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PoetryThe Rape of the Lock, and Other PoemsAlexander PopeThe Rape of the Lock, and Other Poems

The Rape of the Lock, and Other Poems

Alexander Pope

PoetryEnglish
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At a fashionable party at Hampton Court, a young baron snips off a lock of the beautiful Belinda's hair with a pair of scissors, and a social war breaks out…

Catalogue details

Author
Alexander Pope
Category
Poetry
Language
English
Source
Project Gutenberg

About this book

At a fashionable party at Hampton Court, a young baron snips off a lock of the beautiful Belinda's hair with a pair of scissors, and a social war breaks out. Alexander Pope tells this trivial quarrel in the grand style of Homer and Virgil, with a game of cards described like a battle, a heroic fight with fans and snuff, a journey to the gloomy Cave of Spleen, and an army of tiny guardian spirits, the sylphs, who have failed to protect her. This volume includes other poems by Pope.

Context and significance

The poem was based on a real incident: Lord Petre had cut a lock of Arabella Fermor's hair, and the two families fell out, so Pope's friend John Caryll asked him to write a light poem to laugh them into peace. First published in 1712 and enlarged in 1714, it is the finest mock-epic in English. Compare the real epic of Homer's Iliad, and read Pope's An Essay on Man.

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