With these simple and meagre materials, Pope has constructed an harmonious
poem in which the sylphs, gnomes, and other sprites of the Rosicrucian
philosophy find appropriate place and service. It failed in its principal
purpose of reconciliation, but it has given us the best mock-heroic poem
in the language. As might have been expected, it called forth bitter
criticisms from Dennis; and there were not wanting those who saw in it a
political significance. Pope's pleasantry was aroused at this, and he
published _A Key to the Lock_, in which he further mystifies these sage
readers: Belinda becomes Great Britain; the Baron is the Earl of Oxford;
and Thalestris is the Duchess of Marlborough.
THE MESSIAH.--In 1712 there appeared in one of the numbers of _The
Spectator_, his _Messiah, a Sacred Eclogue_, written with the purpose of
harmonizing the prophecy of Isaiah and the singular oracles of the Pollio,
or Fourth Eclogue of Virgil. Elevated in thought and grand in diction, the
Messiah has kept its hold upon public favor ever since, and portions of it
are used as hymns in general worship.
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