Essay on Man: Epistle IV

by Alexander Pope
In this philosophical poem, Pope attempts to define humanity's place in the universe with respect to a divine plan. Read the full text here.

Here are links to our lists for the book: The Design, Epistle I, Epistle II, Epistle III, Epistle IV
20 words 6 learners

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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. deign
    do something that one considers to be below one's dignity
    Plant of celestial seed! if dropped below,
    Say, in what mortal soil thou deign’st to grow?
  2. propitious
    presenting favorable circumstances
    Fair opening to some Court’s propitious shine,
    Or deep with diamonds in the flaming mine?
  3. impartial
    showing lack of favoritism
    Heaven to mankind impartial we confess,
    If all are equal in their happiness
  4. competence
    the quality of being adequately or well qualified
    Reason’s whole pleasure, all the joys of sense,
    Lie in three words, health, peace, and competence.
  5. contempt
    lack of respect accompanied by a feeling of intense dislike
    Of vice or virtue, whether blessed or cursed,
    Which meets contempt, or which compassion first?
  6. disdain
    reject with contempt
    Count all the advantage prosperous vice attains,
    ’Tis but what virtue flies from and disdains
  7. prostrate
    stretched out and lying at full length along the ground
    See Falkland dies, the virtuous and the just!
    See god-like Turenne prostrate on the dust!
  8. lewd
    suggestive of or tending to moral looseness
    We just as wisely might of Heaven complain
    That righteous Abel was destroyed by Cain,
    As that the virtuous son is ill at ease
    When his lewd father gave the dire disease.
  9. edify
    make understand
    What shocks one part will edify the rest,
    Nor with one system can they all be blest.
  10. trifle
    something of small importance
    As well as dream such trifles are assigned,
    As toys and empires, for a God-like mind.
  11. brocade
    thick expensive material with a raised pattern
    Fortune in men has some small difference made,
    One flaunts in rags, one flutters in brocade
  12. illustrious
    widely known and esteemed
    Boast the pure blood of an illustrious race,
    In quiet flow from Lucrece to Lucrece;
    But by your fathers’ worth if yours you rate,
    Count me those only who were good and great.
  13. politic
    marked by artful prudence, expedience, and shrewdness
    Not one looks backward, onward still he goes,
    Yet ne’er looks forward farther than his nose.
    No less alike the politic and wise
  14. circumspect
    careful to consider potential consequences and avoid risk
    All sly slow things, with circumspective eyes;
    Men in their loose unguarded hours they take
  15. oblivion
    the state of being disregarded or forgotten
    Fame but from death a villain’s name can save,
    As justice tears his body from the grave;
    When what the oblivion better were resigned,
    Is hung on high, to poison half mankind.
  16. drudge
    work hard
    Condemned in business or in arts to drudge,
    Without a second or without a judge
  17. imperious
    having or showing arrogant superiority
    Oh, wealth ill-fated! which no act of fame
    E’er taught to shine, or sanctified from shame;
    What greater bliss attends their close of life?
    Some greedy minion, or imperious wife.
  18. satiety
    being satisfactorily full and unable to take on more
    The joy unequalled, if its end it gain,
    And if it lose, attended with no pain;
    Without satiety, though e’er so blessed,
    And but more relished as the more distressed
  19. mirth
    great merriment
    The broadest mirth unfeeling folly wears,
    Less pleasing far than virtue’s very tears
  20. dejected
    affected or marked by low spirits
    Never dejected while another’s blessed
Created on Wed May 12 16:58:49 EDT 2021 (updated Mon May 17 15:43:59 EDT 2021)

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