prowess, of all these things we feel the effect, as we follow the simple progress of the tale. Tragic the story is, but the nobility of it is greater, and the final impression is of the dignity and worth of the human soul.

One more observation of a general nature is pertinent. The narrative style of the poem is direct and simple in the extreme. Line after line, we find an unembellished succession of plain statements. No conscious graces of style here, no distracting reminders of the author's personality, but simply the story itself, moving and powerful because of its inherent qualities. Decorative beauty there is too, however, singularly exquisite and appealing: we find it in the series of similes that are inlaid like gems in the course of the story. Similes of such elaboration, pictured lovingly for their own beauty as well as for their imaginative bearing on the story, are called Homeric, after their earliest and greatest user. We feel their appropriateness here, not only because they relieve the strict simplicity of style, but because they harmonize with the mood of the poem, objective and impersonal, holding the reader's attention upon interests outside of the poet, the events of the story itself, or the imaginative pictures accompanying them.

THE RAPE OF THE LOCK
(Page 147)

Though one of the most fanciful of poems, The Rape of the Lock tells a story that in its simple outline was taken directly from actual life. Lord Petre, a fashionable young Londoner, had offended Miss Arabella Fermor by cutting off a lock of her hair. A general quarrel followed, involving the families and friends of both parties. Finally John Caryll, friendly to both, interested Pope in the quarrel, suggesting that he write "something that would make this absurd vendetta explode in laughter." Pope took up the matter eagerly and produced in 1712-the poet's twentysixth year The Rape of the Lock, publishing it in Lintot's Miscellany in its original form of two cantos. Two years later the poem was republished, enlarged to five cantos by the addition of a supernatural "machinery " of sylphs and gnomes, together with certain long passages like that on the game of Ombre. It is interesting to note that whereas Miss Fermor consented to the publication of the earlier form of

the poem, by the time the later form appeared she had become deeply annoyed at the notoriety in which the poem had involved her.

Pope styles The Rape of the Lock a "heroi-comical poem," and the phrase precisely describes it. Its effect is burlesque, but that effect is gained not so much by the extravagance of its exaggerations as by its whimsical shiftings from the serious to the trivial, from the solemn to the absurd. And the impression grows, as we read on in the poem, that what is true in the larger is true in the smaller details: the manner is always emphasizing the absurdity of the matter, and the matter is poking fun at the pomposity of the manner. In a small detail we have an instance of thiswhere a simple pair of steel scissors becomes a glittering forfex." Of the more elaborate juxtaposition of ideas trifling and grave we have an example in the passage where the Sylph declares her oversight over Belinda to be just as careful, whether she

Stain her honor, or her new brocade,

Forget her prayers, or miss a masquerade,

Or lose her heart, or necklace, at a ball.

Fully to appreciate the fusing of "heroic" and "comical" in its larger aspects requires some familiarity with characteristic features of the ancient epics of Homer and Virgil, -the invocation to the Muse, for example, or the double plot, part developed among men and women on the earth, part among the divinities interested in the terrestrial struggle. To these larger features should be added minor tricks of style that ape the classic practice, such as the formal "he spoke," after an elaborate speech, or the frequent use of such figures as the rhetorical question or personification. Frequently a line or two parodies a familiar quotation from Virgil, as where Belinda exclaims

Happy! ah ten times happy had I been

If Hampton Court these eyes had never seen!

Similarly, in

Fays, Fairies, Genii, Elves and Demons, hear!

there is an echo from Milton's line from Paradise Lost, Thrones, Dominations, Princedoms, Virtues, Powers.

These constant reminders of classic style provide the "heroic " element of the poem; the substance as constantly supplies the "comical."

The poem abounds in allusions, some classical, some contemporary. The former, such as the lines referring to the river Meander, or those touching on the story of Eneas and Dido, are readily recognized. More important than any of the others is the allusion at the end of the poem to the story of how Berenice, widow of Ptolemy III, cut off her hair and hung it as an offering in the temple of Mars, to find later that it had been taken up into the heavens and changed to a constellation bearing her name. The contemporary allusions are more interesting, however, for they put us in contact with much that is characteristic of the life and thought of the period. Some explanation will bring this out more clearly.

