Pope

In An Essay on Criticism, Pope suggests reason and rational thinking as a necessity for proper poetry writing and criticism. To Pope, common sense is an inherent trait that is either nurtured or destroyed by education and environment and those who lack it lack the ability to effectively critcize and create. He argues that "most have the seeds of judgement in their mind:/Nature affords at least a glimmering light," but that "ill coloring" can taint these seeds. In lines 90-91 he states that "Nature, like liberty, is but restrained/by the same laws which first herself ordained." I took this to imply that reason is often times demented into something that is self-destructive which enhances his aforementioned point that what is inherent is not always permanent or pre-determined. It seemed to me throughout the essay that Pope equated lack of reason with egotism and that reason and self-doubt work hand in hand. He argues that "vain wits" should "admire superior sense, and doubt there own!". Those without reason are too caught up in their own thoughts and judgements that they are unable to let previous wisdom guide them in writing and in judging. I found the whole poem then to be very contradictory. Here Pope is writing about how good writers should draw knowledge from their predecessors, questions their own abilities and respond critically but rationaly, in a way that makes he himself seem like the overconfident, irrational critic/poet that he is criticizing. At the same time, I found his ideas clear and concise, the poem incredibly well written, and his knowledge of ancient philosophers to be extensive. Since the poem is of a satiric nature, perhaps he is trying to prove a point by criticizing other writers via the method he judges them for.

Reason also seemed to be a bridge or a transition between old and new. Throughout the poem, Pope deals with the struggle between tradtional thought/verse form and progressive thinking. He suggests reason as the thread with which to intertwine the two with arguments such as the chief whose method of application of power depended on the situation and did not always adhere to the consistent norm. This suggests using traditional form as a blue print and using common sense to moderate the amount of alteration necessary for the optimal poetic result. Pope seems to employ this thought throughout the essay with traditional heroic couplets used in a poem containing numerous stanza's of seemingly unpatterned length.