An Essay on Criticism
An Essay on Criticism (Eng. An attempt on criticism ) is the first major poem by the English poet Alexander Pope (1688-1744). Despite the title, the poem is not an analysis in the strictest sense, but rather a compilation of Pope's various literary positions. As you read the poem, it becomes clear that it is not necessarily aimed at the inexperienced reader as an intended author. In this poem Pope uses the rhyme scheme of the heroic couplets , “heroic” rhyming pairs made up of iambic five-headers .
The poem first appeared in 1711, but was written as early as 1709. The German translation by JHM Dambeck appeared in 1807. Pope's correspondence shows that many of the ideas for the poem had existed since at least 1706. The poem is a verse essay, written in the style of Horace , which primarily deals with how writers and critics behave in the new literary scene in Pope's time. The poem reports a number of good reviews and advice, and it also reflects many of the essential literary ideals of the period.
In the opening sequence of the poem, Pope claims that bad reviews do more damage than badly written texts:
- 'Tis hard to say, if greater Want of Skill
- Appear in writing or in judging ill,
- But, of the two, less dang'rous is th 'Offence,
- To tire our Patience, than mis-lead our Sense
- Some few in that, but Numbers err in this,
- Ten Censure wrong for one who Writes amiss;
- A fool might once himself alone expose,
- Now One in Verse makes many more in Prose. ... (1–8)
Despite the harmful effects of bad criticism, the literature needs adequate criticism.
Pope describes common mistakes made by critics such as B. The elimination of light and stereotypical rhymes:
- And ten low words oft creep in one dull line:
- While they ring round the same unvaried chimes,
- With sure returns of still expected rhymes;
- Wher'er you find "the cooling western breeze",
- In the next line, it "whispers through the trees";
- If crystal streams "with pleasing murmurs creep",
- The reader's threatened (not in vain) with "sleep". . . (347-353)
Throughout the poem, Pope refers to earlier writers such as Virgil , Homer , Aristotle , Horace, and Longinos . This shows his belief that "ancestral imitation" is the ultimate standard of literary taste. Pope also said: "True ease in writing comes from art, not chance, / As those move easiest." ("True ease in writing comes from art, not chance, / As those move easiest who have learned to dance ", 362-363). That means poets are made, not born.
As is customary in Pope's poems, the essay ends with a reference to Pope himself. Walsh, the last of the critics mentioned, was a mentor and friend of Pope, who died in 1710.
The English playwright John Dennis attacked the Essay on Criticism violently, because it was mentioned in it derisively. As a consequence, Dennis appeared in a later satire by Pope, The Dunciad .
Part II of the Essay on Criticism includes a famous pair of rhymes:
- A little learning is a dangerous thing;
- Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring .
This refers to the source sacred to the muses in Pieria in Macedonia. Ironically, the first line of this pair of rhymes is often incorrectly quoted as "a little knowledge is a dangerous thing" and its actual meaning is thereby reinforced, since the incorrect quotation shows a certain learning deficit.
Part II is also the source of this famous line:
- To err is human, to forgive divine.
The line "Fools Rush In Where Angels Fear to Tread" (literally: "Crazy people rush into where angels don't dare", freely translated: "Blind zeal only harms!") From the second part was transferred to the English vocabulary and was used in various plants.
expenditure
- German: attempt on criticism. Free metric translation with the poet's notes and Warburton's explanations, translated by Johann Heinrich Dambeck , Karl Barth, Prague 1807. Restricted preview in Google book search
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ October 22, 1706: Correspondence , i.23-24.