The Rape of the Lock

Alexander Pope (1688-1744)

Alexander Pope’s mock epic "The Rape of the Lock" is a satire of the sententiousness and superficiality of 18th century aristocratic society and its obsessions with relatively minor sufferings. You might say Pope’s poem took on the “woke” culture of its time. The lock is, if you will, the "survivor." The poem resonates with our current culture where there are so many would be victims that the real ones are lost in the shuffle. What many fail to remember is that there was Stalin as well as Hitler, Big Brother as well as a Fuhrer.