Ë öË‚ÁÁÃ-&Ã Bibliographic Essayƒ Ã-ÃAlexander Pope's An Essay on Criticism ƒ In 1711, at the age of 23, young Alexander Pope's An Essay on Criticism opened the door for him to be the greatest poet of his time. Although this is an "early poem", the concepts introduced in Essay are still valuable because they mature with Pope's poetry, especially the dialect between Nature and Art. Even after Pope's death, Essay was respected as the work that began Pope's career as the great English poet. In 1781, Samuel Johnson wrote, in his The Lives of the Poets, "One of the greatest though of his earliest works is the Essay on Criticism, which, if he had written nothing else, would have placed him among the criticks and the first poets..." (Tillotson 1103). Therefore, Pope's position as poet and critic were established by this one "early" poem. The criticism of Alexander Pope's Essay follows a fairly direct pattern, thematic research to theoretic studies. Since Essay is based on Horace's Ars Poetica, older scholarship, like Reuben Brower's study (1959), focuses on the Horatian mode and more specifically textual themes. Up until the late seventies and early eighties Essay articles and books were common. Scholars like Patricia Meyer Spacks, Howard Erskine-Hill, Douglas Park, David Morris, and of course Maynard Mack, were all writing articles and publishing books about Pope and Essay. These studies derived from the previous scholarship, developing the thematic studies into stylistic, political, and biographical studies. Then, the number of books slowed and the articles almost entirely disappeared until the end of the eighties and early nineties. Now, articles are scarce, but chapters in book length studies are reappearing. The reason for this "re-emergence" of Essay is questionable: could it be due to the upsurge of critical theory in scholarship that has scholars looking again at Pope's views on criticism? Or is it more valuable to contextualize Essay with other Pope works? Current scholarship now focuses on these matters creating a more complete analysis of the man and his works. Today Pope scholars are quite fortunate as to have the bibliographic and biologic authoritative texts completed. The Twickenham Edition of the Poems of Alexander Pope, edited by John Butt (1938-1969) are the complete, authoritative editions of Pope's works. Maynard Mack also adds to the wealth of Pope scholarship by publishing Pope: A Life (1985), the highly anticipated and much respected study of Pope's life. If Mack didn't find it and include it in his book, no one will for many years. Although these two works close the possibility for immediate bibliographic and biographic work, they allow for new comparative, socio-political, or theoretical work to be written on Pope's life and his work. As previously stated, the amount of journal articles are few compared to the attention Essay has been given in complete books. As emphasis on contextualizing various poems grows, it seems easier to thoroughly incorporate an essay as a section of a book than a self-standing article. Past and recent scholarship seems to fall into three categories: social and political, style and textual analysis, and most recently, theoretical analysis. The social and political essays introduce the politics and the history of Pope's time, and then places Pope and his work into the historic scope. These studies, however, do not address Essay as carefully as other studies, rather it relates the essay to its place in time. The second category focuses on the use of the text as the basis for the study. Some critics discuss Pope's style, while others dive into the text itself and the literary techniques he uses. Lastly, theoretical studies read Essay through the lens of specific theories. Of course the categories overlap somewhat, but most essays can be categorized easily. Up until Mack's biography of Pope was completed in 1985, political and historical essays were common. However, once Mack clearly showed Pope's life and times, little scholarship was attempted. Pope:A Life deserves to be discussed, if not briefly, because of its impact on Pope scholarship. Many questions about Pope were now answered by this book, and many new questions were raised. In his discussion of Essay, Mack paints a clear picture of the bustling and opinionated London community in which Pope lived. He also follows the development of the upper middle class man of 'sense' from those of 'wit'. Although Essay is just part of this biography, the entire text is a great prize to Pope research. The largest category of scholarship is style and text. These essays are still popular because the genius behind Pope was his writing. Whereas older critics, like Brower, focus primarily on themes, the more recent critics use themes as a backbone on which to build the use of metaphors and analogies. Two critics, Patricia Meyer Spacks and Douglas Park discuss metaphors and analogies respectively. They both realize that a study of the themes needs more depth in order to follow the thoughts of Pope. Spacks' focus on metaphors demonstrate human concerns and the definition of morality; whereas, Park looks to Nature in Essay to find the framework of judgment. Although these are crucial works to the study of Pope, they must be developed even further to survive in the theoretical view of literature. From this trend, the most recent critics found a basis off of which to work. Harrell Weathersby reads Essay through Edmund Burke's ideas of the beautiful and the sublime. he sees the shift from neo-classicism to romanticism like that of beautiful to sublime. Penelope Wilson works with two objectives: the feminine perspective and reader response. She believes Pope's language and rhetoric threatens