Throughout our second semester of AP Lit we have covered many new things but having just finished a lesson on analyzing poetry, I figured I would write, or rather vent, about it on the blog!
When starting this journey through poetry, I have to admit I was quite nervous and interested at the same time. I was nervous because based on my past experiences with analyzing poetry they haven’t gone over very well. Yet, I was interested at the same time because maybe learning these new techniques would help me have a greater appreciation for poetry and its meaning. Well, the journey has come to a halt and my feelings about poetry remain the same with some frustration added to the list.
The techniques, TPCASTT and SOAPSTone, that we learned are quite helpful most of the time, but I get frustrated while trying to find meaning behind everything and having to ask, “why did the poet use this word instead of that word?” or “why is the poem divided this way?,” etc. Having said that, it makes me wonder…do we over-analyze poetry? Do we over think every stanza, line, and word? While we are busy trying to decipher the message the poet was trying to get across, are we forgetting about the enjoyment of just reading a poem and taking from it what we can?
What do you think??
Thursday, March 11, 2010
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
Guest Blogger: Tania G.
Unfortunately, I have been out sick for a
long while. Making up work from all
of my classes has been so hard, but
nothing confuses me more than poetry.
Which happens to be part of what I
missed out on. So here is my attempt
on analyzing poetry.
So I guess in class we have been learning how
to analyze poetry. Poetry can be really
confusing and hard to understand without a
systematic method to look at every element
of the poem one step at a time. Most of us
would just ask someone for the meaning of a
poem, or just leave it and hope someone will
fill us in. Thanks to our packet we can use
TPCASTT or SOAPST on a poem to get a
closer look and better understanding of
of the poem.
T- title
P- paraphrase
C- connotation
A- attitude
S- shift
T- title
T- theme
And now to test myself on how well
I have managed to learn the way of
this strategy on a poem from our
book "Sound and Sense".
I LIKE A LOOK OF AGONY
I like a look of Agony,
Because I know it’s true--
Men do not sham Convulsion,
Nor simulate, a Throe--
The Eyes gaze once--and that is Death--
Impossible to feign
The Beads upon the Forehead
By homely Anguish stung.
Emily Dickinson
T- I like a look of Agony
P- She is describing how she likes the look of suffering
on people’s faces because it's honest. People don't fake
suffering.
C-Personal pronoun (I) it's her personal opinion.
“Impossible to feign” she is saying that agony
is true.
A-Calm, and very grim.
S-No shift
T-I like a look of Agony
Addresses herself and states
That she likes truth and honesty.
T- Human honesty in the hours
of pain and suffering.
long while. Making up work from all
of my classes has been so hard, but
nothing confuses me more than poetry.
Which happens to be part of what I
missed out on. So here is my attempt
on analyzing poetry.
So I guess in class we have been learning how
to analyze poetry. Poetry can be really
confusing and hard to understand without a
systematic method to look at every element
of the poem one step at a time. Most of us
would just ask someone for the meaning of a
poem, or just leave it and hope someone will
fill us in. Thanks to our packet we can use
TPCASTT or SOAPST on a poem to get a
closer look and better understanding of
of the poem.
T- title
P- paraphrase
C- connotation
A- attitude
S- shift
T- title
T- theme
And now to test myself on how well
I have managed to learn the way of
this strategy on a poem from our
book "Sound and Sense".
I LIKE A LOOK OF AGONY
I like a look of Agony,
Because I know it’s true--
Men do not sham Convulsion,
Nor simulate, a Throe--
The Eyes gaze once--and that is Death--
Impossible to feign
The Beads upon the Forehead
By homely Anguish stung.
Emily Dickinson
T- I like a look of Agony
P- She is describing how she likes the look of suffering
on people’s faces because it's honest. People don't fake
suffering.
C-Personal pronoun (I) it's her personal opinion.
“Impossible to feign” she is saying that agony
is true.
A-Calm, and very grim.
S-No shift
T-I like a look of Agony
Addresses herself and states
That she likes truth and honesty.
T- Human honesty in the hours
of pain and suffering.
Friday, March 5, 2010
Poetry
Please comment on guest bloggers. Three are due in two weeks.
For the poetry assignment, please respond to a poem in the back of Sound and Sense using either the Didls or 5-step technique. Due Monday.
For the poetry assignment, please respond to a poem in the back of Sound and Sense using either the Didls or 5-step technique. Due Monday.
