Satire in Pope Poem?

Question

Does anyone see satire or imagery in Alexander Pope's Epistle to Miss Blount?

http://www.wwnorton.com/nael/NOA/pdf/pope_Solitude_and_Blount.pdf

Answer 1

The satire deals with the use of words for the town and the country. See below:

In the Restoration period the habit originated of referring to London, and its fashionable society in particular, as "the town." Thus in the Prologue to The Way of the World, Congreve writes "Poets are bubbles, by the town drawn in" and later in the play Witwoud tells his brother "'tis not modish to know your relations in town" (1.2218, line 11; 1.2250). The use of the term involves a complex, self-mocking irony, by which London is at once comically diminished (not a city but merely a town) and set on a pedestal ("the town"). "Town" is comically contrasted with "country" in The Way of the World, with the shallow town fop Witwoud mocking his "great lubberly brother" from the provinces (1.2250). A similar contrast occurs in Pope's "Epistle to Miss Blount," in which the poet describes how Miss Blount was forced to leave London for a retired life in the country:

She went, to plain-work, and to purling brooks,
Old-fashioned halls, dull aunts, and croaking rooks:
She went from opera, park, assembly, play,
To morning walks, and prayers three hours a day; . . .
(1.2544–45, lines 11–14).

Yet these works, and others like them, ultimately criticize the town as much or more than the country. Congreve's over-sophisticated Witwoud is probably a greater fool than his crude but honest brother, and Pope's epistle ends with the poet "Vexed to be still in town" surrounded by "Streets, chairs and coxcombs" (lines 49, 48).

An extended satire of rural and urban character types is found in the writings of Steele and Addison for The Spectator—Steele's portraits of the members of the fictional Spectator's Club (1.2484), and Addison's sketches of Sir Roger de Coverley, a member of the club, at church (1.2488) and at the assizes (1.2490). Steele and Addison were Londoners, and it is noteworthy that the only member of the club who may be said to be gainfully employed ("a person of indefatigable industry," 1.2485), is the wealthy London merchant Sir Andrew Freeport. In the eccentric Sir Roger de Coverley, on the other hand, Steele and especially Addison have created a condescendingly affectionate portrait of a Tory country baronet "rather beloved than esteemed" (1.2485). Sir Roger is a bumbling but innocuous representative of the old rural order which must inevitably give way to the new.
In his description of Sir Roger at Church, Addison begins by suggesting that country folk are but one remove from "savages and barbarians," but then observes that "A country fellow distinguishes himself as much in the churchyard as a citizen does upon the 'Change" (1.2488). Condescending comparisons of this kind are a central feature of many eighteenth-century commentaries on rural life, such as Thomas Gray's "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard" (1.2830–33). As he wanders among the gravestones, the sophisticated poet speculates whether they might memorialize "Some village Hampden, that with dauntless breast / The little tyrant of his fields withstood" (1.2831, lines 57–58). Like Congreve, Pope and Addison, Gray warns the privileged urban reader against wearing a too-easy "disdainful smile": death is the equal lot of peasant and potentate, and "The paths of glory lead but to the grave" (lines 31, 36).
Hope this helps. Good luck.

TB