch that will come in the most important half of the line of the final rhyme. Therefore, by placing seemingly unimportant elements in a position of anticipated emphasis or by placing generally accepted important elements in a position without emphasis, the poet produces irony and sets himself at odds with his reader's expectations. This is the case of the following couplet: Either stain his honor, or his new brocade; Forget his prayers or miss a masquerade (2.107-8) “Prayers” is placed in the third half of the line, the position of least emphasis. This indicates that for Belinda and her kind, prayers, and one can therefore infer, religion, are of little importance. What matters, depending on the tension of the line, is a masquerade ball. “For anyone who follows Belinda's religion, going to prayers and attending the midnight masquerade is simply a matter of time of day. The functions of the two activities aresubstantially identical” (Goosenik 195). Later in the poem, speaking of Hampton Court Palace, the poet describes the place in terms of how Queen Anne uses it: Here you are, great ANNE! Observed by three kingdoms, he sometimes accepts advice and sometimes tea. (3.7-8) The advice of his political advisors, according to the couplet's agreed emphasis, counts for little compared to the conversational gossip of those he may entertain. “By placing what should be significant in the non-emphatic position and what should be trivial, but is important to Belinda's world, in the more emphatic position, Pope allows the rhetorical structure to convey irony” (Goosenik 191). That irony, then, harbors a tension between what should be important and what is important to Belinda and Queen Anne. The attentive reader realizes this and should begin to see the unlikely resolution of this tension, the unlikely change in Belinda's perspective and priorities. The poem's characters' lack of moral catharsis, despite evidence suggesting it is necessary, takes it beyond the realm of simple fable or fully resolved morality play. The astute reader should feel compelled to consider the work further, finding meaning in the ironies and hoping, vainly, yes, but as humans tend to do hoping, nevertheless, that on the next reading, the tension can perhaps be resolved. Pope manipulates emphasis in other ways as well. As Belinda prepares for the day, the poet enumerates the “countless treasures” on her dressing table. Among the gifts and grooming products brought to her from all over the world, there are "[p]uffs, powders, plasters, bibles, billet-doux" (Pope 1.138). Each item in a list has a predetermined emphasis. The second-to-last item in an alliterative list like this is necessarily the least emphasized and, one might think, the least important. “The Pope places [“Bibles”] that should be of paramount importance in the least emphatic position of the line to show the reader that Belinda's worldly values ​​are reversed” (Goosenik 195). Instead of stating it explicitly, however, Pope uses his inherent understanding of how an audience member will read the line to convey his meaning subtly without having to articulate it. Let the particular placement of words and intended emphasis work together to get his point across. Instead of claiming that Belinda treats religion as just another reason to be seen in public, she sweeps away its iconography with the accoutrements of makeup and places the key to moral redemption, the “Bibles,” in a position where much it will probably be neglected or neglected. ignored. In addition to the mechanisms by which Pope is able to manipulate emphasis, the meter of the heroic couplet offers him a number of avenues through which to create meaning and orchestrate tension. The ten two-syllable iambs of a couplet aid conciseness and present a “firmly controlled progression” (Cunningham 103). The aforementioned comfort that a reader of the time would find in reading iambic pentameter gave the form a certain accessibility. That comfortable reader is, therefore, more susceptible to the non-explicit messages in the words of the poem. “The meter whispers to the reader the meaning, the tone, the nuance for which those words did not need to be used” (Cunningham 107). The meter's potential for varied rhythms and manipulated stress work to keep the reader engaged. Pope was reluctant to put his audience to sleep. He created lines that bounced, with syllables that insisted on punctuation and invited animation. Where wigs with wigs, with sword knots sword knots fight, the Beaux banish the beaux, and the coachesthey lead the coaches (1.101-102) In this couplet, the normal emphasis of the iambs is further emphasized. The percussive accent of the words “wigs” and “swords” equates them in a ridiculous way. The “pleasant effects of poetry are produced by