To the Queen, "great Anna," by whose name the literary period of Pope is known, allusion is made in the beginning of the third canto. Contemporary London appears in the reference to the Mall, or Pall Mall (pronounced pell-mell), a street frequented by fashionable society; to the locality within "the sound of Bow," the church bells heard in that scorned section of London devoted to trade; and to the Ring, a circular promenade resorted to by the aristocracy.

Within the exclusive circles of the beaux and belles we get a glimpse of the passing fashions of the day,-Ombre, the game of cards, whose intricacies we need not understand in order to follow the progress of the mock-heroic battle; the practice of tea and coffee drinking, recently introduced from abroad as a luxury for the wealthy class; the custom of celebrating royal birthdays with a ball, where might be seen the glittering "Birth-night Beau." Those fashionable ailments known as "the Megrims" (headache) and "the Vapors we should call them the blues-are traced to their home, "the gloomy cave of Spleen." And to the literature popular in society circles we find reference in the mention of "The New Atalanta," a story made up of gossip and scandal compromising people of rank, and in the allusion to the "vast French romances," one of which had been published in ten volumes of eight hundred pages each. Finally we meet with a figure familiar in his day and even since, John Partridge, a "ridiculous star-gazer," butt of the famous hoax devised by Swift in 1707.

Of the more personal matters dealt with in the poem,

brief mention has already been made. The personalities of “Belinda” and “the Baron" are of course obvious It is sufficient to add that “Plume" is Sir George Brown, who was, by the way, very angry at the figure he was made to cut in the poem; that “Thalestris " is his sister, Mrs. Morley; that “Shock" is Miss Fermor's dog; and that the “Caryll mentioned in the third line of the first canto is the friend who suggested to Pope the subject for his poem.

Not alone does its substance, however, represent the time in which the poem was written: quite as characteristic is its verse form, known as the “heroic couplet.” Each single line, taken as a unit, is of course the iambic pentameter of “blank verse,” but the effect of a long passage is altogether different. Because the lines do not "run on," there is little of the flowing quality of the best blank verse: on the contrary, the tendency to make each line complete in itself favors the so-called "balanced" structure, as in the line

While the fops envy, and the ladies stare;

and the succession of rhyming couplets tends to divide a passage into short units of two lines each:

Now lap-dogs give themselves a rousing shake,
And sleepless lovers just at twelve awake.

Since there is a minimum of naturally moving story and a maximum of epigrammatic flashes of wit, no small degree of the effectiveness of the poem is due to the happy appropriateness of its metrical form.

POEMS OF JOY IN LIFE

UP AT A VILLA-DOWN IN THE CITY

(Page 178)

The sub-title explains what might at first seem puzzling about the poem, by indicating that the local touches are Italian and that the point of view is that of an Italian "person of quality." The interest of the poem, therefore, lies not in the subject of it, but in the character of the speaker, and so explains its inclusion among the poems designated Dramatic Lyrics. In diction it illustrates in

terestingly the desirability of approaching each poem from its own point of view. Its subject-matter bears some relation to that of Milton's L'Allegro, but a reader judging it by the standard of that poem would naturally be nonplused at the colloquial quality of its thought and language. To appreciate the genuine poetic value of both poems requires some imaginative breadth of view.

POEMS OF COURTSHIP AND LOVE

THE INDIAN SERENADE
(Page 182)

The title of this melodious song is of course purely fanciful, adding a touch of romantic charm to the musical lines. The use of the unfamiliar word "Champak," in the second stanza, is a similar touch, and it makes little difference whether we know that the flower is a species of magnolia, a beautiful Indian tree, bearing orange-colored, highly fragrant flowers."

66

SHE WALKS IN BEAUTY, LIKE THE NIGHT

(Page 183)

"These stanzas were written by Lord Byron on returning from a ballroom where he had seen Mrs. (now Lady) Wilmot Horton, the wife of his relation, the present Governor of Ceylon. On this occasion Mrs. Wilmot Horton had appeared in mourning with numerous spangles on her dress."

-T. Moore's note.

YE BANKS AND BRAES O' BONNIE DOON

(Page 187)

The form given here is close to an early version of the poem. In order to adapt the song to the tune with which it is at present associated, Burns added two extra syllables to the alternate lines, and this later version is perhaps better known than the earlier. Staw, in the last stanza, means "stole."