The Rape of the Lock Cantos 3-5

Like an epic poem, Rape is composed in iambic pentameter. But whereas Paradise Lost and the great Shakespearean tragedies are written in stately blank verse (i.e., unrhymed iambic pentameter), Pope’s verse satire is composed throughout of rhyming couplets, sometimes called heroic couplets. Recalling that one of the key features of satire is its combining of the lofty with the lowly, identify and comment on several couplets in Canto 3 that effectively capture this combining of high and low. Here’s one example (ll. 7-8):

  Here thou, great Anna! whom three realms obey,
  Dost sometimes counsel take—and sometimes tea.

In addition to suggesting the pretentious pronunciation of “tea” as “tay” (to rhyme with “obey” in the previous line), this couplet juxtaposes the majestical authority of Queen Anne against the common British custom of afternoon tea. How are we to read this particular combination of high and low? Does it suggest that the affairs of state (“counsel”) are as inconsequential as tea break? Or perhaps the target is Anne herself— the suggestion being that she gives to politics and governance no more care than that which she devotes to tea time?

Other couplets?

Examine lines 19-24. What does this mean, and how does it fit with the rest of the poem?

Identify a particularly humorous passage in the ombre battle (25-100) and explain why the satire is effective.

Examine the epic battle feast, the coffee break (105-24), and do the same.

Identify some other epic feature of Canto 3 and explain how it echoes some serious epic and/or tragic work (Paradise Lost, Beowulf, King lear, or any other “serious” work with which you are familiar).

Examine the Cave of Spleen’s denizens (17-54) and explain why one or two of the descriptions is appropriate to the poem. The idea here is to suggest connections between these “underworld” figures and their allegorical counterparts in the “real” world of English socialites.

Examine Belinda’s grief (147-76) for its satirical content. You might concentrate on especially effective rhyming couplets, or any other combination of the serious and the trivial.

Examine in some detail Clarissa’s monologue (9-34). What sort of character is she? What is her point, and how does it relate to our understanding of the poem? How does her audience respond, and why?

Epic battle of the sexes (37-102): echoes of real epic poems? Striking instances of serious/trivial combination? Especially humorous moments?

How would you describe the tone of the poem’s concluding consolation (141-50)?