The enlightenment was a time of great discoveries and understanding. Isaac Newton discovering gravity, while Locke and Hobbes passed their ideas of government on to the masses. The enlightenment touched every aspect of humanity, even poetry. Alexander Pope has been given the title of greatest poet in the eighteenth century as he captures all of the ideas of the enlightenment in his writings. Being a student of ideas from the enlightenment Pope discovered and contributed great findings to poetry. Pope wrote in his new device, which he called heroic couplets. These couplets involved iambic pentameter and reach completion in structure at the end of each line. Where as before the enlightenment poetry seemed with out aim and wandering, during the enlightenment, with Popes writings as an example, it is clear that poems of the enlightenment contained a solid purpose. The poems by Pope argue about several issues of the 18th century. In his Essay on Man Pope argues the purpose of human kind, nature and god. All of these thoughts would be considered thoughts of the enlightenment. Alexander Pope may be the greatest poet of the enlightenment, but in my eyes he is, in general, one of the greatest contributors to the enlightenment.
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I will have to agree to start that Alexander pope is a great poet who had an impact on the enlightenment. He enhanced the poetry of the time with the use of heroic couplet. There are a number of other contributors that have gone into enhancing the period though other art forms. The great philosophers of the time had a great impact because they each built ideas based on idea from the others. He doesn’t seem to fit the model of the rest of the artists of this era because his poetry was heavily criticized and not really appreciated. Although there are some similarities to enlightenment artists and that is the sense of individualism he displayed in his poetry. I feel this is more of an attribute of the romanticism poets and author, but the two eras do overlap.
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