Epistle to miss blount with the works of voiture essay

His subject may have been imaginary or real, but in 1735 he changed the poem's title to reference his dear friend, Martha Blount: " Epistle to Miss Blount ." They had been close since 1711, when Pope left London at age 23 after a vicious attack on his character and physical features by the critic John Dennis.

In line thirty‑one the poem returns to thoughts of spectacular city pageants and ‘lords and earls and dukes and gartered knights’ as it imagines Miss Blount daydreaming of a richer, more animating life. In the final ten lines, the playful teasing moves towards something more flirtatious and yet sincere sounding.

His epistle to Teresa Blount is an attempt to exemplify the strategy that he proposes in heroic couplets to negotiate a subordinate social position through language. After discussing the work and life of Voiture in the first stanza, Pope transitions into a discussion of literary genres as distinct styles of being.

In this early epistle, first published in 1712 as “To a Young Lady, with the Works of Voiture,” Pope addresses his friend Teresa Blount through the work and name of the early seventeenth century French poet and letter-writer Vincent de Voiture.