I was unclear in some of my other comments about what I mean when I use the word “trivial.” With this comment about Othello and others that I made about epic poems or Greek tragedies, I meant to point out examples […]

[But trust the Muse — she saw it upward rise] Referencing the muse is another epic convention, and it lends some ironic gravitas to the conclusion of this ridiculous battle.

[Not fierce Othello in so loud a strain Roar’d for the handkerchief that caus’d his pain.] In Othello, the titular character is convinced that his wife Desdemona is cheating on him when a handkerchief that he g […]

In lines 77 and 78, the words that complete the heroic couplet, chagrin and spleen, at least with my American accent, don’t rhyme perfectly. The poem up until this point is almost perfectly sing-songy, so this […]

In humoral theory, the spleen was thought to be the organ that produced black bile, which made a person melancholic. Here, Pope creates the Cave of Spleen, which is probably a place of melancholy.

[Or when rich China vessels fall’n from high,] Pope repeatedly refers to China, as well as Japan, India, and Africa. The effect of this is that the implication of the far-reaching British Empire hovers over the poem.

[Oh thoughtless mortals! ever blind to fate, Too soon dejected, and too soon elate.] This interjection reminds me of the chorus in a Greek tragedy, and the inability of mortals to escape fate is a common theme […]

[In equal curls, and well conspir’d to deck Leave a comment on line 21 0 ¶ 22 With shining ringlets the smooth iv’ry neck.] Pope personifies the locks by saying that they “conspir’d.” Not only does this word […]

[Fair Nymphs, and well-drest Youths around her shone.] The words “nymph” and “youth” continue to be used by Pope to refer to young women and young men respectively, with “nymph” implying that young women are […]

[Toilet stands display’d] What isn’t clear to me is the use of the word “Toilet.” I’m pretty sure that it refers to the place where a woman gets dressed or gets herself ready, but as a 21st century reader, t […]

[thy infant thought] What isn’t clear to me is the use of “infant” in this context. I am used to this word being used as a noun that is synonymous with “baby,” but in this case, it is an adjective.

[You shall again be well, again be fair] By limiting references to the actual illness of smallpox (aside from discussion of its aesthetic aftermath) to this one line, Montagu highlights how ridiculous it is […]

[For me the Patriot has the house forsook,] In this line and the four that follow, Montagu’s speaker laments that the Patriot, the Soldier, the Beau, the Wit, and the Gamester have abandoned their arts or their […]

[“I should never go to sea any more;” although my evil destiny so ordered, that she had not power to hinder me, as the reader may know hereafter.] He seems to be compelled to voyage by a force beyond him […]

[As I was on the road, observing the littleness of the houses, the trees, the cattle, and the people, I began to think myself in Lilliput.] He now thinks of himself in relation to his world as he was to Lilliput.

[or of the barbarous customs and idolatry of savage people, with which most writers abound.] The Brobdingnagians are not barbarous, idolatrous, or savage.

[I could force nothing on him but a footman’s tooth, ] Gulliver has so many grotesque, bodily souvenirs. He has the corn, various things made from the king and queen’s hair and nails, and now this tooth.

[I showed him a corn that I had cut off with my own hand, from a maid of honour’s toe; it was about the bigness of Kentish pippin, and grown so hard, that when I returned to England, I got it hollowed into a c […]

[immediately] I suspect Gulliver of exaggerating.

[Some of them, upon hearing me talk so wildly, thought I was mad: others laughed; for indeed it never came into my head, that I was now got among people of my own stature and strength.] Just as he had to adjust […]