1/22/09 Pope, "Essay on Criticism"

For Tues: "Rape of the Lock."

on board:

• "True ease in writing comes from art, not chance,"
  As those move easiest who have learned to dance."
• "The sound must seem an echo to the sense."
• "True wit is nature to advantage dressed,
  What oft was thought, but ne'er so well expressed."

Essay on Criticism

For most of today, I want us to look at the topics of judgment and wit, but before we do that I'd like to point out some of the admirable features of this poem. One might ask, why should we read an 18th C poem about criticism, given that contemporary criticism operates on completely different principles? OK, sure, it has historical value--it tells us a lot about 18th C literary values and ideas--but do we have to read the whole poem for that? Couldn't we just read a list of the main points?

Well, we could, but we'd be missing a lot, IMO. And the reasons for that have to do with the quotes on the board. "Art, not chance"--for Pope, and indeed for all neoclassical poets, poetry is a CRAFT, something that can be perfected by hard work and care. Yes, innate talent matters; "wits" are to some extent born, not made. But even wits have to work at it.

What they have to work at is a perfect union of the meaning of what is said with the way it is said. This is one of the definitions of wit, in fact: "apt expression." Pope says it better: "the sound must seem an echo to the sense." Poetry isn't about coming up with something startlingly new, it's about saying the truth better than anyone else has said it: "what oft was thought, but ne'er so well expressed."

One of the signs at how well this poem succeeds in this respect is the number of quotes from it that have made their way into common parlance. Among those are the quotes on the board, especially that last two. But there are others as well:

• "...fools rush in where angels fear to tread."
• "To err is human, to forgive divine";
• "A little learning is a dangerous thing;
  Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring"
• Of learning: "Hills peep o'er hills, and Alps on Alps arise!"

Pope's skill with language extends beyond apt expression; he is also the absolute master of the poetic couplet, and metrical variation generally. "Essay" is in this respect too a poetic tour de force--extraordinary display of crafted lines.

• 344-357 illustrates different ways of "succeeding" in meter while writing bad verse
• 365-393 illustrates different ways that sound can echo sense
• deservedly famous passages--e.g. 215-232, on learning

Entry into debate on wit

• said last time that the poem makes arguments, as opposed to just rattling off the received wisdom. Most the main explicit arguments are on the sheet I handed out last time. We'll return to some of them when we compare neoclassicism with romanticism.
• Today, though, I want us to look at an argument that is largely implicit in the poem. Point at issue: wit. We've talked a lot about wit, but one thing we haven't had occasion yet to notice is that it was a subject of controversy. Not everyone prized wit.
• John Locke's An Essay Concerning Human Understanding: what are the qualities attached to wit and judgment, respectively?

  • Wit	Judgment
    assembling ideas resemblance quickness variety pleasantry/entertainment metaphor/allusion	separating ideas difference avoiding being misled [implicit: TRUTH]

  • [Addison refines this notion of wit:
    • not any resemblance, but one which causes surprise
    • distinguishing false wit from true wit. True wit: resemblance and congruity of ideas; false wit: resemblance and congruity of language.]
  • in general: skepticism towards wit as something deceitful, frivolous
• Pope: many different uses of the word "wit," most of them relatively casual. Where does he come down in this debate over wit?
  • 9-18 Do these lines confirm Locke's assessment? judgment is partial too!
  • [36-45 careful to acknowledge that wits can be fools]
  • 52-61 changing defn. of wit: here, means any kind of intelligence. Judgment and wit are no longer opposing terms?
  • 141-145, 152-153 slyly aligns wit with inexplicable genius--try doing this with mere judgment!
  • 233-238 changes meaning again: here, what we would call "creative writing" as opposed to criticism. How does this make wit look?
  • 243-246 Probably the same usage, but again, note that he makes it clear that one can "do wit" badly.
  • 285-288 Note that the same kind of thing is going on with the word judgment: here, judgment is aligned with making distinctions, but Pope makes it clear that some distinctions are more worth making than others.
  • 297-300 on the section on conceits (extremely elaborate, clever, and often strained metaphors). What side does truth end up on?
  • [305 sets up section on the "love of parts" WRT language; is excessive love of language a problem of judgment or of wit? (Both.)]
  • 494-519 Knowing about the wit/judgment controversy explains this section. You think wit's so admired? Pope says.