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Students Name The Name of the Course Date (for instance, 27 September 2012) Alexander Popes Essay on Criticism vs. Martinus Scribleruss Peri Bathous or the Art of Sinking in Poetry Alexander Popes attempt to identify and partly secure his own dual position as a poet and as a critic through the coherently written personal reflection on the continuous debate around the natural aspect of the poetry and the necessity of the latter to be created by certain rules is worth praise. Pope comes to the conclusion that Nature and Rules, created by the poets and critics, can be viewed separately, it may be safely assumed that the essential rule of Essay on Criticism is to balance Nature that comes from with the rules that have been formed in the external artificial environment: First follow Nature, and your judgment frame / By her just standard, which is still the same; / Unerring Nature, still divinely bright, / One clear, unchangd, and universal light, / Life, force, and beauty, must to all impart, / At once the source, and end, and test of art (Pope, 68-73). The limitation to the essential rule of both poetry and criticism comes from the limited human capacities as a poet and/or a critic. Such state of things has been actually intended that way, unquestionably, by Nature, i.e. by God. Due to the fact that eventually all people yield to their dark temptations, humans appear limited in their skills and wit, and that is why they are always guided by Nature and fixed rules: Be sure yourself and your own reach to know, / How far your genius, taste and learning go; / Launch not beyond your depth, but be discreet,/ And mark that point where sense and dullness meet. / Nature to all things fixd the limits fit, / And wisely curbd proud mans pretending wit (Pope, 48-53). Nature, according to Popes reasoning, is superior to rules created by man, because it is Nature that provides humans with wit and lets them be geniuses. Pope is convinced that

both rules and Nature are needed in the conceiving of something truly valuable, because it is Nature that allowed poets to create those rules: Those Rules of old discoverd, not devisd, / Are nature still, but nature methodizd; / Nature, like Monarchy, is but restraind / By the same laws which first herself ordaind (Pope, 88-91). It seems that Pope does not consider himself as the perfect example of the rule follower, as he states that in such degenerate world there cannot be an ideal poet and /or critic, thus, to the unbiased observer, such position seasoned with the actual Essay Pope wrote, creates someone, who may not execute the rule perfectly, but who, at least, manages to create an impression that he does. The significance of a rule in relation to the poem as a whole is rooted in the freedom that this rule actually provides to poets. Seemingly restricting them to the perfect harmony between Nature and artificial rules of poetry writing, it in reality provides them with the opportunity to follow freely and safely their inner genius, as Nature has created it. The Art of Sinking in Poetry (Scriblerus) also provides some rule material, so to speak. The matter of the fact is that embracing what Nature has given to them, a lot of poets attempt to reach profundity, concentrating on being impeccable and profound, rather than staying true to who they are, no matter who they are. To give in to Nature, according to Scriblerus, does not mean to follow a standard image of what people consider to be genius. The Art of Sinking in Poetry does seem as Essay on Criticism sequel. It actually clarifies the wrongful interpretation and implementation of the rule depicted in the Essay. The heart of the matter is that Scribleruss take on the rule is more detailed and looks like a paper on correction of errors.

Works Cited Pope, Alexander. Essay on Criticism. Retrieved on September 27, 2012 from http://www.ldc.upenn.edu/myl/ling001/pope_crit.htm. Scriblerus, Martinus. The Art of Sinking in Poetry. Retrieved on September 27, 2012 from http://www.almaclassics.com/excerpts/artof.pdf.