The "Elegy to the Memory of an Unfortunate Lady" is a poem in heroic couplets by Alexander Pope, first published in his Works of 1717. A couplet is a pair of lines of verse. It usually consists of two lines that rhyme and have the same meter Alexander Pope (21 May 1688 – 30 May 1744 is generally regarded as the greatest English Poet of the eighteenth century best known for his Satirical Year 1717 ( MDCCXVII) was a Common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Though only 82 lines long, it has become one of Pope's most celebrated pieces.
The work begins with the poet asking what ghost beckons him onward with its "bleeding bosom gor'd"; it is the spirit of an unnamed woman (the "lady" of the title) who acted "a Roman's part" (i. e. , committed suicide) due to loving "too well. " The speaker eulogizes her sacrifice and then for several lines berates and curses her uncle (who is also her guardian) for being a "mean deserter of [his] brother's blood" and having no compassion on the lady. There follows a description of her foreign burial in a "humble grave" unattended by friends and relatives, which Pope sums up in the striking couplet:
- "A heap of dust alone remains of thee;
- 'Tis all thou art, and all the proud shall be!"
- (lines 73-4)
The concluding lines contain the speaker's application of this lesson of mortality to himself: someday he too will die and the last thought of the lady will be torn from him as he passes away.
Readers' reactions to this work have been varied, and some have offered severe criticisms. John Wesley in "Thoughts on the Character and Writings of Mr. John Wesley (ˈwɛslɪ ( – March 2, 1791) was an Anglican cleric and Christian theologian who was the founder of the (Evangelical Prior" (1782) compared the poet Matthew Prior with Pope, mostly to the detriment of the latter; in this essay, Wesley says of Pope:
- "As elegant a piece as he ever wrote was, 'Verses to the Memory of an Unfortunate Lady. Year 1782 ( MDCCLXXXII) was a Common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common For the Sussex and England Cricketer see Matthew Prior (cricketer. ' But was ever anything more exquisitely injudicious? First, what a subject! An eulogium on a self-murderer! And the execution is as bad as the design: It is a commendation not only of the person, but the act!"
Most of Wesley's grounds for criticism are moral: since--as he would consider self-evident--suicide is an evil act that affronts God and causes the doer to go to hell, the glorification of the lady's act in this poem is seriously objectionable. God is the principal or sole Deity in Religions and other belief systems that worship one deity. Hell, according to many Religious beliefs, is a location in the Afterlife, which may be described as a place of suffering (This did not, however, prevent him from quoting the couplet given above in his Journal on more than one occasion [see December 5, 1750 and July 4, 1786]. Year 1750 ( MDCCL) was a Common year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Year 1786 ( MDCCLXXXVI) was a Common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common ) Samuel Johnson in his Lives of the Poets also faulted the "Elegy" on similar grounds, referring to "the illaudable singularity of treating suicide with respect. Samuel Johnson (often referred to as Dr Johnson) (18 September "
A different kind of criticism, one on artistic grounds, is made by Maynard Mack in his important biography Alexander Pope: A Life. Mack acknowledges that there are beautiful passages in the poem, but also finds that it is marked by a certain incoherence between elements and attitudes which are not fully reconciled, such as the idea of Roman suicide vs. that of Christian burial, or the strange curse on the uncle and all his posterity for his unspecified crimes. Johnson also anticipates some of this artistic censure in judging that "the tale [in the poem] is not skilfully told. "
Though Mack's critique is effective and arguably well justified, most critics would not deny the emotional impact of Pope's "Elegy," and even Johnson acknowledges that the poem "must be allowed to be written in some parts with vigorous animation, and in others with gentle tenderness. " It is frequently included in anthologies that include Pope's best-known poems or those of his era, and the "Elegy's" effective phrasing is often remembered and quoted.
References
- John Butt, ed. , The Poems of Alexander Pope: A Reduced Version of the Twickenham Text. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1973, pp. 262-4. ISBN 0-300-00030-8. (Used for poem text and date originally published. )
- John Wesley, "Thoughts on the Character and Writings of Mr. Prior" and "Journals" in Wesley's Works as given in "The Master Christian Library" v. 8 (by Ages Software).
- Maynard Mack, Alexander Pope: A Life. NY: Norton, 1985, pp. 312-19. ISBN 0-393-30529-5.
- Samuel Johnson, "Pope" [partial excerpt from Lives of the Poets], in Donald Greene, ed. , Samuel Johnson: The Major Works. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1984, p. 739. ISBN 0-19-284042-8.
External links
- Project Gutenberg e-text of The Poetical Works of Alexander Pope, Volume 1 (includes the "Elegy"). Project Gutenberg, abbreviated as PG, is a volunteer effort to Digitize, archive and distribute Cultural works
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