subliminal verbal patterns” (Ligget 17). Our mind wants to find reasonable meaning in the messages it receives. The reader, then, would readily take a clue such as the punctuated words in the carefully composed meter of a line and draw parallels between them. These types of illogical unions are reinforced throughout the poem through the use of sophisticated rhetorical techniques such as zeugma and chiasmus. Using these tools, Pope is able to juxtapose competing ideas and thus further develop his intricate web of small tensions. Zeugma is “the union of two distinct idioms to a single verb [and] is the most effective of Pope's rhetorical tricks, insofar as it creates an ironic clash between seemingly disparate orders of value” (Norris 151). In a verse we examined previously, we see the verb “stain” referring to both Belinda's “honor” and her “new brocade.” The implication, of course, is that by staining her dress, Belinda's reputation, or honor, is damaged. By connecting the single verb to the two incongruent nouns, Pope implies a level of equality between the young woman's character and her outward appearance. Once again, we find the ironic tension between what should be important and what, in fact, is important to Belinda, lyrically encapsulated in a single verse. The couplet continues with another example: “Or lose his heart, or his necklace, in a dance” (Pope 2.109). “The metaphorical meaning of both 'stain' and 'lose' is first emphasized and then we are asked to associate with it as an object, unexpectedly, a noun that works with it only in a literal sense. The shock of an inappropriate relationship is conveyed” (Doody 217). This discrepancy can be read as amusing or disconcerting. The reader's preconceived condition will influence his reaction. What doesn't change, however, is the tension between what should be valued and what isn't. With chiasmus we find two parallel sentences balanced against each other, but with the parts of speech reversed. This technique is a mechanism by which “poetry plays with the concepts of dissimilarity and similarity” (Cohen 207). The hungry judge early the sign of sentence And the wretched hang that the jurors may dine (3.21-22) In line 21, the subject, “hungry judges” precedes the “sign” of action. This imprimatur allows two things: the unfortunates, guilty or not, will go to the gallows first and the jurors will be able to go home to eat. The gravity of what the judges did and the negligence with which they did it are contrasted. So too is the permanence of the death of the unfortunates, contrasted with the temporary satiety of the jurors. “The Pope uses chiasmus to connect moral meaning with small occasions” (Nicholson 84). In another example from Ariel's warning to her fellow sylphs, we see that threats to character and virtue are feared in the same way as threats to material things. Whether the nymph breaks Diana's law, or some fragile porcelain vase suffers a defect; (2.105-106) These types of rhetorical origami, pairing and folding opposite ends of possible meaning to create a decorous artifact, allow Pope the freedom to comment on the ambiguities he is witnessing among the upper classes, as well as creating an enjoyable piece of poetry that the upper class themselves will purchase and enjoy. When the narrator explains the Baron's desire to obtain one of Belinda's locks, "[by force to rape, or by fraud to betray", the degree is impliedof his determination. (Pope 2.32). A man may take something by force, but then he may be subject to the ridicule of others. The speaker, however, belittles the crime of taking something by force, suggesting that once an action is done, no one truly remembers how it was done. For when success accompanies a lover's toil, few ask whether fraud or force has achieved his ends. 2.33-34) The narrator led the reader to absolution before the crime was even committed. There remains a tension between a foretold guilt and an ambivalent jury. Robert Markley suggests that these complexities see “the Pope as the champion of armchair civilization. . . replaced by Pope, an incisive commentator on the political ambiguities of his time". (73) I would say, however, that one Pope is not replaced by another. Instead, techniques such as zeugma and chiasmus allow its various messages to coexist. The opposing implications push against each other, resisting the other's attempt to alter or undermine it, thus reinforcing the strength of each and Pope's claim to all. In The Rape of the Lock, Pope touches on several pairs of competing character elements: Belinda versus the Baron, the sylphs versus what threatens their lady, the insular upper-class English environment, and the outside world from which they now get their trinkets. Tensions exist between these individual parts. Pope could