...why left-wing theologians, when they get on to these topics, are apt to become impenetrably obscure. So well-bred spaniels civilly delight In mumbling of the game they dare not bite (Pope 1 734) I will take two of these topics which I think are among the most difficult, namely prayer...

...can Sporus Feel? Who breaks a Butterfly upon a Wheel?" Yet let me flap this Bug with gilded wings, 5 This painted Child of dirt that stinks and stings;...ne'er enjoys. So well-bred Spaniels civilly delight 1n mumbling of the Game they dare not bite. 10 Eternal Smiles his Emptiness betray. As shallow streams...

...the Horace figure of the opening lines is at odds with the aggressive glee of the attack on Hervey - "Yet let me flap this bug with gilded wings, / This painted child of dirt, that stinks and stings" (lines 309-10) - as well as with the lofty tones of the satirist who "stoop'd to Truth, and moraliz'd...

...(3u-1l In To Arhuthnot the failure in penetration, already present in Atticus, is given a new emphasis: Whose Buzz the Witty and the Fair annoys. Yet Wit ne'er tastes, and Beauty ne'er en joys . . . (First edition, 5oo-1l If in the I erses Pope is a porcupine unahle to wound with his...

...There may be a memory of the image of the insect in Pope's 'Epistle to Dr Arbuthnot' (1735), 11. 308-9: 'Yet let me flap this bug with gilded wings - / This painted child of dirt, that stinks and stings.' 49:37 These States. Strongly reminiscent of Whitman (see note on 148:2): cf. the titles 'France, The...

...vulgar terms like pox; Pope uses low Saxon monosyllables like bug, dirt, stink just as effectively: Yet let me flap this Bug with gilded Wings, This painted Child of Dirt that stinks and stings; (Epistle to Dr Arbuthnot, 11. 310-11; 1734) Rochester and Swift break decorum, or break with decorum,...

...attacks elsewhere on fools and charlatans in literature and public life are vigorously handled — "Yet let me flap this bug with gilded wings, / This painted child of dirt, that stinks and sings" (Lord Hervey, in 'The Dunciad') - but the individual feuds have relatively little interest for...

...of afs's milk ? Satire or fenfe, alas ! can Sporus feel ? Who breaks a butterfly upon a wheel ? — Yet let me flap this bug with gilded wings, This painted child of dirt, that {links and flings j Whofe buzz the witty and the fair annoys, Yet wit ne'er taftes, and beauty ne'er...

...neatness, elegance and economy that matter, not the truth. But the pleasure we take in such a couplet as: So well-bred spaniels civilly delight In mumbling of the game they dare not bite is not simply pleasure in the neat expression of an idea. We recognise that the poet has accepted truth...