Project Gutenberg 2006-01-01 Public domain in the USA. 3265 Pope, Alexander 1688 1744 Barnivelt, Esdras The Rape of the Lock, and Other Poems Reading ease score: 74.8 (7th grade). Fairly easy to read. Produced by Clytie Siddall, Charles Aldarondo, Tiffany Vergon and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team. "The Rape of the Lock" by Alexander Pope is a celebrated poem that exemplifies the mock-epic genre, written in the early 18th century. The work is based on a real incident involving a young lady, Arabella Fermor, and her suitor, Lord Petre, but takes a humorous and satirical approach to explore themes of vanity, honor, and social relationships among the aristocracy of Pope's time. It is notable for its use of elaborate language and its critical examination of contemporary social norms and behaviors. The beginning of the poem introduces us to its protagonist, Belinda, who is depicted as a quintessential young lady of high society. She awakens to the worship of her guardian Sylphs, who protect her virtue and beauty, but soon becomes embroiled in a series of events that lead to the author's exploration of the trivial yet intense social conflicts characteristic of the upper classes. Central to this opening portion is the whimsical and fantastical portrayal of the Sylphs, who provide a comical backdrop to the impending "dire offense" that unfolds, which is the baron's audacious attempt to steal Belinda's prized lock of hair. The introduction sets the tone for the poem's light yet critical narrative as it juxtaposes the seemingly trivial subject matter with the elevated style of epic poetry. (This is an automatically generated summary.) en English poetry -- 18th century Young women -- Poetry Catholics -- England -- Poetry PR Text Browsing: Literature Browsing: Poetry 485666 458051 2024-10-04T11:58:40.196826 2023-10-05T04:00:24.173020 text/html text/html 432487 2020-12-26T21:00:06 text/html; charset=iso-8859-1 198499 2020-12-26T21:00:06 text/html; charset=iso-8859-1 application/zip 277273 2024-10-04T11:58:55.860782 application/epub+zip 283078 2024-10-04T11:58:44.912888 application/epub+zip 231952 2024-10-04T11:58:42.817839 application/epub+zip 758668 2024-10-04T11:59:01.471728 application/x-mobipocket-ebook 432326 2024-10-04T11:58:53.793782 application/x-mobipocket-ebook 404028 2022-08-05T04:58:32.549683 application/x-mobipocket-ebook 368976 368877 2024-10-04T11:58:37.555895 2023-10-05T04:00:21.782003 text/plain; charset=us-ascii text/plain 368869 2020-12-26T21:00:06 text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 146459 2020-12-26T21:00:06 text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 application/zip 368888 2020-12-26T21:00:06 text/plain; charset=us-ascii 146409 2020-12-26T21:00:06 text/plain; charset=us-ascii application/zip 21785 2024-10-04T11:59:01.628733 application/rdf+xml 15510 2024-10-04T11:58:43.452836 image/jpeg 3687 2024-10-04T11:58:43.131827 image/jpeg 282016 2024-10-04T11:58:40.236874 application/octet-stream application/zip Archives containing the RDF files for *all* our books can be downloaded at https://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Gutenberg:Feeds#The_Complete_Project_Gutenberg_Catalog en.wikipedia