the feminist perspective leading to "female appropriation" (66). She also states that the original reader for this essay could not be a woman because of its level of sophistication through allusions, poetic artifice, and traditions of the upper class white male world. Valerie Rumold works almost directly off of Spacks' model of metaphors to place the feminist lens over the text. Rumold contends that women are poorly represented as personifications, sexual chattel, and examples of poor judgment. She continues her search for " other" by looking, unsuccessfully, for representations of the poor in the text. Rumold's study demonstrates most clearly the trend of literary criticism. She works and develops Spacks' essay who used Brower's analysis. The various critical theories being applied to Essay clearly show its relevance beyond Pope's time as a work of cultural and rhetorical analysis. There are many roads to follow in order to gain an even more complete analysis of Essay. Despite the absence of journal articles in the late eighties, the criticism is plentiful, but in no way exhausted. There are many approaches to Essay still untouched. (1) Valerie Rumold and Penelope Wilson discuss women's roles in Essay, however, more can be done. These two women have merely opened the path for further feminist criticism. Some questions could be why does Pope portray women so negatively? Is this portrayal consistent throughout Essay on Criticism? If a study compares or contrasts women in Essay to other poems, what are the results? similarities? These problems may demonstrate how Pope viewed women at specific times in his career, as well as showing how women were placed in literature and society. (2) There are many theoretical positions that can be applied to Essay on Criticism; however, two can be developed easily: Bakhtin and heteroglossia and Reader response theories. Through heteroglossia the many voices throughout the poem can be analyzed, raising the level of comprehension. The question of audience, was raised in Penelope Wilson's essay. This can be developed to answer the question if Pope was aware of his growing audience because of the print culture. Who was Pope's intended audience compared to his actual audience. (3) The terms "Nature" and "Art" have been widely accepted by critics for decades. All critics at least mention Nature and Art in their essays. In order to bring the terms into this decade, and its probable changing meaning, the words could be redefined. (4) A research oriented study could focus on Pope's influence in his society to today. Since Pope's "wise sayings" have become cliches in our society, it would be interesting to trace the popularity and place of these sayings in literature and other mediums. By following the information pattern, critics and historians will be able to study how Pope's information was infused into Pope's "popular" society. In this essay I have tried to show the pattern of scholarship of Essay on Criticism, and where future critics will follow. Textual analyses, as well as biographical, have dominated the field for many years. Now, it is time to redefine "assumed" terms and look theoretically at Essay on Criticism. Through these lenses, a more complete and possibly new Pope can be uncovered and explored.Due to the lack of studies on Essay in periodicals, this bibliography will focus on selective criticism over the last twenty years. With a few exceptions, the selective books used in this study were published after 1983. The definitive edition of the works of Alexander Pope is The Twickenham Edition of the Poems of Alexander Pope. ed. John Butt et al. 11 vols. London, 1938-1969. Brower, Reuben Arthur. Alexander Pope: The Poetry of Allusion London: Oxford UP, 1959. Because of amusement, Brower titles Pope as "pure neo-classical. In this study Essay demonstrates early expressions of Pope's themes and ideas of later works. Pope's use of Miltonic Nature and the influence of Dryden are clearly demonstrated. Brower aids in the reading and the study of Essay by including a background on the Horatian mode which Pope follows for this poem. Cowler, Rosemary, ed. The Prose Works of Alexander Pope. By Alexander Pope. Hamden: Archon, 1986. Includes information on Pope's sources and discusses Longinus. Attempts to confront a major question in Essay by defining good taste as "equated with good sense, as the natural response of the educated and cultivated, schooled in the practice of the ancients." Believes defining words will clarify ambiguity in the poem. Damrosch, Leopold. The Imaginative World of Alexander Pope. Berkeley: U of California P, 1987. The study focuses on the social and political events of Pope's time, and his use of language. States that Pope's Essayis not of "mature" art and his use of epic/tragic rules are a youthful attempt at an unknown genre. Damrosch considers the Restoration mood of the French influenced neoclassicism with poetics and critics as an influence for this essay. Erskine-Hill, Howard. "Alexander Pope: The Political Poet in His Time."Eighteenth Century Studies 15 (1981-1982)/:123-148. Essay is barely analyzed in this study. Hill focuses on the political overview of Pope's England in relation to his religion and career. With clear examples and background information of England, the essay follows Pope's career historically. France, Peter. "The French Pope." Alexander Pope: Essays for the Tercentenary. Colin Nicholson, ed. Aberdeen: Aberdeen UP, 1988. 