Alexander Pope's Elegy to the Memory of an Unfortunate

Lady stands as one of his most well-known and frequently

anthologized compositions. Published in 1717, the poem serves
as a remembrance and meditation upon a young woman who
has killed herself. Other than an allusion to a cruel uncle, the
circumstances of the suicide remain murky, and Pope uses the
incident as a springboard to analyze various universal themes.

Form and Structure

The form of this poem has relation to Popes involvement in the Augustan
Age of English literature. Augustan poets idolized and attempted to
emulate the achievements of ancient Greece and Rome. Pope
appropriately defines his poem as an elegy, a form that ancient Greeks
invented and composed in honor of the dead. Pope clearly had a similar
intent, and directly emulated the style of classical poets, such as Ovid.
Popes elegy relies upon the heroic couplet for its structure. Each rhyming
couplet forms a metrical unit in iambic pentameter, 10 syllable lines with
alternating stresses.

Sin and Redemption

Pope suggests that the subject of his elegy killed herself, a grievous sin in
18th century England. The poem generated controversy, and Samuel
Johnson criticized its illaudable singularity of treating suicide with
respect. Pope attempts to redeem the woman through an allusion to
abuses committed against her, and shifts the burden of sin to the
womans cruel uncle. The poet describes the womans act as a Romans
part, which presents the classical conception of suicide as preferable to
an ignominious death. Pope also holds out hope for heavenly redemption,
apparent in the two lines that begin Is there no bright reversion."

Human Frailty

Despite the sinfulness of the womans act, the poet cannot help but feel
sorrow for her. In lines six and seven, he excuses her action, along with
his sympathy, as symptomatic of human frailty. Throughout the poem's
second stanza, the poet blames the gods for the human desire to rise
"Above the vulgar flight of low desire," which he sees as a divine
inheritance. Pope characterizes this desire for transcendence as inherent
to the immortal soul, and made apparent in the achievements of heroes
and kings. In lines 17 to 22, he describes how human frailty obscures the
soul, which remains trapped in the mortal coil.

Musings on Death

Death sits at the center of the poem, a thematic focus that Pope makes
apparent with the opening line's image of a ghost beckoning in the
moonlight. Pope addresses deaths indiscriminateness and implies the
tragedy of the young woman's early demise in a line that describes how
"Fate snatch'd her early." Line 28 describes how the woman leaves no
trace of herself behind, an illustration of the transitory nature of human
accomplishment. Pope also presents death as the leveler of princes and
peasants alike, with the famous couplet A heap of dust alone remains of
thee, / Tis all thou art, and all the proud shall be!