Guest Blogger: Elizabeth P.
Truth be told, we’ve all had one of those moments while taking a test where you get to a question on a topic you had hoped wouldn’t be on it. Personally, I think it helps if you are able to tell what type of question it is; does it want the theme or the synonym for a word from a piece you read? Lucky for those of you like me, Mr. Decker has provided us with the usual categories that a poetry question may fall under on an AP test.
There are seven main categories: dramatic situation, structure, theme, grammar/meaning of words, images and figurative language, diction, and tone/literary devices/metrics. Possible questions from these categories are (in the same order):
“Who is speaking?”
“How are stanzas 1 and 2 related to stanza 3?”
“Which of the following best sums up the meaning of stanza 2?”
“Which of the following best defines the word ‘glass’ as it is used in line 9?” “To which of the following does the poet compare his love?”
“Which of the following words is used to suggest the poet’s dislike of winter?” “The meter of the last line in each stanza is...”
When looking at the question and the possible answers for it you should be able to identify the category type. For example, you’re given a question that looks like this:
In line 3, the phrase “pensive citadels” can best be paraphrased as
A. towers in which students are imprisoned
B. castles under siege
C. dreary fortresses
D. refuges for contemplation
E. strongholds that inspire thought
First let’s figure out what sort of question this is. It’s not asking about the content (speaker, audience, setting) of the poem which rules out dramatic situation, we can easily rule out structure, it’s not asking about a main idea so it’s not theme, is doesn’t really include figurative language or direct imagery, and it’s not asking you to identify the tone, used literary devices, or metrics of the piece. This leaves us with grammar/meaning of words and diction. The question states though that it was how the line can “best be paraphrased.” It’s not looking for the direct meaning of the words and there’s really nothing grammatically involved. This leaves us with diction, which makes sense also with the answers provided. Each answer includes another word for a citadel (A, B, C have different connotations) as well as pensive (A, B, C have different connotation). Now it’s just up to you to decide whether it’s D or E.
To understand more about the AP multiple choice questions I Googled and found a PDF article with all of the same information Decker has given us and more. They had a section on the difficulty of the questions which looked familiar. It started with the easiest category and worked its way up: Factual, Main Idea, and Hidden Idea. It’s different wording, but it’s basically noting that the AP tests are based on Bloom’s Taxonomy with questions ranging in difficulty (Knowledge all the way up to Evaluation).
I also really liked the reasons they gave for why answers are wrong. By now we’re all usually pretty good at ruling out an unreasonable choice, but extra pointers don’t hurt.
1) Irrelevant to the question
2) Contradictory to the passage
3) Unreasonable (the “Huh?” choice)
4) Too general or too specific
5) Never addressed in the passage
6) Look for the specific words that make the answer wrong
Whether you choose to use the help Mr. Decker has provided us doesn’t matter, but you’ve got to admit that it helps to understand where the questions are coming from.
Source: AP ENGLISH LITERATURE – Multiple Choice Testing
There are seven main categories: dramatic situation, structure, theme, grammar/meaning of words, images and figurative language, diction, and tone/literary devices/metrics. Possible questions from these categories are (in the same order):
“Who is speaking?”
“How are stanzas 1 and 2 related to stanza 3?”
“Which of the following best sums up the meaning of stanza 2?”
“Which of the following best defines the word ‘glass’ as it is used in line 9?” “To which of the following does the poet compare his love?”
“Which of the following words is used to suggest the poet’s dislike of winter?” “The meter of the last line in each stanza is...”
When looking at the question and the possible answers for it you should be able to identify the category type. For example, you’re given a question that looks like this:
In line 3, the phrase “pensive citadels” can best be paraphrased as
A. towers in which students are imprisoned
B. castles under siege
C. dreary fortresses
D. refuges for contemplation
E. strongholds that inspire thought
First let’s figure out what sort of question this is. It’s not asking about the content (speaker, audience, setting) of the poem which rules out dramatic situation, we can easily rule out structure, it’s not asking about a main idea so it’s not theme, is doesn’t really include figurative language or direct imagery, and it’s not asking you to identify the tone, used literary devices, or metrics of the piece. This leaves us with grammar/meaning of words and diction. The question states though that it was how the line can “best be paraphrased.” It’s not looking for the direct meaning of the words and there’s really nothing grammatically involved. This leaves us with diction, which makes sense also with the answers provided. Each answer includes another word for a citadel (A, B, C have different connotations) as well as pensive (A, B, C have different connotation). Now it’s just up to you to decide whether it’s D or E.
