From 'An Essay on Criticism'

A little learning is a dangerous thing;

Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring:
There shallow draughts intoxicate the brain,
And drinking largely sobers us again.
Fired at first sight with what the Muse imparts, 5
In fearless youth we tempt the heights of arts,
While from the bounded level of our mind,
Short views we take, nor see the lengths behind;
But more advanced, behold with strange surprise
New, distant scenes of endless science rise! 10
So pleased at first, the towering Alps we try,
Mount o'er the vales, and seem to tread the sky;
The eternal snows appear already passed,
And the first clouds and mountains seem the last;
But those attained, we tremble to survey 15
The growing labours of the lengthened way,
The increasing prospect tires our wandering eyes,
Hills peep o'er hills, and Alps on Alps arise!

A perfect Judge will read each work of Wit

With the same spirit that its author writ, 20
Survey the Whole, nor seek slight faults to find
Where nature moves, and rapture warms the mind;
Nor lose, for that malignant dull delight,
The generous pleasure to be charmed with wit.
But in such lays as neither ebb, nor flow, 25
Correctly cold, and regularly low,
That shunning faults, one quiet tenor keep;
We cannot blame indeed — but we may sleep.
In Wit, as Nature, what affects our hearts
Is not the exactness of peculiar parts; 30
'Tis not a lip, or eye, we beauty call,
But the joint force and full result of all.
Thus when we view some well-proportioned dome,
(The world's just wonder, and even thine, O Rome!)
No single parts unequally surprise; 35
All comes united to the admiring eyes;
No monstrous height, or breadth, or length appear;
The whole at once is bold, and regular.
ALEXANDER POPE

Part II, Line 15

A little learning … sobers us again.

Reference to Context:
This stanza occurs in An Essay on Criticism written by the Neo-classical poet Alexander Pope (1688–1744).
It is written in a type of rhyming verse called heroic couplets. The poem first appeared in 1711, but was
written in 1709. It is a verse essay written in the Horatian mode and covers a range of good criticism and
advice. It also represents many of the chief literary ideals of Pope's age.

Explanation:

The poet, in this passage, dwells upon the disadvantages of petty learning and the rewards that emerge as a
result of broad and profound reading. The poet asserts that superficial knowledge is dangerous and it is no
use being jack of all trades and master of none. Dabbling of knowledge will lead a man astray. One has to
drink the waters of knowledge deeply, i.e. one has to study intensely. The poet advices that one should not
indulge into the smattering of knowledge because it makes him vain and proud. He in vain thinks that he has
attained mastery, although actually he has not done so. Ample and deep reading wears off the intoxication
caused by pride.

Critical Comments:

1. Pierian Spring – In Greek mythology, it was believed that drinking from the Hippocrene (Pierian
Spring) would bring you great knowledge and inspiration.

2. These couplets seem to owe something to Bacon’s Essay of Atheism where we read: "A little
philosophy inclines man's mind to atheism, but depth in philosophy brings men's minds about to
religion."

Fired at first sight … endless science rise!

Explanation:

After becoming impassioned under the first flush of brilliant poetry inspired by Muse, the goddess of poetry,
we make an endeavour to achieve glorious pinnacles with audacity which is the characteristic of youth. But
our minds are confined with certain limits. Consequently, we are able to take only narrow and imperfect
kens. Thus, we leave the vast and wide stretches behind us. But when we go a little far in our enterprise, we
are struck with astonishment as everything begins to appear queer and strange. It is all due to the fresh
discoveries of knowledge rising with all their infinite spaces before us.

So pleased ... images of our mind.

Exclamation:

The poet compares the pursuance of Arts to the ascension of Alps. We ascend the valleys and feel as if we
are trampling the skies. The unchanging snows are left behind. The approaching clouds and hills appear to
be the last that we will have to ascend. We ascend them. But choked with emotion we feel nervous while
looking upon the growing pains and hard work because there is a long way still to be covered by us. The
untracked area is so vast that our eyes get tired by surveying it. One vista followed by another holds itself
before us. Peaks of the mountains rise one upon the other and come into our sight. Like wise, the pursuit of
Arts is long, arduous and painful. It is never ending. Attainment of one vista opens other vistas, which are to
be followed by others, when they are reached.

Critical Comments:
1. This simile of Alps is pronounced by Dr. Johnson to be perhaps the best that English poetry can show. It
affords a striking picture by itself. It assists the apprehension and elevates the fancy.

2. Pope may have been influenced here by a passage in Drummond’s Hymn of the Fairest Fair.

A perfect Judge … charmed with wit.

