Like Dryden, Pope also was one of the early literary theorists, but his most memorable legacy we find in his satires. The Rape of the Locke, in which he takes the microcosm of the battle of the sexes as his theme and treats the superficial with classical grandeur and wit. Pope's poetry is then also less political than that of Dryden. Not because it does not care for the external world, but because there is more emotional distance to the theme, also evoked by the perfect couplets.
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Restoration 2.
Revolutions did not become the English, for when Charles II was restored to the throne in 1660 a sigh of relief went through the nation. England was traumatised and severely shaken. The return of monarchy was welcome for it seemed to promise stability and a restoration of former values. But parliament had tasted blood and the following age was rich in religious and political dispute. Along with everything else, poetry was to return to its "correct" modes and themes. Censorship returned, Whigs and Tories crossed their swords and all this while the "Age of Reason" was being created. With these contradictions in mind, poetry wanted to be authorative and still protect its creator. John Dryden and Alexander Pope are the most distinguished and influential poets from this time and it is through them and their work that the spirit of the Restoration is best understood.
The Age of Dryden.
Dryden was poet laureate from 1668 to 1688, a title he truly deserved, for in him we find a representation of an age. He was an impersonal poet, who formulated in critical works what he wanted his poetry to be: representative, moderate, in good taste and clear. The model he found in early imperial Rome where greatness, power and moderation had been combined to create a Golden Age.
He celebrated the Restoration in 1660 with Astrae Redux, verse taking the role of the patriotic trumpet.
