Eloisa to Abelard

Pope uses various literary devices including rhetorical questions, alliteration, metaphor, imagery, and personification to capture Eloisa’s despair, hope, sorrow, and tender feelings toward Abelard. Rather than depicting Eloisa as a pitiful victim, he chooses to depict her as a tragic heroine. In describing Eloisa’s painful experiences, he shows her strong character and desire to overcome hardship.

Pope also shows that Eloisa is sensitive and thoughtful, as she is constantly questioning her choices and reflecting on the truth. Pope uses rhetorical questions to show this aspect of Eloisa’s character, such as when Eloisa asks, “[w]hat means this tumult in a vestal’s veins?” (Line 4) and “[w]hy feels my heart its long-forgotten heat?” (Line 6). Eloisa curses the rocks in the convent’s grottos and caverns, where she prays on her knees. Though she is a nun in the convent, Pope has Eloisa criticize the shrines and the nuns who worship them, using metaphor to compare the nuns to the lifeless statues. Eloisa states that she has not forgotten her life before the convent, and she has not become cold and passionless.

Alliteration, or the repetition of sounds, is especially noticeable in the first few stanzas, where Pope repeats sounds in “every-musing melancholy,” “vestal’s veins,” “lov’d idea lies,” and “rugged rocks” (Lines 3, 4, 12, 19). This alliteration emphasizes the distressed tone that Eloisa frequently returns to when her mood darkens. Pope uses imagery of hardness and coldness to emphasize the metaphor, portraying the spiritual life in the convent as deadening to Eloisa rather than inspiring or comforting.

Negation in the poem highlights Eloisa’s refusal to submit her rebellious spirit to religion: The poem repeats “nor” three times in Lines 27-28, emphasizing that nothing the convent offers Eloisa can stem the heartfelt emotions she still harbors for Abelard in her “stubborn” (Line 27) heart. The tone shifts on Line 29, when Pope begins to meditate more specifically on the causes for Eloisa’s pained heart. Abelard’s name is both “for ever sad” and “for ever dear” (Line 31), a contrasting description that emphasizes the many emotions Eloisa feels toward Abelard. He is both the source of deep sorrow and the source of love. Pope emphasizes the contradictory states that Eloisa feels simultaneously in the description that she is both “warm in love” and “with-ring in thy bloom” (Line 37). The contrast in these images of liveliness and warmth with decay emphasizes the tensions Eloisa feels as she sits in the convent, lonely and lovelorn. The imagery of fire being quenched “unwilling” (Line 39) highlights that Eloisa is not satisfied living in a convent.

Pope also employs personification by giving Love and Friendship human traits, stating that “Love approach’d me under Friendship’s name” (Line 60). Pope’s use of personification emphasizes that Eloisa was surprised when she began to feel romantic feelings for Abelard. Initially Eloisa sees Abelard in an “angelic” (Line 61) light, with even his eyes containing a soft radiance. The description of what initially attracted Eloisa to Abelard emphasizes intellectual and emotional nature of their connection rather than physical lust: Eloisa states that Abelard’s brilliant mind and eloquence entranced her. She emphasizes that she prefers the man Abelard to any angel that heaven could show her. In Lines 59-72, Eloisa appears firmly in favor of the sensual aspects of life over the spiritual perspective. However, she emphasizes in her comparison of Abelard to an angel that their love was a spiritual experience of two humans deeply connecting, rather than based on superficial qualities.

Eloisa’s unconventional views are expressed in Pope’s comments on marriage. Abelard would have lost his standing as a theologian and scholar if he married Eloisa, and Eloisa knew her family, primarily her uncle, would not approve of their match. Due to the societal conventions of the Medieval era in Europe, Abelard and Eloisa could not find happiness in a conventional marriage. Pope lists “Fame, wealth, and honour” (Line 80) as the rewards of a wife in a conventional marriage, emphasizing marriage as a legalistic exchange of property and certain rights rather than a romantic experience. Pope emphasizes Eloisa’s moral stance against marriage when he references Caesar and has Eloisa reject even being empress of the world in favor of being in love with Abelard. Pope uses this hyperbolic statement to portray how grand the love between Eloisa and Abelard is, and he places their love affair in comparison with the most famous couples in history. This stanza emphasizes Eloisa’s unique character traits: She values freedom and love above all else, including material wealth, status, or religious laws. Pope’s depiction of Eloisa’s personality shows her free-spirited iconoclasm and progressive nature. This only further emphasizes how ill-suited she is to the convent lifestyle.

The tone shifts toward a jubilant mood as Eloisa describes what it was like when she and Abelard were together. Using alliteration, Pope states that their “love” was “liberty” (Line 92), and that “nature” was “law” (Line 92). Eloisa and Abelard experienced a feeling of wholeness in the understanding and affection that they had for each other, connected as if their hearts were one. Eloisa says that this was as close to heaven as earth could offer. Pope uses hyperbole to capture how happy Eloisa was by stating, “if bliss on earth there be” (Line 97), underscoring that this is what she and Abelard felt. This hyperbole emphasizes the comparison between being in love and experiencing heaven on earth.

