"The Rape of the Lock" stands as the most exquisite example of ludicrous poetry

"The Rape of the Lock" was first published in 1712 and later expanded in 1714. The occasion for this elegant comic piece was the forceful cutting by Lord Petre of a lock of hair from Lady Arabella Fermor's head. This trivial event caused dissension between their two aristocratic families. Alexander Pope composed the poem on the suggestion o John Caryll, a common friend of the families to compromise them. Pope intended his verse to cool hot tempers and to encourage his friends to laugh at their own folly.

"The Rape of the Lock" stands as the most exquisite example in the English Language of ludicrous poetry or mock epic. The poem has a large number of epic features and is divided into five cantos. A mock-epic poem is a parody of the serious and comic style of classical epics. In such a poem, a common or trivial subject is treated in a sublime and lofty manner, but its foremost purpose is to ridicule both the subject and theme and to poke fun at human follies. The strategy of Pope's mock epic is not to mock the form itself but to mock his society in its very failure to rise to epic standards, exposing its pettiness by casting it against the grandness of the traditional epic subjects and the bravery of fortitude of epic heroes.

Pope's mock-heroic treatment in "The Rape of the Lock" underscores the ridiculousness of the society in which values have lost all proportion and the trivial is handled with gravity and solemnity that ought to b accorded to truly important issues. He called "The Rape of the Lock" a 'heroic-comical poem' which is another name for a mock-epic. It belongs to a class of literature called burlesque. Burlesque is a parody on a large scale in which not a single poem but a whole type of style of literature is parodied.

In the poem, Pope has changed armor and weaponry into Belinda's makeup, clothing, and jewelry which for her is as important as weapons are for great heroes. The mere cutting of Belinda's lock of hair is considered a terrible offense that draws the attention of the physical and the supernatural acts these are characteristics of mock-heroic poems in "The Rape of the Lock". The epic always uses a supernatural element. In 'The Illiad' there are gods and goddesses, in 'The Rape of the Lock' there are sylphs and gnomes. These aerial spirits are small and they guard and save the chastity of maidens who are yielding to their love. The humor is that this supernatural machinery is operating. only to protect a lock of hair and her looks rather than to protect an epic hero fighting for his own and his country's survival.

This poem can be simply detailed as a mock epic based on the fact that the object of desire is not a queen, a noblewoman, or even a peasant. Instead, the object of desire is hair. The Baron upon the boat with Belinda becomes infatuated with Belinda's locks. Not only does he desire them, but he has also built an altar to ask for success in his ability to possess the locks. The ritual sacrifices he performs in the pre-dawn hours are another mock-heroic element of the poem, mimicking the epic tradition of sacrificing to the gods before an important battle or journey and draping his project with an absurdly grand import that only exposes its triviality. Although the poem is humorous at times, Pope keeps a sense that beauty is fragile and that a loss of a lock of hair touches Belinda deeply.

In the Sylph's defensive efforts, Belinda's petticoat is the battlefield that requires the most extensive fortifications. This fact furthers the idea that the rape of the lock stands in for a literal rape or at least represents a threat to her chastity more serious than a mere theft of a curl. In conclusion, one can say that Alexander Pope's 'The Rape of the Lock' is a classic example of mock-epic poetry because, to a great extent, it shares the characteristics of the genre.