Alexander Pope s Translation Of The Iliad - 984 Words

Sometime last year, I started to bike to my job an hour early, in order to spend time reading before work at a nearby coffee shop. Among the books I read was Alexander Pope’s translation of the Iliad, and after a particularly cold a miserable bike ride in the winter, I came across this couplet: To labour is the lot of man below; / And when Jove gave us life, he gave us woe. That line struck me, partially because of the three thousand years of solidarity connecting my complaints to the old Greek kings, but because of how the words gained meaning to me as they carried meaning. Of course, that was not the first time I ever had a line or phrasing stick with me from a book. It was, however, the first time I realized the strangeness of being able to connect with words from an author so disparate from me in time and place who was writing about a setting completely disconnected from my own experiences. I had this little moment of clarity about my time as an undergraduate student in English. While thinking about it, I connected this couplet to a larger idea I had been circling around for a while about how works of fiction require a back and forth between a reader and text. While I underline quotes and take notes in the margins of books I read, I am adding my own words directly into the text of a book. As a great essay can change how people view an author or book, writing essays is a way to actively engage with texts in order to shape their meaning. This is what I had beenShow MoreRelatedDiscuss Alexander Popes The Rape Of The Lock as a Mock Heroic Poem.2174 Words   |  9 PagesArabella Fermor, and both she and her family had taken offence. Caryll suggested that Pope should write a poem to to make a jest of it, and laugh them together again. The result was the publication of The Rape of the Lock, in May 1712. However due to a favourable reaction, Pope published an expanded version in 1714, containing the card battle, the Cave of Spleen and the major addition of the s upernatural elements that pope refers to as the machinery. In 1717 a new edition containing the speech of ClarissaRead MoreLiterary Group in British Poetry5631 Words   |  23 Pagesfrom classical mythology; Shakespeares Venus and Adonis and the Christopher Marlowe/George Chapman Hero and Leander are examples of this kind of work. Translations of classical poetry also became more widespread, with the versions of Ovids Metamorphoses by Arthur Golding (1565–67) and George Sandys (1626), and Chapmans translations of Homers Iliad (1611) and Odyssey (c.1615), among the outstanding examples. [edit]Jacobean and Caroline poetry English Renaissance poetry after the Elizabethan poetryRead MoreOdyssey Historical Background6500 Words   |  26 PagesThe Odyssey ~ Background Information * The novel covers a 10 year period. * The novel was written approximately in 720 B.C. * The novel takes place in 1230 B.C. ~ during the Bronze age. * The Iliad (written first) and The Odyssey are based on historical events that took place about 1230 B.C. * Both novels are considered epic poems * The Odyssey is defined as a journey. This is the story of Odysseus’ journey back home after the Trojan War. From The Odyssey, Homer chose the