English vocab alexander pope

Those who suffer from his attacks considered the pope to be vicious and even ______________. They called him the "wicked wasp of twickenham" after the villa in which he lived

Nefarious-villainous, infamous

To his victims pope was a ____________; his wit made him unbeatable

Nemesis- an avenger an unbeatable rival

The action in the poem is based on an actual event. Pope wrote the poem in part to ridicule the people involved who treated the ______________ insignificant event as a major crisis

Banal-commonplace, trite, stale from overuse

Pope was also ___________. He frequently attacked his contemporaries in his writings often with great vigor and always with great skill.

Bellicose- quarrelsome hostile

One of the greatest british poets was Alexander Pope, whose ___________ with the English language is legendary

Finesse- done in a smooth, offhand manner; easily spoken; speaking too smoothly to be sincere

Today we _____________ use the expressions "to err is human, to forgive, divin," "hope springs eternal in the human breast," and "For fools rush in where angels fear to tread. " if youlook these quotations up you'll find that they are from alexander pope

Glibly-delicate skill, subtley

One of the pope's most famous poems is The Rape of the Lock, a ____________ that makes fun of the petty daily lives of 18th century english aristocracy

Lampoon- strongly satirical writing

Pope himself was a fascinating individual. He was a literary success yet he was often _____________ his sorrow and depression led him to refer to his life as a "long disease"

Lugubrious-sad or mournful often to an exaggerated degree

Popes pride in his work is revealed by the fact that he never used a ______________ but always published under his own name

Pseudonym-a fictionous name assumed by an author a pen name

The title of the poem refers to theft of a lock of hair, which an adventurous young man _____________ from the fair belinda

Purloins- to steal