Page:Alexander Pope (Leslie).djvu/84

72 of poetic phraseology, which has lost all sharpness of impression in its long circulation. Here, for example, is Pope's version of a simile in the fourth book:—

Each phrase is either wrong or escapes from error by vagueness, and one would swear that Pope had never seen the sea. Chapman says,—

This is both clumsy and introduces the quaint and unauthorized image of a pig, but it is unmistakably vivid. Pope is equally troubled when he has to deal with Homer's down-right vernacular. He sometimes ventures apologetically to give the original word. He allows Achilles to speak pretty vigorously to Agamemnon in the first book:—

Chapman translates the phrase more fully, but adds a characteristic quibble:—

Tickell manages the imputation of drink, but has to slur over the dog and the deer:—

Elsewhere Pope hesitates in the use of such plain speak-