To understand more about the AP multiple choice questions I Googled and found a PDF article with all of the same information Decker has given us and more. They had a section on the difficulty of the questions which looked familiar. It started with the easiest category and worked its way up: Factual, Main Idea, and Hidden Idea. It’s different wording, but it’s basically noting that the AP tests are based on Bloom’s Taxonomy with questions ranging in difficulty (Knowledge all the way up to Evaluation).
I also really liked the reasons they gave for why answers are wrong. By now we’re all usually pretty good at ruling out an unreasonable choice, but extra pointers don’t hurt.
1) Irrelevant to the question
2) Contradictory to the passage
3) Unreasonable (the “Huh?” choice)
4) Too general or too specific
5) Never addressed in the passage
6) Look for the specific words that make the answer wrong
Whether you choose to use the help Mr. Decker has provided us doesn’t matter, but you’ve got to admit that it helps to understand where the questions are coming from.
Source: AP ENGLISH LITERATURE – Multiple Choice Testing
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
Guest Blogger: Connor M.
Definintion of Literature: the writings dealing with a particular subject
This morning, I woke up thinking I was going to type up a blog on Turn of the Screw, but instead I discovered that it was on the various techniques of poetry. Life is full of little suprises like these, eh? It’s like returning from a long vacation. Anawho, it can be said that analyzing poetry can be hard without a systematic method of looking at each element, piece by piece. Thank goodness, then, for the great masterminds behind the scenes that come up with such formulas for finding an author’s true intent towards their fictional creations. And not to mention the wonderful acronyms that help up TPCASTT and SOAPSTone entire works. That’s genuine entertainment right there, or at least makes it easier to remember the titles for an otherwise slightly complex list of poetry analyzing methods (Shall I list them, or does everyone remember them? Heck, they’re in our packets, right? I’ll save myself a headache. They’re written at the bottom anyway). Let’s go through a poem to see if we can observe closer, then, shall we? Actually, that sounds incredibly boring. Let’s take a look at some song lyrics by Ke$ha, and see if we can’t apply the same techniques to mainstream entertainment. Because, honestly, who writes poetry anymore? If we want to share our thoughts, we usually just use Facebook, or maybe steal someone else’s thoughts from the internet. Isn’t technology great? I hold no grudge against poetry, mind you, but the same techniques can be applied to any form of entertainment. So first, hows about we take a look at how we would go about doing so. Below is the song which will be analyzed:
Your Love is My Drug
By Kesha
Maybe I need some rehab
Or maybe just need some sleep
I got a sick obsession
I'm seeing it in my dreams
I'm looking down every alley
I'm making us desperate 'cause
I'm staying up all night hoping
Hitting my head against the wall
What you got boy is hard to find
I think about it all the time
I'm all strung out, my heart is fried
I just can't get you off my mind
Because your love- your love- your love is my drug
Won't listen to any advice
Momma's telling me I should think twice
But love to my own devices
I'm addicted, it's a crisis
My friends think I've gone crazy
My judgments getting kinda hazy
My steeze is gonna be affected
If I keep it up like a lovesick crackhead
What you got boy is hard to find
I think about it all the time
I'm all strung out, my heart is fried
I just can't get you off my mind
Because your love- your love- your love is my drug
I don't care what people say
The rush is worth the price I pay
I get so high when you're with me
But crash and crave you when you leave
Hey, so I gotta question
Do you wanna have a slumber party in my basement?
Do you wanna make your heart beat like an 808 drum?
Is my love with your drug?
Your drug, uh your drug
Uh your drug is my love, your drug
Because your love- your love- your love- is my drug
---------
As an example, here is the first way we could analyze this poem: TPCASTT.
T(itle): A person loving is the same as a narcotic for a person specified.
P(araphrase): A Girl describes how she feels when she’s with a dude.
C(onnotation): Though it originally appears as though the girl is very sick, and becoming crazy, we can learn from the tone that the author is saying that she is just using these effects as metaphors for how she feels (e.g. the words “crave” and “high” used when talking about the guy).
A(ttitude): Very Sad, Longing (This is arguable, however)
S(hift): Once the song returns to the chorus, a summary is given of the entire article. However, the tone doesn’t change, and the premise is the same throughout.
