Where do Alexander Pope and Jonathan Swift rank in English letters?
Recently read The Tale of a Tub (it was assigned reading back in university, but I missed the class because of a hangover iirc) and thought it was great, reminded me a lot of Carlyle's Sartor Resartus. I read selections of Gulliver's Travels, but I think I'll get to a full reading of it soon. Does the rest of his work hold up to the same quality as Tale and Modest Proposal?
I've never read anything by Pope, but I'm curious as to why he's always highly esteemed (I glossed over some of his verses and subjects for Pale Fire but never actually read him).
Eh, that whole period is a bit of a lull.
>>8292197
I was trying to resist that judgment until after I read some of their works, but that's always been my impression of their contemporaries and period.
So Elvis was quoting Pope?
pope is actually based
onenofnthe most underrated authors today fornsure
he used to be the second most quoted poet.after shakespeare and for good reason
>>8292366
oh and his lie story is very inspiring for all.you beta spergs too -born an ugly cripple manlet, he focused all his energies on.becoming as well read and patrish as.possible and ended up very successful
>>8292178
"Only a woman's hair"
One of the saddest and most pathetic lines ever put to paper. Dean Swift was a genius for that alone.
>>8292368
>ugly cripple manlet
you'd think mocking him for those reasons would be below British sophistication, but looking at this cartoon, not only did they portray him as a malformed rodent, but also ridiculed him for being Catholic. If Pope were around today, all of these negative attributes would have been boons.
Alphabetically? 16th and 18th respectively.
>>8292394
The British have ALWAYS loved mocking cripples and freaks. It's their thing. They still do it, just in a more hidden form. If you watch British tv, half their fucking shows are documentaries or reality TV featuring deformed people and cripples.
>>8292618
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9C4uTEEOJlM
never read pope, he's oft-quoted as sentence-context in the two volume OED i use
pope was an excellent poet. most people don't like his heroics because they read them in a hurry to get it over with. read slowly and aloud.
also, try reading a bit about 17th century pronunciation (I say 17th and not 18th because poetry is usually conservative in accent), one of the worst injustices you can do to Pope is give him a modern British accent
