Rape of Lock with a Sip of Coffee

 RAPE OF LOCK WITH A SIP OF COFFEE

[pic 1]

Fig 1: The Rape of the Lock cover image

“Rape of the Lock” by Alexander Pope is considered a mock-heroic, work that parodies the serious, elevated style of the classical epic poem, hyperbole being the dominant literary device used. The poem is a satirical comment on an incident that took place between Pope’s acquaintances.  Based in 1700s London, the poem mocks the elite section of the society who tend to have so much free time that they fight over insignificant events and treat these with gravity that should be applied to more serious issues. Pope uses coffee in the poem to reflect on the societal norms and routines of 1700s and mixes a hint of reality with exaggeration. Considering coffee in the 1700 England was associated with the upper-class, it is not surprising that Pope has included it in his poem. The appearance of coffee in his poem helps the poet make his point strong and at the same time forces the readers into thinking how significant coffee was back then.

“For lo! the Board with Cups and Spoons is crown’d,
The Berries crackle, and the Mill turns round.
On shining Altars of Japan they raise
The silver Lamp; the fiery Spirits blaze.
From silver Spouts the grateful Liquors glide,
And China’s Earth receives the smoaking Tyde.”(Pope, 105-110)

Following on the “silver lamp” and “fiery spirits,” those “silver Spouts” are already pompous, but especially so when rendered in the plural. Though Pope carefully mentions the “plain” cups and straightforward grinder to provide the plain background demanded by mock heroism.

There is a game of cards between Belinda and Baron that Pope very cleverly portrays as a “battle” to keep “The Rape of the Lock” as close to a mock-epic as possible. To achieve this Pope uses the literary device of extended metaphor in the lines:

“Behold, four Kings in Majesty rever'd

…………………………………………..

the Walls, the Woods, and long Canals reply.”(37-100)

Here he describes Belinda and Baron as generals, and the cards are their armies, battling one another. After a lot of ups and downs it is Belinda who finally wins the game and then they head to have coffee. This is a very interesting place to bring up coffee as coffee has been very closely related to wars and battles in the history. For instance, when the battle of Vienna ended in 1983 Viennese found bags of coffee in the abandoned Ottoman encampment. I gather from this stanza that the poet was trying to mock the game of cards and its seriousness by comparing it to these battles and mentioning coffee not just exaggerated the complete scene it was made it comparable to these big battles of the past.