T(itle): By comparing the effects of the girl being happy by the dude’s presence to an illegal substance (which is also, obviously a way to make a person high, albeit not in a good way), the author tries to tell the audience how she feels, which is, we can assume, very happy.
T(heme): Receiving comfort from an actual person is much more rewarding than that of an physical substance.
And if we want to SOAPSTone it:
S(ubject): Everyone is looking for love. But it can be difficult to deal with at times.
O (ccasion): The Girl is with a guy, and is thinking of how to describe how she feels towards him.
A(udience): Those who think they have been in love; the common bystander, as the author tries to capture his/her attention.
P (urpose): Though created to make money, the poem was written to sound as though the main character was trying to relate to the audience how hard it is to deal with love (how dangerous it is, and how good it can make one feel.)
S(peaker):Though the writer of the lyrics may be someone else, the speaker was made to be the pop star Kesha, who is automatically entitled by society to be incredibly knowledgeable about the social aspects of life.
T(one): The tone of this article seems to be the opposite of its message contained in the story, which is somewhat unusual. When using words like sick obsession to describe her love, as well as the comparison to a physical drug, e.g. “the rush is worth the price I pay”, it gives the entire piece an angry, longing attitude. However, it is obvious that the article is supposed to be describing how happy she feels (but also briefly how she sad she feels when the guy is gone). It can be speculated that this was just the choice of the author, to strengthen her point.
So, that wasn’t very hard, was it? By compiling pieces of this info together, a more complete statement can be put together to describe the author’s intent. This is useful for essays, or maybe even for planning one’s own literary work. Basically, it’s just a way of breaking down the ideas of the author into a concise graphic on paper. However, the poems analyzed in class will be much higher level, especially as we get AP test questions throughout the semester, as we’ve seen in class. But if you can analyze a song, heck, it’s probably not that bad to analyze a poem.
This morning, I woke up thinking I was going to type up a blog on Turn of the Screw, but instead I discovered that it was on the various techniques of poetry. Life is full of little suprises like these, eh? It’s like returning from a long vacation. Anawho, it can be said that analyzing poetry can be hard without a systematic method of looking at each element, piece by piece. Thank goodness, then, for the great masterminds behind the scenes that come up with such formulas for finding an author’s true intent towards their fictional creations. And not to mention the wonderful acronyms that help up TPCASTT and SOAPSTone entire works. That’s genuine entertainment right there, or at least makes it easier to remember the titles for an otherwise slightly complex list of poetry analyzing methods (Shall I list them, or does everyone remember them? Heck, they’re in our packets, right? I’ll save myself a headache. They’re written at the bottom anyway). Let’s go through a poem to see if we can observe closer, then, shall we? Actually, that sounds incredibly boring. Let’s take a look at some song lyrics by Ke$ha, and see if we can’t apply the same techniques to mainstream entertainment. Because, honestly, who writes poetry anymore? If we want to share our thoughts, we usually just use Facebook, or maybe steal someone else’s thoughts from the internet. Isn’t technology great? I hold no grudge against poetry, mind you, but the same techniques can be applied to any form of entertainment. So first, hows about we take a look at how we would go about doing so. Below is the song which will be analyzed:
Your Love is My Drug
By Kesha
Maybe I need some rehab
Or maybe just need some sleep
I got a sick obsession
I'm seeing it in my dreams
I'm looking down every alley
I'm making us desperate 'cause
I'm staying up all night hoping
Hitting my head against the wall
What you got boy is hard to find
I think about it all the time
I'm all strung out, my heart is fried
I just can't get you off my mind
Because your love- your love- your love is my drug
Won't listen to any advice
Momma's telling me I should think twice
But love to my own devices
I'm addicted, it's a crisis
My friends think I've gone crazy
My judgments getting kinda hazy
My steeze is gonna be affected
If I keep it up like a lovesick crackhead
What you got boy is hard to find
I think about it all the time
I'm all strung out, my heart is fried
I just can't get you off my mind
Because your love- your love- your love is my drug
I don't care what people say
The rush is worth the price I pay
I get so high when you're with me
But crash and crave you when you leave
Hey, so I gotta question
Do you wanna have a slumber party in my basement?
Do you wanna make your heart beat like an 808 drum?
Is my love with your drug?
