#alexander pope

[shisasan]

my violent passion

Alexander Pope to Teresa Blount September, 1714

[nemfrog]

Odysseus slays the suitors. The Odyssey of Homer. Translated by Alexander Pope. With 18th century illustrations by John Flaxman. 1854.

Internet Archive

[fostydosty]

The only thing I could think about when I heard that the first female translator of the Odyssey into English, Emily Wilson, lambasted Christopher Nolan’s Odyssey movie (which he claimed to have based upon her translation) is how the first woman to ever translate the Odyssey, Anne Dacier, rebuked Alexander Pope when he claimed to have based his work off of her French translation.

He held her in high regard and valued her opinion as a scholar. Here’s what she had to say about that, in the second edition foreword of her Iliad translation, titled Reflections on Part 1 of Mr. Pope’s Preface:

She scolds Pope for being ignorant of Homer, for harming his reputation, for using her work without attribution, for willful ignorance of Aristotle (so well illuminated by her husband André) and of generally talking nonsense. Moreover, according to Madame Dacier, Pope implies that he could correct Homer and thus also implies that he could correct his nation's politics.

“What a great resource [you are] for the State!”

Time truly is a flat circle

[antiqueanimals]

Alexander Pope (1849 – 1924). After the Hunt. Oil on canvas.

Coeur d’Alene Art Auction

[bethanydelleman]

I was looking at poetry that Jane Austen might have read and I came across Lady Mary Wortley Montagu. She sounds like an amazing woman. She thought her governess was dumb, so she hid in the family library and, "She taught herself Latin, a language usually reserved for men at the time. She secretly got a hold of a "Latin dictionary and grammar" and by the age of thirteen, her handling with the language was on par to most men. Furthermore, she was also a voracious reader."

She married an ambassador to the Ottoman empire and brought smallpox inoculation back to England. She was also a poet and important writer. In addition, she laughed at poet Alexander Pope (he is quoted in Austen's works) when he declared his love for her. (pictured below). (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lady_Mary_Wortley_Montagu)

The fact that someone heard about this proposal and then painted it is *chef's kiss*

(Edit) Here is the poem I used in a story:

A Hymn to the Moon

Written in July, in an arbour Thou silver deity of secret night, Direct my footsteps through the woodland shade; Thou conscious witness of unknown delight, The Lover's guardian, and the Muse's aid! By thy pale beams I solitary rove, To thee my tender grief confide; Serenely sweet you gild the silent grove, My friend, my goddess, and my guide. E'en thee, fair queen, from thy amazing height, The charms of young Endymion drew; Veil'd with the mantle of concealing night; With all thy greatness and thy coldness too.

[meetmitsui]

"To err is human. To forgive, divine."

—Alexander Pope

[portrait-paintings]

Alexander Pope

Artist: Attributed to Charles Jervas (Irish, c. 1675-1739)

Date: ca. 1713-1715

Medium: Oil on canvas

Collection: National Portrait Gallery, London, United Kingdom

Description

Alexander Pope (1688 - 1744) was an English poet, translator, and satirist of the Enlightenment era who is considered one of the most prominent English poets of the early 18th century. An exponent of Augustan literature, Pope is best known for his satirical and discursive poetry including An Essay on Criticism (1711), The Rape of the Lock (1712–1717), The Dunciad (1728–1743), and for his translations of Homer.

Pope is often quoted in The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations, some of his verses having entered common parlance (e.g. "damning with faint praise" or "to err is human; to forgive, divine").

Charles Jervas's portrait, in which the poet strikes his favorite meditative pose, was painted just as Pope had begun his translation of Homer's Iliad. The unusual composition may refer to the conflict between fame, represented by the bust of Homer in the top-left corner, and private friendship, symbolized by the figure of the woman who may be a portrait of Pope's close friend Martha Blount.

[rapscallion-rumble]

Umbriel, moon of Uranus

Umbriel is named after a gnome character in a poem by Alexander Pope, and in it, gnomes are supposed to be women who are prudish and such, but Umbriel is always given he/him pronouns so... Trans Gnome?