Copyright
William HutchingsPublished On
2023-12-19Page Range
pp. 79–84Language
- English
Print Length
6 pages
6. Epistle to Mr Jervas
- William Hutchings (author)
Chapter of: ‘Wit’s Wild Dancing Light’: Reading the Poems of Alexander Pope(pp. 79–84)
Chapter 6 takes the Epistle to Mr Jervas as a gateway to the genre that dominates much of Pope’s later career. Charles Jervas was a widely respected and successful portrait painter. He taught Pope, and the pair became close friends. The familiarity of an epistle to a friend and the formality of verse come together for a joint enterprise: a definition of poetry and painting as ‘sister arts’. Each craft’s possibilities are set off against their limitations. Such balances of opposing feelings and points of view are a central characteristic of Pope’s poetry.
Contributors
William Hutchings
(author)Honorary Research Fellow at University of Manchester
William Hutchings was formerly Senior Lecturer in English Literature and Director of the Centre for Excellence in Enquiry-Based Learning at the University of Manchester, UK and he is presently Honorary Research Fellow in the School of Arts, Languages and Cultures at that university. He now lectures regularly to public groups locally and nationally. He has a wealth of teaching experience on English Literature courses at undergraduate and postgraduate level, and is the editor of Andrew Marvell: Selected Poems, the author of The Poetry of William Cowper, and Literary Criticism: A Practical Guide for Students.