117-129. A complete discussion of Pope's popularity and career in France. There is great emphasis on Voltaire's influence on Pope's career as the first great English poet to be widely known across the English Channel. Hammond, Brean S. Pope. London: Harvester, 1986. A brief discussion which focuses on Pope's grammatical techniques in Essay. Pope is also dubbed a poet of "honest Mean" with his commitment to moderation. Compared to other works, Essay is barely touched by Hammond. Hotch, Ripley. "Pope Surveys His Kingdom: An Essay on Criticism." Studies in English Literature 13:3 (1973): 474-87. Hotch believes that Pope compares the state of poetry to a kingdom through language and metaphor. Pope uses humility throughout the poem, but he believes that his is the logical heir, after Roscommon and Walsh, to the throne of accomplished poet. The analysis is clearly demonstrated and supported by the text. Mack, Maynard. Alexander Pope: A Life. New Haven: Yale UP, 1985. The greatly anticipated standard biography of Alexander Pope emphasizes the relationship of Pope's work to the history and politics of his time. Pope's influences and background are discussed as a lead into Essay. The analysis of Essay revolves around the Eighteenth Century and Pope's use of Nature as the answer to many questions, as will as complete discussions of the poems place in political history. ---. Collected in Himself: Essays Critical, Biographical, and Bibliographical on Pope and Some of His Contemporaries. Newark: U Delaware P, 1982. The discussion seems focused on Pope's life and attitude with Essay rather than the literary work itself. It is helpful to more fully understand the manner in which to approach the essay. Morris, David B. Alexander Pope: The Genius of Sense. Cambridge: Harvard UP, 1984. Clearly one of the best studies of Alexander Pope's works through analysis and previous Eighteenth Century criticism. Morris' thesis, that Essay is "an original and significant contribution to the history of critical theory" successfully disproves the 100 year old critical acceptance that Essay is "so vague as to mean nothing." Attention is paid to Dryden as Pope's influence and Joseph Addison, Joseph Warton, and Samuel Johnson's reactions. Nichol, Donald, ed. Pope's Literary Legacy 1744-1780. Oxford: Oxford Bibliographic Series, 1992. Pope's correspondences and letters related to his works are explained with background information. Special attention to Essay are on pages 1-5. Park, Douglas B. "At Once the 'Source', and 'End': Nature's Defining Pattern in An Essay on Criticism." PMLA 90 (1975):861-73. Follows the use of Nature to pattern Essay. Nature is the principle of order by which to "frame" judgment. The images of artistic and divine creation are also followed to idealize the process of forms and art. Piper, William Bowman. "The Conversational Poetry of Pope." Studies in English Literature 10 (1970): 505-24. Refers to Essay as the earliest conversational poem that is most fully achieved. Piper believes that Essay neither strains social harmony nor tests social politeness because it does not judge figures directly. Pope's references to Homer and Virgil are seen as general. Rosslyn, Felicity. Alexander Pope: A Literary Life. London: MacMillan, 1990. Contends that the center of Essay is Reason "that precious faculty so vulnerable to human pride." She discusses Pope's background of Greco and Roman and Renaissance treatises on how to read and write as well as french criticism. Rosslyn also asserts the claim of Pope as a New Classic. Rumold, Valerie. Women's Place in Pope's World. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1989. Begins her argument by stating that Essay looks to the highly developed world of literary culture, with the real subject of upper class men. She believes women are only negatively represented and mocked in Essay, whereas the poor are not even represented. States and supports that the female gender entails the "risk of sexual appropriation." Savage, Roger. "Antiquity As Nature: Pope's Fable of 'Young Maro' in An Essay on Criticism." Alexander Pope: Essays for the Tercentenary. Colin Nicholson, ed. Aberdeen: Aberdeen UP, 1988. 83-114.The discussion begins by following the story of Young Maro in Essay. Savage also identifies Dryden as an influence in Pope's writing and Homer for Nature. The final word is that Pope believes poets and critics should ground themselves firmly in classical literature. Spacks, Patricia Meyer. An Argument of Images: The Poetry of Alexander Pope. Cambridge: Harvard UP, 1971. (Chapter on Essay also published in Maynard Mack and James Winn's Pope: Recent Essays by Several Hands. Hamden: Archon, 1980.)Through play by play of metaphors in the essay, Spacks demonstrates how the didactic poem focuses on human concerns and morality. It is Spacks contention that Pope wished to "enlarge imagery's function" to demonstrate wit's power to organize through metaphor as well as to decorate didacticism. Weathersby, Harrell. "An Analysis of Pope's An Essay on Criticism and Thomson's 'Winter' as Examples of Edmund Burke's Concepts of the Beautiful and the Sublime."SoQ 10 (1972): 375-83. Through the lens of Edmund Burke and sublime and beautiful, two works that embody two contradictory examples Thomson's 'Winter' and Essay are analyzed. Contends that Pope would agree with Burke that beauty must at some point deviate form the norm for the sake of variety. Eventually, Weathersby states, Pope moves to the sublime. Wilson, Penelope. "Engendering the Reader: 'Wit and Poetry and Pope' once more." The Enduring Legacy, Alexander Pope Tercentenary Essays. Rousseau, C.S., and Pat Rogers, eds. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1988. 63-76. Wilson's essay focuses on women as reader of Essay. Because of the setup of Pope's language, the feminist perspective is threatened. The unlikelihood of a woman as the original reader is also demonstrated in examples of Pope's poetic irony, allusions, artful and assumptions drawn into play.