Summary of the poem "an epistle to dr.Arbuthnot"
Answers
Explanation:
An Epistle to Dr. Arbuthnot is a poem by Alexander Pope. You can download the PDF of the poem An Epistle to Dr. Arbuthnot from here. The ‘Epistle’ is a satire in verse form written by Pope. Pope wrote this poem dedicating it to ‘Dr. Arbuthnot’ after realizing that the latter was suffering from a fatal disease. Being a bold satirist, it had been quite usual for Pope to attract very rude criticism against him. Dr. Arbuthnot, a close friend, had advised him about not naming the people in his satires for naming whom Pope could land up in prison. So, one of the reasons for which Pope wrote the epistle was to thank the physician for his concern.
The epistle could, very conveniently, be divided into seven parts. The first part expresses the poet’s dislike for fake admirers. He mentions how he was fed up of meeting such people and how desperately he desired to avoid them. This sections talks about the artists whose own skills are not worthy enough. They try to convince Pope to amend their works so that they could be successful. So, in this section, Pope mentions the negatives of being famous.
In part two, Pope tries to convince Dr. Arbuthnot that he would not let his satires be dangerous. He won’t ‘name Queens, Ministers or Kings’. He is sure that whoever he ridicules would care more to mend his ways rather than attacking him. however, it is to be noted that Pope is not serious in expecting that the lords and writers he ridiculed would not feel hurt. However, he states clearly that he is more afraid of fake friends than the enemies.
Part three is his attempt to summarize his life as a writer. He frankly states that his physical abilities could not have led him to do anything else. Pope seems to be serious in this part of the poem and the seriousness gets reflected in the way he simplifies his syntax here.
Fourth part is a counterattack on those who had denounced pope. He stated that some critics puzzled him by attacking his inoffensive poems written during his early career; some critics were the editors who were, more or less, obsessed to find petty mistakes; some opposed him because he had not supported their unworthy works. He tells Dr. Arbuthnot that he would be attacked whatever he did. He also mentions Addison as a noteworthy opponent. However, he states that Addison presented a bad example by considering himself perfect.
Part five has been used by pope to establish a connection between intellectual and financial independence. He analyzes intellect as a means for earning money giving his own example. He also presents his belief that the money he had earned attracted fools to him. However, it made him independent.
In part six, Pope clarifies that he considered ridiculing folly to be his duty. He states here that if a person has got exceptional verbal power, it becomes his duty to rebuke impertinence. Here, he has presented a portrait of Lord Hervey who had satirized his works and personality quite rudely at some point of time.
In the final part, he expects Arbuthnot to believe Pope to be having certain qualities. He clarifies that he was neither proud nor servile. He did not give any importance to threats from his opponents. He had had to face really serious things like his father’s death and, when compared to them, the views of the society towards him did not matter at all.