have chosen to write in monosyllabic, masculine rhyme. The story would be broadcast, but not endured. The nature of the final rhyme in many of Pope's couplets is a means through which new tensions can be discovered in multiple readings. Antithetical rhyme, in which the last two words of each line rhyme but have opposite meanings, is one such mechanism. For example, the last words in each of the lines below imply completely different meanings: Know even further; anyone who is just and chaste rejects humanity, is embraced by a sylph (1.67-68) By associating the notion of chastity with a signifier for intimate contact, Pope is interpreting one notion of success with another. Belinda's virtue, traditionalists might think, lies in her virginity. However, in his mind, his virtue lies in the nature of his outward appearance. It doesn't bother her that her honor might be compromised. She exclaims: “Oh, how cruel! be content to pluck the least conspicuous hairs, or any other hairs except these” (Pope 4.175-6). She wouldn't have minded so much a more private violation. As long as she has flaws that others can't see, virginity and intimacy go hand in hand for her. We have now entered “a world where appearances have become de facto substitutes for things themselves, where virtue has been reduced to reputation” (Pollak 77). When Ariel explains to Belinda that she is surrounded by protective sylphs, she says: Some secret truths, hidden by learned pride, are revealed only to handmaids and children. (1.37-38)Belinda has little use for what is hidden. He believes that everything he owns of value should be on display for all to see. “These antitheses follow the normal satirical pattern of inversion of the Pope's values” (Goosnik 193). The reader must balance what they believe to be a properly aligned moral compass with what they are told Belinda believes. Most likely, these two views will disagree. Pope's genius lies in his ability to shape language in such a way as to convey tension, without making us stop reading. We want to keep reading, perhaps looking for a solution that may never come. The antithesis does not only occur in the end rhymes. We see more than one antithetical pairing in this couplet: Safe from the traitorous friend, the bold spark, Loglance by day, the whisper in the dark (1.73-4) Hunter believes that "often, the strength of a couplet hangs on our noting the conflict between the words. (266). In these lines we notice a lot. A “traitorous friend” it is an oxymoron, which Margaret Anne Doody defines as “the rhetorical figure of Augustan poetry, the central figure of his poetic thought” (217). What friends can we trust? allies? “Spark,” the text’s endnotes quote Mr. Johnson, can be defined as “a lively, flamboyant gay man,” someone who might prove treacherous to a virginal young woman. “Spark” is also used as a pun , to form an antithetical rhyme with “dark.” The second line “day” serves as a further counterpoint to the impression of darkness. “Glance” and “whisper,” each potentially furtive form of communication, also interact with each other he continues in this couplet his explanation that he and the other sylphs protect "the purity of lustful maidens" (Pope 1:71) when their virtue is threatened by a flirtatious fiancé. Such circumstances are, in fact, moments of passionate confusion for young women, who know in their heads how they should act; feeling with their hormones how they would like to act. The contrasts in this couplet capture that dissonance, the idea that something can be good and bad, light and dark, desired and undesirable at the same time. End rhyme can also be a source of tension when the two rhyming words are two different parts of speech. These oppositions are much more subtle than the techniques we have talked about so far. However, they contribute to the recurring rhetorical tension in the poem. Take, for example, the passage where Belinda's hair is cut from her head. The meeting points of the sacred hairs separate from the beautiful head, forever, and ever! Then a bright flash flashed from his eyes and screams of horror rent the terrified skies. No louder cries are uttered to the pitiful heaven, when husbands, or when little dogs breathe their last, or when rich porcelain vases, fallen from above, in glittering dust, and sharp fragments lie! (3.153-160)Three of the four couplets in the piece end in rhymes that pair two different parts of speech. First, this technique prevents the poem from falling into a flat, predictable rhyme scheme. However, there is also a more intricate counterbalancing of ideas at play here. The lock takes on the character of a relic when it is described as sacred. To be broken is to end his reign as a beatific ornament. The scissors prevented him from ruling anymore. However, the