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Verse 20: 19 O Thou! whatever title please thine ear,20 Dean, Drapier, Bickerstaff, or Gulliver! The first verse is what we call typical in that it is the normal iambic pentameter verse: 19 Ŏ Thōu! | whătēv | ĕr tī…
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An Essay on Criticism
Introduction ( or What This is Not) This analysis is not exactly a critique, but in some ways it may well be. One would be daring to criticize a master such as Pope. However, this is about analyzing the metrical…
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The Dunciad—Part 2: Book I—verses 15, 17
Verse 15: 15 Laborious, heavy, busy, bold, and blind,16 She rul’d, in native Anarchy, the mind. The temptation in most readings knowing Pope’s form is to immediately place a metrical accent on every second syllable assuming that it is likely…
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The Dunciad—Part 1: Book I—verses 11, 12
11 Dulness o’er all possess’d her ancient right,12 Daughter of Chaos and eternal night: If we look at this couplet with the intent of examining its iambicity, we find both unwanted promotion and demotion of speech stress conflicting with metrical…