Know Then Thyself by Alexander Pope

Know Then Thyself by Alexander Pope

 About the Poet

   Alexander Pope was considered to be the greatest poet of English during the early eighteenth century.  He is best known for his great works like The Rape of the Lock, Dunciad, A Essay on Criticism, and several translations of Homer. He was born on 21^st May 1688 and died on 30^th May 1744. He wrote didactic poetry. He was a learned poet, who had learned French, Latin, Italian, and Greek with his own efforts. He was greatly influenced by Homer.                           

About the Poem

    The present poem is an extract from his long poem  Essay on Man, written in four Cantos.

    In this extract, the poet strongly advises human beings not to waste their precious time studying God and his mysterious ways. Rather they should study themselves. They should know their limitations, weaknesses and powers.

Line-to- line Explanation of the Poem

 

Know then thyself, presume not God to scan; 

The proper study of mankind is man. 

A being darkly wise, and rudely great: 

A being darkly wise, and rudely great: 

With too much knowledge for the sceptic side, 

With too much weakness for the stoic's pride, 

 

Word-meanings:  Thyself:  Yourself,  Presume:  to assume, scan: to scrutinise, examine,    isthmus:  a narrow piece of land having water on its sides and it joins two large areas of land.

skeptic:  doubtful,  stoic: is the person who is not affected by both joys and sorrows

The poet has used the word ‘isthmus’ for the earth because it is surrounded by water.

Explanation: the very first line states the central idea of the poem. The poet strongly advises man (i.e. all human beings) to know himself. They should not venture to scan (scrutinise or examine) God and his mysterious ways. They should not wrongly presume (assume/guess) that they are able to scrutinise God. If they do so, it would be their greatest folly.

The second line ‘The proper study of mankind is a man’ clearly states that the proper subject for a man to study is ‘man’ his himself. Man in his ignorance wastes his time and energy in unravelling God. It is pity that man spends his own life but he is unable to know his own weaknesses, limitations and powers. On the other hand, a lot of time is wasted by him in studying others’ nature.

‘Plac'd on this isthmus of a middle state, 

A being darkly wise, and rudely great: …’

 After advising a man to study himself rather than God,  the poet proceeds to assert (declare) what actually the man is. He uses paradoxes like, ‘darkly wise’ and ‘rudely great’ to make human beings know their real place and position in the Universe in relation to God and His Creation.

The poet says that man has been placed in a middle state on this earth. He hangs between two extreme points. He is neither an angel nor is he an animal. He possesses both, divine and animal instincts.

‘A being darkly wise and rudely great

He is a being (living form) that is wise but still ignorant of God and the Universe. He is great but in his pride he behaves rudely with others. It is because he loses his self-control very easily.

‘With too much knowledge for the sceptic side, 

With too much weakness for the stoic's pride, ‘

He has too much knowledge but still, he is skeptical (doubtful) of his potential. He may take pride in achieving a stoic’s position, but still, he is full of weaknesses.

 A stoic is a person who is not affected by his emotions and weaknesses. He is affected by his emotions.

 

 

Let’s read the next two lines:

He hangs between; in doubt to act, or rest; 

In doubt to deem himself a god, or beast; 

In doubt his mind or body to prefer; 

 

Word-meanings: deem: think or to believe, rest: here it means the state of inaction

Explanation: The poet says that Man is many a time troubled by his tendency of indecision. He is always in doubt to act or not to act; to do or not to do an action. Sometimes he may think of himself as a god and while at another time, he behaves like a beast. He doubts his own thoughts and then he acts under the pressure of his emotions. Sometimes he is guided by his mind (i.e. thoughts) while another time by his body (i.e. emotions)

 

The next lines:

Born but to die, and reas'ning but to err; 

Alike in ignorance, his reason such, 

Whether he thinks too little, or too much: 

Chaos of thought and passion, all confus'd; 

Still by himself abus'd, or disabus'd; 

Created half to rise, and half to fall; 

Great lord of all things, yet a prey to all; 

Sole judge of truth, in endless error hurl'd: 

The glory, jest, and riddle of the world! 

Word-meanings: 1. reasoning: the mental power to differentiate between good or bad; the useful and un-useful, etc, 2. err: to commit mistake 3. Ignorance: the state of mind in which the person has no knowledge of a particular thing 4.  Chaos: confusion 5. Passion: strong emotion 6. Prey: victim 7. Sole: only 8. hurled: thrown 9. Jest: joke, prank 10. Riddle: puzzle

Explanation: ‘Born but to die, and reas'ning but to err;’ 

 

The ultimate fate of Man is that he has to die. He is not an immortal being. He is habitual of using his reasoning power but in that process, he is prone to commit mistakes. A wise person sometimes may be under the influence of his emotions and, at that very time, he is unable to recognize whether he is being guided by his reasoning or emotions. Then he commits serious mistakes.

‘Alike in ignorance, his reason such, 

Whether he thinks too little, or too much: 

Chaos of thought and passion, all confus'd;’

Still by himself abus'd, or disabus'd; 

 

He is the same person in his ignorance or in reason. He is the same, a confused person whether he is thinking a little or too much. He is all confused between his thought and passion. He is unable to know whether is being guided by his thoughts or emotions. As he tries to reach a conclusion, then another idea, maybe guided by reasoning or his passion, contradicts the previous one. In this manner, man remains in a confused situation. He is, thus, abused by his own thoughts and emotions

Created half to rise, and half to fall; 

Great lord of all things, yet a prey to all; 

God has created man in such a way that he acts to achieve greatness in his life, but at the same time, he commits such a fatal mistake that causes his downfall. Men in their glory are more prone to commit blunders that lead to their doom. He is the lord of all things. He is the boss on all the creatures on the earth. But still, he is prey to all of his weaknesses.

