Popes An Essay on Criticism -- Religion Essays Papers

Popes An act on Criticism When Samuel Johnson ascribed to a new work such(prenominal) extent of comprehension, such nicety of distinction, such acquaintance with mankind, and such knowledge both of both ancient and mod learning as not often attained by the maturest period and longest experience, he was speaking of young Alexander Popes An taste on Criticism (1711), written when he was about twenty, and published when he was scarce twenty-three years old (in Mack 177).1 Others have not been as generous in their comments about the prodigys efforts. One history of criticism schoolbook describes the work rather ingloriously There ar repetitions and inconsistencies, some formal pronouncements along with injunctions of lasting value but nowhere . . . are the principles organise into a coherent whole, and no cut-and-dried theory of criticism therefore emerges (in Morris 145).2 notwithstanding this harsher pronouncement, Alexander Popes An Essay on Criticism 1 Johnsons evaluatio n of Popes Essay has been upheld if for no other reason than that so many of the works bon mots have established noteworthy careers in daily household English. As Mack spy (177), Pope will sometimes manage a verbal engineer so simple in appearance, so breathtaking on reflection, that the super C sense of mankind has plucked it out of the poem and made it a part of speech A little Learning is a dangrous Thing (205) To err is forgiving to Forgive, Divine (525) For Fools rush in where Angels fear to tread (625). And several more. Next to Shakespeare, we may recall, Pope has contributed more to our common language than any other poet. It is a gift not lightly to be dismissed.One primary commission against the work is that it plagiarized the ... ...he Scriptures and in Pope, the goals of cosmic and poetic restoration are ones for which we can and must give thanks.Works CitedClark, Donald B. Alexander Pope. Twaynes English source Series. New York Twayne Publishers, Inc., 1967.Isle s, Duncan. Pope and Criticism, in Alexander Pope, edited by hammer Dixon. Writers and their Backgrounds. Athens, Ohio Ohio University Press, 1972.Mack, Maynard. Alexander Pope A Life. New York W. W. Norton and Company in connexion with New Haven Yale University Press, 1985.Morris, David B. Civilized Reading The Act of Judgment in An Essay on Criticism, in Alexander Pope, edited and with an introduction by Harold Bloom. Modern Critical Reviews. New York Chelsea House Publishers, 1986.Williams, E. Audra and Aubrey, eds. Pastoral Poetry and An Essay on Criticism. New Haven Yale University Press, 1961.