POPE'S TEACHINGS (essay on critisism)
...areful choice of words leaves one in no doubt as to how he feels about these vain wits. He creates a particularly effective image by skillfully describing their work: And glittering thoughts struck out at every line; Pleased with a work where nothings just or fit, Are glaring chaos and wild heap of wit. (pp. 2223, ll. 290-292) With this Pope emphasizes that "works may have more wit than does them good". (pp. 2223, ll. 303) Pope believes that most poets and critics alike in his day and age corrupt poetry with their superficial wit and he melancholy looks back to the golden age "when patriarch wits survived a thousand years". (pp. 2227, ll. 479) Throughout his essay Pope argues that true wit is a prime virtue which should be present in any good poet or critic. Pope is realistic enough to apprehend that one needs more than true wit and pleads for a high level of education too, both for poets and for critics. One can not just decide to become a poet as one is not in a position to decide whether one will become a poet. To put it bluntly, one either is or is not. Just as well as one can not decide to become a critic overnight by catching "the spreading notion of the town". (pp. 2225, ll. 409) It obviously takes more then mindlessly repeat someone else's words or opinions. Pope continues by emphasizing that "one science only will one genius fit". (pp. 2218, ll. 60) With this Pope is not just implying it is a talent, but a talent which one should guide by studying. Preferably by studying the Ancients in the general sense of the word: "Those rules of old discovered, not devised, / Are Nature still, but Nature methodized". (pp. 2218, ll. 88-89) He considers the Ancients to be the principal foundation of educating oneself as they educated themselves by going back to the main source, which is Nature. Pope himself was a great admirer of Homer and it is likely that he refers to him as well as to other great writers like him when he states: "Let such teach others who themselves excel". (pp. 2217, ll. 15) Pope warns us though that: A little learning is a dangerous thing; Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring. There shallow draughts intoxicate the brain, And drinking largely sobers us again. (pp. 2221, ll. 215-218) He must have had the youthful writers in mind when he wrote these lines. As these youthful writers have not yet build up their "knowledge both of books and humankind". (pp. 2230, ll. 640) An observation that remains significant today as one needs this knowledge to be able to write properly. He is just as harsh on the critics as to Pope most critics just have "loads of learned timber in [their] head". (pp. 2230, ll. 613) The ones he refers to here have most certainly studied sufficiently but never studied with a sense of intelligence, which actually makes it entirely useless knowledge. "So by false learning is good sense defaced: / Some are bewildered in the maze of schools". (pp. 2217, ll. 25-26) This statement definitely stands out as Pope outlines that it is up to the person in question to find an even balance between knowledge and sense which is not always that easy. It could not have been better illustrated then with the following words: Be sure yourself and your own reach to know, How far your genius, taste, and learning go; Launch not beyond your depth, but be discreet, And mark that point where sense and dulness meet. (pp. 2218, ll. 48-51) Pope fortunately does not forget the main element of a work of art. He argues that both critics and writers have to be divinely inspired, otherwise all true wit and education will be misspend: "Both must alike from Heaven derive their light, / These born to judge, as well as those to write". (pp. 2217, ll. 13-14) There was quite a bit of emphasis on the divine inspiration in those days. You therefore had to treat a work of literature not just as a piece of text but as a piece of art: "True ease in writing comes from art, not chance, / As those move easiest who have learne...