The Rape of the Lock

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PRACTICE THE STRATEGIES WE HAVE DISCUSSED AS YOU READ THE INTRODUCTION TO “THE RAPE OF THE LOCK”. At the beginning of "The Rape of the Lock," Pope identifies the work as a “heroi-comical poem.” Today, it is referred to as a mock-epic and sometimes as a mock-heroic. Such a work parodies the serious, elevated style of the classical epic poem to poke fun at human follies. Thus, a mock-epic is a type of satire; it treats petty humans or insignificant occurrences as if they were extraordinary or heroic. He satirizes female vanity and the rituals of courtships. He does this by being a part of it rather than standing outside and looking down on fellow human beings. There is a sense of duality in his style that praises his subjects on one level and criticizes them the next. It is a poem whose main theme is the fuss that high society makes over trifling matters, such as breaches of decorum. Other themes that Pope develops in the poem include human vanity and the importance of being able to laugh at life’s little reversals. Pope wrote ‘The Rape of the Lock’ in heroic couplets with “AABB” rhyme scheme. A heroic couplet is a unit of two rhyming lines in iambic pentameter. A line of verse in iambic pentameter consists of 10 syllables. The first syllable is unaccented, the second accented, the third unaccented, the fourth accented, and so on. The entire poem consists of one heroic couplet followed by another. For instance, in the first four lines, springs and things rhyme, so does due and view. His rhythm is balanced and measured. His content is purposefully trivial, his scope purposefully thin, his style purposefully light-hearted, and therefore his choice of form purposefully geared toward the smooth, natural rhythm of the heroic couplet. The caesura, the end-stopped lines, and the perfect rhymes lend the exact amount of manners and gaiety to his work. The main figure

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