The Poetry of Alexander Pope, 1955: Laureate of Peace

208 Pages·2017·1.73 MB·English

by  G. Wilson Knight

Routledge Revivals
The Poetry of Alexander Pope
First published in 1955, this exegesis on the writings of Alexander Pope reveals
the technical felicities of his poetry, and is the first to be devoted to the great
meaning inherent in his work. One section, which has appeared before and did
much to redirect the study of Pope, has been thoroughly revised. Of the other
four chapters, one offers an original of The Temple of Fame, and, while
discussing this neglected poem, makes several suggestions which may be said to
constitute a significant advance in aesthetics. Another analyses Byron’s support
of Pope, regarding it as a landmark in the history of English literary criticism and
as necessary to the understanding of Pope and Byron alike. The last chapter
discusses the relation of Pope’s thought to our own time. This book adds much to
what is already known of Pope, and will go far in reviving an interest in the work
and philosophy of the Laureate of Peace.
The Poetry of Alexander Pope
Laureate of Peace
George Wilson Knight
First published in 1955
by Routledge & Kegan Paul
This edition first published in 2018 by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 1955 George Wilson Knight
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or
utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now
known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any
information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the
publishers.
Publisher's Note
The publisher has gone to great lengths to ensure the quality of this reprint but
points out that some imperfections in the original copies may be apparent.
Disclaimer
The publisher has made every effort to trace copyright holders and welcomes
correspondence from those they have been unable to contact.
A Library of Congress record exists under ISBN: 65029516
ISBN 13: 978-1-138-30713-1 (hbk)
ISBN 13: 978-1-315-14237-1 (ebk)

First published in 1955
Published as a Routledge paperback 1965
by Routledge & Kegan Paul Ltd
Broadway House, 68-74 Carter Lane
London, E.C.
4
© G. Wilson Knight 1965
No part of this book may be reproduced
in any form without permission from
the publisher, except for the quotation
of brief passages in criticism To
JOHN COWPER POWYS
artist, teacher, seer
in
admiration Originally published as
LAUREATE OF PEACE: ON THE GENIUS OF
ALEXANDER POPE
Contents
PREFACE
I. DICTION AND DOCTRINE
II. THE VITAL FLAME: AN INTERPRETATIVE STUDY
III. SYMBOLIC ETERNITIES: AN INTRODUCTION TO The Temple of
Fame
IV. THE BOOK OF LIFE: ON BYRON’S ADULATION OF POPE
V. AFTERTHOUGHTS
POSTSCRIPT
INDEX
Preface
ON the presentation of this study—the first, so far as I know, to be devoted to the
total contents, as opposed to the style in isolation, of Pope's poetic work—a few
preliminary notes may prove helpful.
The book is composed of five sections, all but one of which are new.. The
opening is in the nature of a general survey intended to make a rough stage-
setting for what follows.1 This is followed by The Vital Flame', which appeared
first in The Burning Oracle in 1939 and has been for long out of print. It has been
given a surface revision, mainly a smoothing of syntax, and I have incorporated
three or four new quotations, but nothing has been added to the thought. Since
its first publication, this essay has helped to reorientate the contemporary
understanding of Pope's poetry, particularly (as I note on pp. 48, 51 and 171-2
below with references to Professor Maynard Mack's important and standard
edition2) in respect to the Essay on Man. Such defences are forced on me by the
nature of the opposition which my methods of interpretative analysis are still,
after twenty-five years, receiving in England. An attempt is made to clarify the
issue in my third section, a study of the unjustly neglected Temple of Fame, in the
course of which I have occasion to discuss the mutually interpretative functions
of the arts of space and time in direct relation to my own technique of spatial
interpretation.
The fourth section is given to Byron's praise of Pope. Of this I knew nothing
when I composed 'The Vital Flame' some sixteen years ago, and, when I came
across it during my Byronic studies, I was indeed gratified to find that my own
understanding of Pope had been so closely paralleled by Byron. If I was mad in
respecting Pope's 'message', in which he himself so ardently believed, I was mad
in excellent company; and even those who most rigorously oppose my refusal to
limit my studies to discussions of biography, sources, technique and the
manipulation of language, will, I hope, agree that the triangle made of Pope's
reiterated claims, Byron's ringing acceptations, and my own interpretations of
both Pope and Byron is, to say the least, a self-consistent and harmonious entity.
But to many readers it will, I hope, be rather more than that.