The tone suddenly shifts in the next stanza (Lines 99-106), where Pope uses imagery of horror and violence to refer to the brutal castration of Abelard by a gang hired by Eloisa’s uncle. Abelard is the “naked lover” who lies bleeding on the ground, and Eloisa is powerless to help him. Eloisa feels anger and shame over what happened to Abelard, but she does not go into more detail as it is such an ugly crime. Pope uses suggestion to imply the nature of Abelard’s injuries by stating, “Let tears, and burning blushes speak the rest” (Line 106).

Eloisa’s sense of her own part in the affair is emphasized in the alliteration Pope uses on Line 104, where he writes, “The crime was common, common be the pain,” with the repeating “c” sounds drawing a connection between Eloisa’s sense of sadness over the physical castration that Abelard experienced and her guilt. Despite Eloisa’s much younger age than Abelard when they began their relationship, she emphasizes her free choice to be involved with Abelard and live in sin with him before joining the convent.

Pope uses alliteration and rhyme as well in the powerful summation of the depths of Eloisa’s adoration for Abelard, as she states, “If I lose thy love, I lose my all” (Line 118). The rhyme of “thy” with “my” emphasizes that Eloisa feels that Abelard is a part of her, and the alliteration of “lose” and “love” shows that to be separate from him is tantamount to death for Eloisa.

Eloisa knows that she and Abelard can no longer be intimate as they were before, and Pope suggests Eloisa’s acceptance of this in the statement, “Give all thou canst—and let me dream the rest” (Line 124). Through imagination and memory, Eloisa can recall the bliss the couple previously experienced. Pope then suddenly shifts the tone toward a more spiritual one, with Eloisa hoping that she can “quit Abelard for God” (Line 128). The idea of the tension between the spiritual and the sensual is captured in the way that Eloisa shifts between each of these poles but can never find a way to reconcile these impulses in her heart.

Eloisa fondly characterizes Abelard’s new life, though she is sad that she is not a part of it. Pope uses romantic imagery to describe the monastery that Abelard runs, where “such plain roofs as piety could raise” (Line 139). This contrasts with the stark and depressing imagery Pope uses to describe Eloisa’s convent. Without Abelard’s presence, Eloisa is trapped in a continual state of “blank sadness” (Line 148).

Pope returns to the theme of names that was introduced in the first few stanzas by Abelard’s name, which is “fatal” to Eloisa (Line 9). Pope emphasizes how important Abelard was to Eloisa by having Eloisa call him several things: “father, brother, husband, friend” (Line 152). This line was directly inspired by the real Eloisa (Heloïse d’Argenteuil), who called Abelard all of these things in an actual letter she sent him. Pope uses natural imagery to emphasize how despairing Eloisa is in this moment. Around the convent, surrounded by trees, rocks, streams, hills, lakes, and grottos, Eloisa’s mood covers everything in a depression that Pope personifies as a “Black Melancholy” that “sits” (Line 165) atop the landscape.

Pope next depicts Eloisa’s desire for spiritual comfort in her desperate plea to God when she cries, “Assist me, Heav’n!” (Line 179). However, he quickly shows her doubts about her piety when she asks if this cry to God was out of repentance or despair. Pope repeats the connection between the life of chastity or religious commitment and being frigid or less sensually connected to the earth in the description of a convent as a place where “frozen chastity retires” (Line 181). This personification of celibacy as a cold and disconnected condition emphasizes that Eloisa feels stuck between her competing desires. A life in which one must renounce sensual pleasure and romantic love appears to be a restrictive and incomplete life to her.

Pope continues with repetition to express Eloisa’s dilemma as she wonders how she will “lose the sin, yet keep the sense / […] love th’ offender, yet detest th’ offense?” (Lines 191-92). Eloisa cannot separate her feelings of love for Abelard from the sin that they committed, but she cannot stop loving Abelard without renouncing their mistakes. Though she can momentarily transform her love to “hate” (Line 198), she cannot forget him. Pope emphasizes the idea of substituting Abelard with God by using imagery of rivalry and competition when he writes, “Fill my fond heart with God alone, for he / Alone can rival, can succeed to thee” (Lines 205-06). Eloisa’s hope is that her love for God will supplant her love for Abelard, as her love for Abelard has only brought her misery.

Pope next enacts a shift in tone, using happy, joyful imagery to depict the life of one who has never experienced passionate love. Pope uses diction and tone to show that Eloisa wishes she could be peaceful, pure, and obedient. Through descriptions such as “desires compos’d, affections ever ev’n” (Line 213), Pope depicts Eloisa’s wish that she could be more even-tempered and controlled. Pope uses the metaphor of marriage to highlight the contrast between love of God and love of man. Eloisa states that the virgins are prepared for their “Spouse,” meaning God, and await the “bridal ring” (Line 219) that will be waiting for her in the afterlife.

