Horatian Satires and Epistles

Horatian Satires and Epistles by Alexander Pope, 109 pages

     Bear me, some God!  oh quickly bear me hence

     To wholesome solitude, the nurse of sense:

     Where Contemplation prunes her ruffled wings

     And the free soul looks down to pity Kings!

This short book collects a series of satirical pieces devised by Alexander Pope in open imitation of Horace and Donne.  Pope, inspired by his predecessors, and like them

     To Virtue only and her friends, a friend

hears in their works the voice of a Muse, or perhaps of Conscience

     ('Tis Reason's voice, which sometimes one can hear)

and finds in that inspiration the power to condemn the vices and follies of his age as they did theirs

     If there be force in Virtue, or in Song.

Though the targets of Pope's satire are now generally obscure, the wit remains, and many of his lessons are eternally potent.

     So when you plague a fool, 'tis still the curse,

     You only make the matter worse and worse.

Although his poetry was generally rejected by an age that disdained form and craft, perhaps Pope's care and precision will experience a rehabilitation in a coming age exhausted by formlessness, tired of calculated spontaneity and simulated sincerity.  Then his prophecy will be validated

     Truth guards the Poet, sanctifies the line,

     And makes immortal, Verse as mean as mine.