That very life his learned hunger craves, He saves from famine, from the savage saves; Nay, feasts the animal he dooms his feast, And, till he ends the being, makes it blest; Which sees no more the stroke, or feels the pain, Than favoured man by touch ethereal slain. These mental functions are essay on man pope down into instinct, reflection, memory, and reason. On its publication, An Essay on Man received great admiration throughout Europe, essay on man pope. See him from Nature rising slow to art! You think this cruel? Who made the spider parallels design, Sure as Demoivre, without rule or line?
POPE’S POEMS.
This essay discusses the philosophy that Pope brings forth essay on man pope his Essay that Man, in his pride and disbelief, is blinded and fails to realize the beauty and sublimity in the perfect world that God has created, rather it is Man who creates the dissonance and distortion to this seamless creation. An Essay on Man was written by Alexander Pope in and was published anonymously. The Essay presents a contradictory situation through which Pope steers the readers between the new age of mathematical and scientific certainty and that of the older traditional ecclesiastic faith. Through the poem, Pope uses old ideas as a frame to bind, the modern thought of given instantaneous world in order to reconcile a notional map of Nature.
The expressed contradiction between man and Nature shows the intellectual weakness of man. Man, in his foolishness, searches for the mysteries of life that is safely kept in the intricate and flawless creation of the landscape architect. For all its intricacies, the creator has created the maze to perfection. The description of the garden scene in the poem opens the contradiction that Pope talks of in the introduction to the Essay. Man creates a perfect, intricate maze and Pope compares it to the wild Nature created by God that apparently seems spontaneous and unplanned.
He, thus, essay on man pope, shows the pride in man through the description of the hunter who shows confidence at his complete knowledge of the quarry:. Man is presented as the creator of disorder in the simple, unexploited, natural setting. Man, represented as problematic and divided, essay on man pope, is not a harmonious dweller in the Nature God created. Nature has found its repeated presence in the Essay. This makes one almost believe that Nature and God are intermingled to form a superpower. Nevertheless, reading the poem shows repeated reference of Nature indicates that the concept is not a mere personification.
These lines written in essay on man pope tense metaphorically show the living Nature in the sun that participates in the godly action. There essay on man pope a contradiction in the deist believe expressed by Pope in the Essay. Whenever there is, a mention of the word Heaven or God there arises a conflict with Nature. When he calls God, he implies the almighty, superpower, which has planned it all. Nevertheless, when he says Heaven he brings in a personal touch to God who becomes a close companion and observer of all.
Pope in the Essay says that Nature, though Man believes that Nature is unplanned, keeps account of all its creations:. In this delineation of Nature, God, heaven, Pope actually tries to demonstrate the God keeps humans below and limits of human knowledge to reduce his suffering. God made the universe and makes it follow the principles He made. This dualism of conceptualization of God and Nature is furthers in Epistle III where Pope discusses the historic moral development of man starting from the time be started living as the lord with simple cohabitation with Nature, essay on man pope. After this couplet, Pope shows a new facet of Nature wherein he professes that Nature is the innocent face of Man before it was contaminated with the art to reason. Pope therefore, confuses the readers, as it becomes difficult to ascertain if reason is a foe or a friend to Man in his history of social and moral evolution.
The Essay shows that Superior creatures have a way of looking down upon the Inferior creatures, as Man looks down upon animals, which, amusingly are closest to the rational Nature. In Epistle II Pope speaks of this idea of the chain of Being:. In his pride and perception of superiority, man becomes an object of mirth. Pope uses the example of Newton to show the innate interest in all Man to expand his rationality into Nature. Pope furthers the irony in the pride of Man in showing that the pride that man so dearly cherishes is given to him by none other than Nature. Following this, Pope reaches to the climax of his philosophy where he says that it is Heaven or Nature that supplies all that is necessary for the creation of the world, including goodness and virtue.
On the other hand, Man, ironically considers himself as the lord of all creation, fails to fathom that he too is created by Nature. Pope therefore says:. Here Pope reinforces the beliefs that Man is blinded in his pride, and fails to see that it is Heaven that is the master of all creation. The vanity that Man store is created by Nature. Pope shows that Nature created the world with utmost perfection and ceased to essay on man pope in its diurnal motion. Man blinded with pride thinks that he can unravel the mystery lying at the abyss of the world, but fails to realize that this intelligence, this pride, this vanity that he so self-obsessively cherishes is a creation of that nature he tries to trivialize. Therefore, Pope in the Essay praises the beauty of the system that Nature rationalizes its creation.
