The Rape of the Lock, and a Key to the Lock
by Alexander Pope
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When Lord Petre had the effrontery of cutting off a lock of Lady Arabella Fermor's hair, a veritable war erupted between the two noble families. A mutual friend, saddened by their estrangement, asked Alexander Pope, then a young poet, to write a poem about it, in order to make a joke of it and "laugh them together again". But the result - which in its ingenuity and poetical brilliance reaches peaks of epic sublime - concealed darker and more dangerous undertones that unleashed an evengreater show more storm between the parties involved - and among the whole literary world of the time. As Belinda glides along the Thames admired for her beauty and the crafty Baron schemes to take his prize, a host of supernatural beings - elfs, sylphs, gnomes - dance around them to avoid the impending doom, in what is Pope's crowning poetical achievement and perhaps the greatest satirical poem ever written. Included in this volume are the original two-canto version ofThe Rape of the Lock and Pope's hilarious mock-interpretation of the poem as a seditious work,A Key to the Lock. show lessTags
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340+ Works 6,163 Members
Satirical poet Alexander Pope was born in London on May 21, 1688. He was educated by private tutors. Many consider Pope to be the greatest poet of his time, and he also wrote commentaries and translations, he is best known for such poems as The Rape of the Lock and The Duncaid. Pope was the first English poet to make a substantial amount of money show more from his writing. Pope died on May 30, 1744. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
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- The Rape of the Lock, and a Key to the Lock
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- English
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- Paper, Ebook
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- 3
