Ode on Solitude (Alexander Pope)

 

About the Author:

Alexander Pope (21 May 1688 – 30 May 1744) is seen as one of the greatest English poets and the foremost poet of the early 18th century. He is best known for satirical and discursive poetry, including “The Rape of the Lock”, “The Dunciad”, and “An Essay on Criticism”, and for his translation of Homer. After Shakespeare, Pope is the second-most quoted writer in English, according to The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations, some of his verses having become popular in common parlance (e. g., damning with faint praise). He is considered a master of the heroic couplet.

With the poem having a title “Ode on Solitude”,  the reader is typically given a pretty good idea of what the poem is about. Of course, it would be far too simple an analysis to say that Alexander Pope’s oldest surviving poem, Ode on Solitude, is simply “about solitude.” Clearly, when Pope wrote his work, he had the idea of solitude in mind, as do a great many poets who express themselves best through the written word, and perhaps less so in the company of others. Solitude itself is an important thing to attain from time to time, and perhaps it makes sense to think that solitude is a very basic human desire. Many critics have the opinion that at the age of twelve writing such a thoughtful poem could be accomplished only by Pope like great thinkers.

This first verse of Ode on Solitude begins the analogy that will carry through the poem, seen through the life of an anonymous man who is described as being an ideal for happiness. His deepest desires, the narrator notes, extends a few acres of his own land, where he is content to live and work. The inclusion of the word “parental” suggests that the land belongs to this man by inheritance, and therefore belongs solely to him. “Content to breathe his native air” could also be a commentary on being happy with what a person has, rather than constantly wishing for more.

The verse structure and rhyming pattern is established here; three lines of eight syllables each, followed by one line of four syllables, rhyming in an ABAB pattern. This persists up until the final two stanzas, at which point the final line lengthens to five syllables.

This verse simply means that the man is self-sufficient. His land, now shown to be a farm, provides for all of his needs — his herds provide him with milk, he is able to bake his own bread. In the summer, his trees provide ample shade, and in the winter the wood from those same trees can be lit to keep him warm. He has no need of anything beyond his own land.

While this verse reads strangely, as “bread” and “shade” do not rhyme, it is important to remember that “Ode on Solitude”  was written over three hundred years ago. During this period in Britain, “bread” was pronounced with a longer vowel sound. While word pronunciation is a difficult thing to estimate and predict throughout different eras of history, it makes sense to believe that at one point, “bread” and “shade” could be used as rhymes for one another.

The narrator considered this farmer blessed! Time almost doesn’t have meaning for this man; his world provides for all of his needs. Hours go by, days go by, years go by, and everything remains the same. The health the man is same all the time whether at his early years or in his old age. Peace of mind is normal for him — what is there to trouble him? It seems as though, in a world of peace and quiet, there is absolutely nothing that could disrupt the life of this farmer, and the narrator sees that it is high blessing.

This verse sees the start of the final lines being five syllables long and continues the sentiment of the verse before it. The idea of innocence is introduced here, and is a fair way to describe a man who lives his life in isolation; he is innocent, which means he himself probably doesn’t appreciate the kind of life he leads in the same way the narrator, author, or reader does. It’s a strange idea and casts the character of the farmer in a different light. He could, in fact, be viewed as an ignorant individual, one who simply doesn’t know enough about the world, or he could be viewed as living the ideal life.

The narrator of the poem clearly agrees with the latter of the above sentiments — here he wishes for escapism and begs for an unseen life, one where he may live in solitude until his dying days, which will come and go, unnoticed, unremarked, and unadorned, perfect life of solitude and peace.

 

Because of the very mature concepts expressed by “Ode on Solitude”, particularly the bit about wishing to die alone, many might be surprised to learn that Alexander Pope wrote “Ode on Solitude” in 1700, at the age of twelve. It was also at this time that Pope’s formal education ended, another unfortunate result of being Catholic at the time. However, instead of giving up on learning altogether, Pope attempted to educate himself, drawing on classical literature, paying particular attention to well-known poets of the era.  This is explicit in the poem when he says “study and ease” which a real recreation of a man in solitude. With all of this background, it is altogether unsurprising that one of Pope’s earliest works would be a very mature poem about solitude.