The love of self of man is dynamic and is directed through human passion and conduct along with reason, essay on man pope. Essay on man pope this duality of passion and reason, passion has an upper hand. The Essay is a satire on the follies of man, but within its witticism and mirth, Pope skillfully presents a metaphysical philosophy that is difficult to neglect. Man has tried to control and recreate nature according to his own will. However, Pope contends that Man fails to see that the one who planned it to remain unplanned, Nature, created the world.
Atkins, G. Cutting-Gray, Joanne and James E. Lawlor, Nancy K. Rogers, Pat. The Cambridge Companion to Alexander Pope. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, White, Douglas H, essay on man pope. and Thomas P. Need a custom Critical Essay sample written from scratch by professional specifically for you? certified writers online, essay on man pope. We use cookies to give you the best experience possible. If you continue, we will assume that you agree to our Cookies Policy, essay on man pope. Learn More. You are free to use it for research and reference purposes in order to write your own paper; however, you must cite it accordingly. Removal Request. If you are the copyright owner of this paper and no longer wish to have your work published on IvyPanda.
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compare and contrast essay outline
In section 8 Pope emphasizes the depths to which the universe extends in all aspects of life. This includes the literal depths of the ocean and the reversed extent of the sky, as well as the vastness that lies between God and Man and Man and the simpler creatures of the earth. Pope stresses the maintenance of order so as to prevent the breaking down of the universe. In the ninth stanza, Pope once again puts the pride and greed of man into perspective. This image drives home the point that all things are specifically designed to ensure that the universe functions properly. Pope ends this stanza with the Augustan belief that Nature permeates all things, and thus constitutes the body of the world, where God characterizes the soul.
In the tenth stanza, Pope secures the end of Epistle 1 by advising the reader on how to secure as many blessings as possible, whether that be on earth or in the after life. Pope exemplifies this acceptance of weakness in the last lines of Epistle 1 in which he considers the incomprehensible, whether seemingly miraculous or disastrous, to at least be correct, if nothing else. Epistle II is broken up into six smaller sections, each of which has a specific focus. The first section explains that man must not look to God for answers to the great questions of life, for he will never find the answers. Pope emphasizes the complexity of man in an effort to show that understanding of anything greater than that would simply be too much for any person to fully comprehend.
We are the most intellectual creatures on Earth, and while we have control over most things, we are still set up to die in some way by the end. We are a great gift of God to the Earth with enormous capabilities, yet in the end we really amount to nothing. The first section of Epistle II closes by saying that man is to go out and study what is around him. He is to study science to understand all that he can about his existence and the universe in which he lives, but to fully achieve this knowledge he must rid himself of all vices that may slow down this process. The second section of Epistle II tells of the two principles of human nature and how they are to perfectly balance each other out in order for man to achieve all that he is capable of achieving.
These two principles are self-love and reason. He explains that all good things can be attributed to the proper use of these two principles and that all bad things stem from their improper use. Pope further discusses the two principles by claiming that self-love is what causes man to do what he desires, but reason is what allows him to know how to stay in line. The rest of section two continues to talk about the relationship between self-love and reason and closes with a strong argument. Humans all seek pleasure, but only with a good sense of reason can they restrain themselves from becoming greedy. Part III of Epistle II also pertains to the idea of self-love and reason working together. It starts out talking about passions and how they are inherently selfish, but if the means to which these passions are sought out are fair, then there has been a proper balance of self-love and reason.
There is a ratio of good to bad that man must reach to have a well balanced mind. While our goal as humans is to seek our pleasure and follow certain desires, there is always one overall passion that lives deep within us that guides us throughout life. The main points to take away from Section III of this Epistle is that there are many aspects to the life of man, and these aspects, both positive and negative, need to coexist harmoniously to achieve that balance for which man should strive. The fourth section of Epistle II is very short. It starts off by asking what allows us to determine the difference between good and bad.
The next line answers this question by saying that it is the God within our minds that allows us to make such judgements. This section finishes up by discussing virtue and vice. The relationship between these two qualities are interesting, for they can exist on their own but most often mix, and there is a fine line between something being a virtue and becoming a vice. Section V is even shorter than section IV with just fourteen lines. It speaks only of the quality of vice. Vices are temptations that man must face on a consistent basis. Section VI, the final section of Epistle II, relates many of the ideas from Sections I-V back to ideas from Epistle I. tempting with forbidden fruit. Share this: Twitter Facebook. Like this: Like Loading Published by senadaalia.
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