“Ode On Solitude” – By Alexander Pope

About The Poet:

Alexander Pope was a central figure in the Neoclassical movement of the early 18th century. He was an English poet, best known for his satirical verse and for his translation of Homer. Pope was influenced by various events and people throughout his life which lead him to write poems about things such as society in the era. He was the third most frequently quoted writer in the Oxford Dictionary. He was very successful in his lifetime, wrote a piece on Greek mythology.

“Ode On Solitude” is a narrative poem because it tells a story about a man and how he lives on his farm that he inherited from his father. The man loves living on his farm but a it lonely and depressing because the man wants to live there until he dies and he lives alone. So, the man in this poem is lonely but  he is happy in his fathers farm.

Happy the man, whose wish and care

A few paternal acres bound,

Content to breathe his native air,

In his own ground.

    In this first stanza, we show the beautiful picture of a happy man. Pope shows us that how a man would e happy and his dreams and wishes are paternally. Basically describing  how a man can e happy with connection of nature and never e away from it because it’s his own native air. However, this happy man does not wish to leave his native land but instead wishes to breath his native air in his own ground.

 

Whose herds with milk, whose fields with bread,

Whose flocks supply him with attire,

Whose trees in summer yield him shade,

In winter fire.

The second stanza emphasizes the idea of owning land with everything to sustain life such as milk, bread clothes from flocks, etc. He is suggesting that he is independent and that he can live on his own without any assistance from society.

Blest, who can unconcernedly find

Hours, days, and years slide soft away,

In health of body, peace of mind,

Quiet by day,

The third verse emphasizes the significance of solitude life to e happy. He said that the happy man who lives on his own is blessed because he doesn’t care about worldly things because he has a healthy body and peace of mind.

Sound sleep by night; study and ease,

Together mixed; sweet recreation;

And innocence, which most does please,

With meditation.

    

    The forth verse talks about how the man can sleep with ease at night on his farm and study with ease as sweet recreation, showing how isolation from everything helps relax the mind and body.

Thus let me live, unseen, unknown;

Thus unlamented let me die;

Steal from the world, and not a stone

Tell where I lie.

    Finally, in the fifth stanza, he describes how he wants to go unknown. “Let me live, unseen, unknown.” He still wants to live happily, however he wishes to be in Solitude. He even wishes his death goes unlamented.

    So, overall the mood of the poem is quite happy, and kind of secretive. Some images of the poem that develop in our head is an old man working on his farm and caring for all his animals like they are family, but it’s like paradise to him.