The sweltering heat of Summer can often cause us great discomfort--both physical and emotional. Luckily, Alexander Pope may just have for us a solution to this problem: you guessed it, LOVE. Bleck. In all seriousness, Pope's masterpiece truly does explain how this emotion assuages the emotional and physical pains of the seasonal and mental state of summer. The piece seems to be both a serenade to love itself, as well as a supplication of Diana to relieve man of the heat of summer while blessing him with fruits of love. Throughout his poem, Pope utilizes a few main methods to explain how Diana might use love to pierce through heat and provide relief: he personifies love while emphasizing the difference between it and scorching heat through strong antithesis, utilizes an "AABB" rhyme scheme, and incorporates astounding imagery.
When we discuss that Pope anthropomorphizes love, he didn't exactly choose the average man to do so. Instead, Pope describes love as the goddess Diana, and the discomfort of heat may be classified as being brought by the Sun. This choice might seem rather odd, but it is definitely intentional. Pope uses this character to make the emotions of bliss and breezy pleasure seem much more tangible, and therefore more present emotions. By ascribing an actual title to this feeling, Pope allows the reader to experience a deeper connection with the cool breeze and makes them seem more like characters one may get to know instead of just abstract concepts that are difficult to describe. By making love the hero and heat/suffering the villain, Pope actually paints the portrait of a kind of ongoing struggle that is ever-present within the season of the poem itself. You might be able to recognize this clearly from the poem (notice that the explicit examples of this comparison are emboldened):
See what delights in sylvan scenes appear! Descending Gods have found Elysium here. In woods bright Venus with Adonis stray'd, And chaste Diana haunts the forest shade. Come lovely nymph, and bless the silent hours, When swains from shearing seek their nightly bow'rs; When weary reapers quit the sultry field, And crown'd with corn, their thanks to Ceres yield. This harmless grove no lurking viper hides, But in my breast the serpent Love abides. Here bees from blossoms sip the rosy dew, But your Alexis knows no sweets but you. Oh deign to visit our forsaken seats, The mossy fountains, and the green retreats! Where-e'er you walk, cool gales shall fan the glade, Trees, where you sit, shall crowd into a shade, Where-e'er you tread, the blushing flow'rs shall rise, And all things flourish where you turn your eyes. Oh! How I long with you to pass my days, Invoke the muses, and resound your praise; Your praise the birds shall chant in ev'ry grove, And winds shall waft it to the pow'rs above. But wou'd you sing, and rival Orpheus' strain, The wond'ring forests soon shou'd dance again, The moving mountains hear the pow'rful call, And headlong streams hang list'ning in their fall! But see, the shepherds shun the noon-day heat, The lowing herds to murm'ring brooks retreat, To closer shades the panting flocks remove, Ye Gods! And is there no relief for Love? But soon the sun with milder rays descends To the cool ocean, where his journey ends; On me Love's fiercer flames for every prey, By night he scorches, as he burns by day.
(Pope, 1-34)
As you might have noticed, Pope implores Diana to descend and relieve mankind by interspersing his suffering and contrasting it to the blessings love can bring. Though it might take reading this poem a couple times, you may find that the discrepancy between love and sweltering heat begins to expand, thus influencing the reader in such a way as to make them desire love and Diana herself to descend and bless them.
Moving on to the next method, we come to study the actual syntax of the work, and how Pope brilliantly makes all this content rhyme. The text is grouped into two line-rhyming-sets, and, once again, Pope has a purpose for this inclusion as well. The duration of the poem praises Diana and her beauty, as well as the glorious gifs she provides. A main way Pope seeks to accentuate this beauty is to include phrases that roll off the tongue and sound as radiant as Pope describes Diana herself. As the theme of this work is to serenade the goddess and to demonstrate the assuaging power of love, these rhymes would serve as the kind of lyrics to a song that implores Diana to relieve mankind. Take for example these few lines:
"Where'er you walk, cool gales shall fan the glade,/Trees, where you sit, shall crowd into a shade,/Where'er you tread, the blushing flow'rs shall rise,/And all things flourish where you turn your eyes" (Pope,15-18). Pope is expressing his admiration for Diana, and desperately asks her to remove the painful heat of summer.
Now, let's discuss the final method that Pope utilizes to accomplish his purposes: breathtaking imagery. As is the case with nearly every poem, imagery is a favorite artistic device that makes literature more like artwork than even words written on a page---and this is exactly why Alexander Pope includes such a drastic amount of it in this work, in nearly every line. Recall once more that Pope is praising the goddess Diana and urging her to relinquish even some of her love to him and others that he may experience only the beauty of Summer without its harsher side. In these next lines, reflect upon the painting the words create and how they add to the beauty of Diana and her gifts:
"But wou'd you sing, and rival Orpheus' strain,/The wond'ring forests soon shou'd dance again,/The moving mountains hear the pow'rful call,/And headlong streams hang list'ning in their fall!" (Pope, 23-26).
An image of swaying trees and rushing water certainly are not displeasing to the mind, and only seek to glorify the goddess more in their inclusion. In all this, Pope's purpose is served---to appease Diana and convince her to grant the sufferers of great heat some degree of reprieve.
Thus, Alexander Pope writes the poem Summer to praise the goddess in the most eloquent way possible, and desperately asks Diana to bring love and relief upon him through imagery, a consistent rhyme scheme, and hyperbolic comparison. Through each of these methods, Pope stays true to his purposes of begging for relief and praising the very person he believes can easily grant it. This work clearly demonstrates Pope's great emotions, and provides an excellent example for poets who are seeking to woo nearly anyone, in the "heavens", or on Earth.
Works Cited:
Pope, Alexander. “Summer.” PoemHunter.com, Poem Hunter, 3 Jan. 2003,
www.poemhunter.com/poem/summer/.
Quotesideas.com, Quotes Ideas, quotesideas.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/hot-summer-day-
background-wallpaper-hot-summer-wallpaper-.jpg.
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