Explanation:
Here Pope want to convey that an ideal critic will endeavour to put himself in the position of the author
whom he is evaluating, He will enter into his spirit and will approach him sympathetically. A critic will
identify himself with the author; he seeks to review a creative imagination by taking as much trouble as the
author took in composing it. The critic examines the work as a whole, in its totality. He does not find minor
faults in compositions where there has been a free exercise of nature and where ecstasy carries us out of
ourselves. Moreover, he does not tend to miss the delight that is wholesome and salutary in effect in search
of pleasure which is vicious in character and dull in consequence. In a nutshell, the ideal critic will reflect
the creative mind, and will seek to understand the whole work rather than concentrate on minute infractions
of critical laws. Thus, Pope particularly condemns judgment by parts rather than by the whole, by the
number of striking thoughts in its work, or its language, or the smooth flow of its verses.

But in such lays … we may sleep.

Explanation:

However, in the case of such poems, in which emotions do not rise and fall, the verses follow a balanced and
only one sort of representation at a time. They maintain a single pitch and a general meaning or substance
and thus are consistently commonplace. We do not blame or criticize them but we are led on to ignore their
faults.

Critical Comments:

This idea originates from Longinus who stated that the humble and mediocre works never aim at the heights,
since they never run any risks, should remain, to a large extent, safe from errors, while in great masters their
very greatness spells danger.

In Wit, as Nature … bold, and regular.

Explanation:

In creative compositions, we are not influenced by individual or specific portions. What strikes us is the total
result and impression of the unit, that is, all the parts taken together. In order to make his assertion more
substantial, Pope cites the example of a marvellously symmetrical dome, hemispherical roof – situated in
Rome, Italy. In it, nothing is slack or superfluous, and the resultant impression is a unity. It is the beauty of
the whole and not the parts which is perceptible to it and which strikes the appreciative onlookers.

Critical Comments:

Here, the reference is to the dome of St Peter's Church, designed by Michael Angelo: the Pantheon, situated
in Rome, which has a concrete dome with a central opening (oculus) to the sky. The height to the oculus and
the diameter of the interior circle are the same. Since the 7th century, the Pantheon has been used as
a Roman Catholic Church dedicated to "St. Mary and the Martyrs".

General Critical Comments:

The Essay of Criticism, published in 1711, was Alexander Pope’s first major literary venture. In the main, it
sums up the art of poetry according to Horace (65 BC – 8 BC) [Ars Poetics, (c. 10 – 8 BC)] filtered through
the French poet-critic Boileau (1636-1711). His poetry was intellectual, didactic and satiric and was almost
all written in the heroic couplet. It is never of the highest class, but within its limits, it stands unrivalled.

Introduction:

Essay on Criticism was inspired by Horace’s Ars Poetica and Boileau’s L’Art Poétique. Though it is not
original in conception, it is the final and concentrate embodiment of what had found expression in all these
poets, along with Marco Girolamo Vida, John Sheffield, Duke of Buckinghamshire’s Essays on Poetry
(1682) and George Granville’s Essay upon Unnatural Flights in Poetry, and Wentworth Dillon, Earl of
Roscommon’s Essay on Translated Verse (1684). Samuel Johnson thought the poem perhaps Pope’s greatest
work: “It exhibits every mode of excellence that can embellish or dignify didactic composition, selection of
matter, novelty of arrangement, justness of precept, splendour of illustration, and propriety of digression.”

Historical Implication of the Poem:

From the historical point of view the Essay is of great worthiness. It is said to have summed up the cannons,
tenets and ideals of that school of poetry known as “classical” school – the school of which Waller, Denham,
Davenant and Abraham Cowley were the forerunners, Dryden the formulator and popularizer, and Pope, the
most finished representative. It did more – it reduces chaos to order, it crystallized what was in flux, it
defined what was unfixed. It was the first classical contribution to English criticism, the first which attracted
universal attention and became authoritative. Consequently, it was the manual and armoury of the critics of
the 18th century. Addison ranked it as a “masterpiece in its kind,” as it was elegant and perspicuous. One
writer only, John Dennis had attacked it.

The poem is of great interest as a popular interpretation of the literary creed of the age.
The episodic structure and conversational manner of Essay on Criticism, though lacking Dryden’s
ratiocinative energy, admirably suited Pope’s genius and his audience’s taste. Pope’s mastery of terse
expression has made it a storehouse of pithy maxims some of which have passed into popular speech. Lines
like –

“A little learning is s dangerous thing.”

”To err is human, to forgive divine.”

“For fools rush in where angles fear to tread.”

--- are quoted everyday even by those who have never heard the name of the Pope.

Critical Summary of the Poem:

1. How does Pope preach caution and care in the practice and judgment of literature in the Essay?
2. Describe the good qualities of a critic dealt in ‘An Essay on Criticism’.
3. Which dome does Pope refer to in the poem?
4. What are the main views of Alexander Pope on the practice and judgment of literature as shown in
the extract from ‘An Essay on Criticism’?
5. What do you mean by the “Pierian Spring” referred to in the poem?
6. Attempt a critical appreciation of the poem.