Pope again creates a strong shift in tone in the next stanza (Lines 223-48), where Eloisa faces that she cannot go back to her earlier state of innocence before she met and fell in love with Abelard. Pope’s shift in diction shows how Eloisa’s dreams reflect her conflicted mind when she is awake: During the “all-conscious” (Line 229) night, she becomes even more aware of her woe. Instead of sleep providing a respite from the worries that trouble her during the day, or the golden dreams that her fellow nuns enjoy, she sees the “curs’d, dear horrors” (Line 229) of sadness and loss that plague her during the day even more clearly. Pope contrasts the angelic imagery of the previous stanza with imagery of demons that lift the restraints from Eloisa’s mind during her sleep. Eloisa’s conflicted feelings about Abelard are expressed in her statement that she dreams of a spirit that she tries to hold, but that flies away from her, “as unkind as you” (Line 236). Eloisa’s anger toward Abelard for leaving her and allowing her to be forced into the convent is expressed in this description of Abelard as cruel. The imagery of the recurring dream shows that Eloisa is trying to hold an ungraspable illusion, with Pope using alliteration in “dear deceits” (Line 240) to show that Eloisa knows that she cannot be with Abelard again, but she still holds on to the hope that they will be united, and this conflict is shown in her dreams, where she never achieves the reunion with Abelard that she so desperately wants.

Pope uses contrasting descriptions to express the tragic nature of Eloisa and Abelard’s fates. Eloisa thinks of Abelard’s current situation as a man who has been castrated and describes this is a kind of merciful cruelty, with Pope writing that “the fate, severely kind, ordain / a cool suspense from pleasure, and from pain” (Lines 249-50). Rather than Eloisa viewing Abelard’s castration as tragic, Eloisa sees it as a reprieve from the torments of unfulfilled passion. Unlike her, Abelard is in a “cool” state where he does not have to live with the temptation to sin.

The hopelessness Eloisa feels when she attempts to be pious is shown in the imagery that Pope uses to describe her as she performs her religious duties and prays. Pope uses diction to express Eloisa’s feeling that her piety is not genuine. The words “steals” and “stains” on Lines 266 and 268 express Eloisa’s suspicion that she is deceiving herself and others in the convent, as she acts out her duties and performs the spiritual rituals, but her love for Abelard does not waver. The grand sacred environment, with clouds from the incense burner and the church music of organs, makes her feel momentarily spiritual, but all of this disappears instantly with “one thought of thee” (Line 273). Pope returns to fire imagery, but this time it is not in the form of passionate love but in a hellish imagery of Eloisa’s soul drowning “in seas of flames” (Line 275). Using imagery of shrines ablaze and fearful angels, Pope connects Eloisa’s obsessive love and sorrow with sin and tragedy.

Using diction like “oppose,” “dispute,” and “delude,” Pope shows that Eloisa is fighting against the “fruitless penitence” (Line 286) of her religious obligations in the convent. The description of Eloisa’s repentance as “fruitless” shows that Pope views Eloisa’s inability to embrace religion as rooted in her belief that to be spiritual, she must reject passion.

Pope shifts the tone once more when Eloisa’s thoughts turn suddenly to death. To underscore that she will never be able to forget Abelard, Pope uses imagery such as “blooming hope” and “gay daughter” to show that Eloisa is romanticizing death, because, in death, she will find peace from her heartache. When Eloisa imagines her funeral, Pope includes quotations from the spirit of a deceased nun calling Eloisa to heaven in Lines 309-16. Pope describes Eloisa’s feeling of connection to the departed spirit, who says that she too lost love just like Eloisa and that after death she has transformed into “a sainted maid” (Line 312). The concept of death as transformation instead of an end of life depicts Eloisa’s hope for an afterlife and wish that she will receive sympathy and acceptance rather than judgment when she dies.

Pope notes the irony that Abelard will finally be able to look at Eloisa only after she has died, when she is no longer full of passion for him, with the “last sparkle languish[ing]” in her eye (Line 332). Pope shows that Eloisa longs to be with Abelard after death and hopes that “one kind grave” (Line 343) will hold both of their remains. Imagining a future couple walking by their grave, Pope uses imagery of “falling tears” (Line 350) to show that these lovers will feel sadness when they contemplate Eloisa and Abelard. Pope implies that he too knows the pains of love lost when he writes in the final couplet that “He best can paint ‘em who shall feel them most” (Line 366), meaning that he understands Eloisa’s woes and has tried his best to capture them in his poem. Pope expresses his hope that by honoring Eloisa’s life and the love that she and Abelard shared, future audiences will feel pity for the long-suffering lovers.