finality of “dissever”, a verb that means to remove and which implies the end, is combined with “forever”, an adjectival phrase that indicates permanence, eternity. Belinda may have hoped that her youthful physical beauty would be unceasing, but now it is the end of her beauty which the poem indicates will be eternal. The complexity of a notion like this is astonishing, especially as it is a perfect example of the powerful tension that can be conveyed in a single couplet. The tensions that exist in couplets such as these work against each other to form a pulling force that serves as a strong support structure for any further, more explicit, or general meaning (Liggett 19). Hunter recognizes this tension within the couplets and argues that this formal tension serves to encourage "the preservation and acceptance of difference rather than an elaboration, modification, or compromise" (266). After all, in terms of both scholarship and entertainment, two passions brought into play with each other in a perpetual state of tension are perhaps not much moreinteresting than the inevitable watered-down reality of the resolution? While it is natural for the human ear, the human mind, to desire a solution, it is equally natural to viscerally enjoy the discordant journey one takes to find it. The last couplet in the previous passage is one where the antithetical rhyme actually creates a visual impression of opposites. This is not the first time in poetry that the idea of ​​precious porcelain being broken is a source of deep despair. Here, “rich porcelain vases” may fall “from above” – from a high shelf, perhaps, from the top of a dining table; or could it imply that fine porcelain stands in an even more reverent high position? The greatest of material things can originate in the divine. The narrator suggests that their disappearance would justify the same amount of grief as the death of a husband. We see high attention paid to such a material object as the couplet paints a picture of a delicate specimen falling from an abnormally high place only to end up in fragments, lying decimated in the lowest possible position. Where it had once been acted upon, set in a place described as particularly “high,” the vase now generates the verb “lie” and is scattered, ruined, in pieces, just as Belinda believes her reputation and herself to be. over the course of five cantos, the recurrence of some pairs of rhymes and verse endings is not accidental. On three separate occasions, Pope rhymes “rage” with “engage.” Near the beginning of the poem we read: In tasks so bold, can little men strive, And in tender breasts dwells such mighty anger? (1.11-12) Soft breasts would be the last place one would expect anger to nest. The image is dissonant and continues the intertextual tensions of the poem. When we find this pair of rhymes again in Canto Three, we have a different group of players - no longer "little men" nor those with soft breasts: the rebellious knave, who challenges his prince to pledge, turns out to be the just victim of his anger real. (3.59-60) In this couplet we encounter anger in a more appropriate place than a soft breast. Furthermore, we have moved away from the “little men” into the realm of princes. In the fifth canto, when we see the pair of rhymes for the last time, our fighters have been elevated even further, from princes to gods. Thus when bold Homer makes the gods clash, and celestial breasts with human passions rage; (5.45-46) The metaphor of “breasts” returns, but this time in the form of “heavenly breasts” raging with passion, perhaps now at home there. Through threads like these, Pope's metaphor progresses from a single couplet of somewhat illogical irony to a series that culminates in divine references and more appropriate emotions. The relevance for us exists in the fact that despite the repetition, despite the evolution of the metaphor, nothing is resolved. In this context, neither the gods nor the little men seem able to arrive at a solution. In the fifth canto, the anger is still neither appeased nor satisfied. The ironies, tensions, and antitheses in the poem discussed thus far leave no doubt that Pope found fault with the behavior and priorities of those he was writing about. Their misaligned concerns and elevation of material objects and outward appearance to positions more important than character are evident even if one does not know Pope's personal situation. The resounding message in the formal language is clear. The more you know about the poet, however, the more you can gain insight into the motifs of the message, and, although not relevant to the power of form in poetry, the poet himself deserves a brief mention. It is right, I think, to consider the facts of his life as a backdrop for the tensions we find in the.