Your drug, uh your drug
Uh your drug is my love, your drug
Because your love- your love- your love- is my drug
---------
As an example, here is the first way we could analyze this poem: TPCASTT.
T(itle): A person loving is the same as a narcotic for a person specified.
P(araphrase): A Girl describes how she feels when she’s with a dude.
C(onnotation): Though it originally appears as though the girl is very sick, and becoming crazy, we can learn from the tone that the author is saying that she is just using these effects as metaphors for how she feels (e.g. the words “crave” and “high” used when talking about the guy).
A(ttitude): Very Sad, Longing (This is arguable, however)
S(hift): Once the song returns to the chorus, a summary is given of the entire article. However, the tone doesn’t change, and the premise is the same throughout.
T(itle): By comparing the effects of the girl being happy by the dude’s presence to an illegal substance (which is also, obviously a way to make a person high, albeit not in a good way), the author tries to tell the audience how she feels, which is, we can assume, very happy.
T(heme): Receiving comfort from an actual person is much more rewarding than that of an physical substance.
And if we want to SOAPSTone it:
S(ubject): Everyone is looking for love. But it can be difficult to deal with at times.
O (ccasion): The Girl is with a guy, and is thinking of how to describe how she feels towards him.
A(udience): Those who think they have been in love; the common bystander, as the author tries to capture his/her attention.
P (urpose): Though created to make money, the poem was written to sound as though the main character was trying to relate to the audience how hard it is to deal with love (how dangerous it is, and how good it can make one feel.)
S(peaker):Though the writer of the lyrics may be someone else, the speaker was made to be the pop star Kesha, who is automatically entitled by society to be incredibly knowledgeable about the social aspects of life.
T(one): The tone of this article seems to be the opposite of its message contained in the story, which is somewhat unusual. When using words like sick obsession to describe her love, as well as the comparison to a physical drug, e.g. “the rush is worth the price I pay”, it gives the entire piece an angry, longing attitude. However, it is obvious that the article is supposed to be describing how happy she feels (but also briefly how she sad she feels when the guy is gone). It can be speculated that this was just the choice of the author, to strengthen her point.
So, that wasn’t very hard, was it? By compiling pieces of this info together, a more complete statement can be put together to describe the author’s intent. This is useful for essays, or maybe even for planning one’s own literary work. Basically, it’s just a way of breaking down the ideas of the author into a concise graphic on paper. However, the poems analyzed in class will be much higher level, especially as we get AP test questions throughout the semester, as we’ve seen in class. But if you can analyze a song, heck, it’s probably not that bad to analyze a poem.
Monday, March 1, 2010
Guest Blogger: Chris B.
In class, we have been continuing to study satire by looking at an example of high burlesque, The Rape of the Lock by Alexander Pope. High burlesque is taking a trivial event and expressing it in an extremely serious manner.
The short story The Rape of the Lock is about a girl named Belinda who tries to stab a man who cut off her favorite lock of hair. Pope uses a horatian satire filled with high burlesque to show society’s inability to determine important things from those things that are pointless or next to it. There are four instances of high burlesque I found to be the most apparent: the title, the climax, the side-by-side comparisons, and (possibly) the rhyme scheme. To start off, the title gave me the thought that this would be a dark story; but as I started to read, I found the situation that he describes laughable. The Rape of the Lock sounds as if it would be a tragic event, not a mere loss of a bit of hair, and it is in that way in which Pope satirizes those who are overly dramatic about silly things. The second way Pope uses high burlesque was actually my favorite part of the story, the climax, when the “screams of horror [that] rend the affrighted skies” came from Berlinda right after the lock of hair has been cut off (Pope 182). Immediately afterwards, she attempts to kill the man who committed this supposedly terrible sin, using a “deadly bodkin” and yelling, “Meet thy fate!”(Pope 256 and 255, respectively). Another clever technique was the use of side-by-side comparison, such as “stain her honor, or her new brocade.”(Pope 93). Honor is much more important than a new brocade, but they are compared as if equal in importance. The last thing that I noticed in Pope’s story is the constant use of heroic couplets. Because a heroic couplet usually describes the message bearing or important part of a sonnet, I assume that he is again mocking society for thinking everything thing is important. Either that, or he simply favored that rhyme scheme.
Regardless of whether the rhyme pattern is or is not a satirical technique, Pope is an expert in the use high burlesque to get his point across, which has been see through his use of the title, climax, and side-by-side comparisons in The Rape of the Lock.