Sole judge of truth, in endless error hurl'd: 

The glory, jest, and riddle of the world! 

 

Man is the only judge of truth. It means he establishes the standards of moral values. He makes rules to control human behavior on the earth so that human society may work smoothly. The people who commit errors are punished. But the poet says that, man commits so many errors while passing his judgments on others. Many a time, he does not pass fair judgment as he may be under the influence of his personal motives.

Man is a glorious creature on the earth, but sometimes he commits funny acts. Thus he is the riddles that cannot be solved. He is always unpredictable.

 

Sonnet XVIII-Sonnet 18-William Shakespeare-Paraphrase of the Poem sonnet XVIII

                                               Sonnet XVIII (18)

Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? 
Thou art more lovely and more temperate: 
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May, 
And summer’s lease hath all too short a date: 
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines, 
And often is his gold complexion dimm’d; 
And every fair from fair sometime declines, 
By chance or nature’s changing course untrimm’d; 
But thy eternal summer shall not fade 
Nor lose possession of that fair thou owest; 
Nor shall Death brag thou wander’st in his shade, 
When in eternal lines to time thou growest: 
   So long as men can breathe or eyes can see, 
   So long lives this, and this gives life to thee. 

 

This sonnet is considered to be the most famous of all the sonnets written by William Shakespeare. The poet appreciates someone, who is
not clearly mentioned in the poem.

Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? 
Thou art more lovely and more temperate: 

The sonnet opens abruptly with a rhetorical question ‘Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?’ The next line ‘Thou art more lovely and temperate’ seems to be directly addressed to the person who is being appreciated in such a unique manner.

The poet is not taking any permission from the person addressed to, but it may be that the poet poses this question to himself just to give a conversational tone to the opening of the sonnet. He thinks to compare his beloved (male or female) to a ‘summer’s day. In England, the summer season comes for a very short time. One can notice beautiful flowers blooming around. So the poet desires to compare his beloved to a beautiful summer day. But then, suddenly, the poet changes his mind and declares ‘Thou art more lovely and more temperate: ‘
It means that the beautiful summer day has no comparison with his beloved because he/she is more lovely and temperate than a summer day. The use of the word temperate signifies ‘balanced’ or constant in nature.

In the next lines, the poet proceeds to prove how the summer’s day is unpredictable and not constant as the beauty of his beloved is.

Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May, 
First, rough or strong winds start blowing all of a sudden and they shake off the lovely buds from the plants. Thus the beauty and loveliness of the summer day is ruined by the fast blowing winds.

And summer’s lease hath all too short a date: 
Second, the summer season is short-lived. As we know, the summer season provides respite from the chilly weather conditions prevailing there in the whole region. It is like the spring season which we enjoy in our country. Thus the poet adds a second contrasting feature of the summer day.

Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines, 
And often is his gold complexion dimm’d; 
And every fair from fair sometime declines, 
Third, sometimes it so happens that the sun shines too much brightly in the sky. The poet calls the sun ‘the eye of heaven’. Here, we find the personification of the sky and the sun has been used as a metaphor to intensify the effect of the heat on the earth and all the creatures on it. In simple words, we may say that though the summer days are very beautiful in England but their beauty and loveliness are sometimes marred by the heat of the sun. On the other hand, the loveliness of his beloved doesn’t have such limitations.

And often is his gold complexion dimm’d; 
In the above line, the poet keeps on describing the summer day’s limitations. He says that very often the golden complexion of the summer day is dimmed when the clouds overcast the sky and the sun is hidden behind them. We must note here that the poet has also personified the summer day having loveliness and beauty on his face. That’s why he uses the pronoun ‘his’ in the above line. If we assume that the poet means to say the sun’s golden complexion, it does not establish a connection to the main thread of the meaning. The reason is that the poet has called the sun ‘the eye of heaven’. In the spring season, the sun is usually mild and its rays make the face of the earth with all its beauty golden. But the poet says that the summer’s day, which is often golden due to the mild rays of the sun, is sometimes dimmed when there are clouds in the sky. We may also suppose that the sky is dimmed when the clouds hide the sun behind them. Thus the poet proves his point that the loveliness of a summer’s day is transitory.

And every fair from fair sometime declines, 
After describing the dimming effect on the summer’s day, the poet proceeds to lay emphasis on the transitory nature of physical beauty on the earth. The beauty of every object on the earth fades with the passage of time.

By chance or nature’s changing course untrimm’d; 

The reason behind this ruinous nature of Time is by chance or it may be the unaltered plan of Nature.

But thy eternal summer shall not fade 
Nor lose possession of that fair thou owest; 
Nor shall Death brag thou wander’st in his shade, 
When in eternal lines to time thou growest: 
After creating a bitter contrast by describing the limitations of the summer’s day, the poet comes to the point. Now he says what he really wanted to say. He says that his beloved loveliness shall never fade. He calls it eternal. His friend will also never lose the qualities that he/she possesses. The poet further points out that Death shall also have no effect on his beloved, who will remain eternal in his verses.

 ‘So long as men can breathe or eyes can see, 
 So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.‘

 He further clarifies the thought of making his beloved above the ravaging effect of Time and Death. He says that his verses and his beloved shall remain in the hearts of human beings till they live on the earth. The people shall keep on reading and enjoying his verses and, thus, his beloved shall also be living in his lines.

 

 

Dust of Snow-Robert Frost-American Poetry-Class X English