The short story The Rape of the Lock is about a girl named Belinda who tries to stab a man who cut off her favorite lock of hair. Pope uses a horatian satire filled with high burlesque to show society’s inability to determine important things from those things that are pointless or next to it. There are four instances of high burlesque I found to be the most apparent: the title, the climax, the side-by-side comparisons, and (possibly) the rhyme scheme. To start off, the title gave me the thought that this would be a dark story; but as I started to read, I found the situation that he describes laughable. The Rape of the Lock sounds as if it would be a tragic event, not a mere loss of a bit of hair, and it is in that way in which Pope satirizes those who are overly dramatic about silly things. The second way Pope uses high burlesque was actually my favorite part of the story, the climax, when the “screams of horror [that] rend the affrighted skies” came from Berlinda right after the lock of hair has been cut off (Pope 182). Immediately afterwards, she attempts to kill the man who committed this supposedly terrible sin, using a “deadly bodkin” and yelling, “Meet thy fate!”(Pope 256 and 255, respectively). Another clever technique was the use of side-by-side comparison, such as “stain her honor, or her new brocade.”(Pope 93). Honor is much more important than a new brocade, but they are compared as if equal in importance. The last thing that I noticed in Pope’s story is the constant use of heroic couplets. Because a heroic couplet usually describes the message bearing or important part of a sonnet, I assume that he is again mocking society for thinking everything thing is important. Either that, or he simply favored that rhyme scheme.
Regardless of whether the rhyme pattern is or is not a satirical technique, Pope is an expert in the use high burlesque to get his point across, which has been see through his use of the title, climax, and side-by-side comparisons in The Rape of the Lock.
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
Guest Blogger: Nishant N.
So far, during the third quarter of our AP Lit course, we have covered satire. More specifically, we have been identifying different types and reading many examples, including articles from "The Onion," Candide, and most recently Rape of the Locke. In this blog post I thoought I would share some thoughts on Rape f the Lock. First, however, I think it would be appropriate to look at the format of the poem.
Rape of the Lock is a satire that utilizes mock-epic style poetry. Mock-epics are high burlesque, taking trivial subjects in a serious manner. Rape of the Lock displays several of the common characteristics of epics. The poem takes a long time to describe all of her hair-care products, or her warfare. It also gives a history of the hairpin, which has been passed down from generation to genertion in Belinda's family. The rest of the characteristics the story has are a dream warning, supernatural forces, guardianship of protagonist, hero, setting, action, and style.
Although this poem is centered around Belinda's hair, the poem actually takes shots at the aristocratic society. This is evident just from the description of Belinda's life. She gets up at around noon everyday, spends a long time on her appearance, then proceeds to the court to play cards; this is the life a useless person who contributes nothing to society. It is interesting that he also attacks the queen, a figure of the highest authority. It makes me wonder what sort of changes Pope was trying to bring about. Was he trying to get the nobles to become more active? Perhaps he was trying to eliminate the entire aristocratic society? It is a bit of a stretch, but could Pope be an early advocate of Socailism? All of these questions came up in my mind while I was reading; I seemed unable to come up with an answer I was satisfied with. Perhaps a bright peer could enlighten me.
Rape of the Lock is a satire that utilizes mock-epic style poetry. Mock-epics are high burlesque, taking trivial subjects in a serious manner. Rape of the Lock displays several of the common characteristics of epics. The poem takes a long time to describe all of her hair-care products, or her warfare. It also gives a history of the hairpin, which has been passed down from generation to genertion in Belinda's family. The rest of the characteristics the story has are a dream warning, supernatural forces, guardianship of protagonist, hero, setting, action, and style.
Although this poem is centered around Belinda's hair, the poem actually takes shots at the aristocratic society. This is evident just from the description of Belinda's life. She gets up at around noon everyday, spends a long time on her appearance, then proceeds to the court to play cards; this is the life a useless person who contributes nothing to society. It is interesting that he also attacks the queen, a figure of the highest authority. It makes me wonder what sort of changes Pope was trying to bring about. Was he trying to get the nobles to become more active? Perhaps he was trying to eliminate the entire aristocratic society? It is a bit of a stretch, but could Pope be an early advocate of Socailism? All of these questions came up in my mind while I was reading; I seemed unable to come up with an answer I was satisfied with. Perhaps a bright peer could enlighten me.
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