Eloisa to Abelard

Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1717

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Summary

Background

Poem Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Literary Devices

Symbols & Motifs

Captivity

Imprisonment is a symbol of Eloisa’s misfortunes. Pope details Eloisa’s captivity in the convent by describing the similarities between being in a convent and being imprisoned. He connects this with Eloisa’s emotional state, writing that Eloisa sits in “deep solitudes and awful cells” (Line 1).

In addition, Eloisa’s vow of silence serves as a metaphor for feeling alone and trapped. When Eloisa thinks of Abelard’s name, she contemplates that it cannot “pass these lips in holy silence seal’d” (Line 10). Eloisa’s confinement to the convent means that she is sealed away from communicating with Abelard. Her vow of silence is a “death-like” (Line 166) punishment that only causes her to mourn to the loss of Abelard even more. Pope describes the architecture of the convent to explore this symbolism further, with Eloisa describing the walls of the convent as “relentless” and “lone” (Lines 17, 141). Eloisa compares herself in her cell in the convent to a person living in a tomb, “a neighbor of the dead” (Line 304). Eloisa’s feelings of loneliness and despair are captured in the symbolism of being trapped, isolated from the one she loves.

Light and Darkness

Light and darkness are motifs that reflect Eloisa’s tumultuous emotions as she attempts to choose spiritual grace. Eloisa cannot let go of her feelings toward Abelard, even if they cause her to experience dark and painful emotions. She feels an overwhelming love for Abelard that possesses her heart and interrupts her contemplation of God. The poem associates light with heaven and darkness with hell, showing that Eloisa’s current sorrows are caused by the past “sins,” and connecting heaven and salvation with imagery of lightness. However, the convent itself is a place that Eloisa associates with darkness, as her depressing emotions take hold of her when she is there.

The convent’s architecture itself adds to her melancholy: The arches that shield her from the sun “make a noonday night” (Line 143), and the shaded windows only give small amounts of light. She compares the dimness of her current life to the brightness of Abelard’s eyes, believing that her life is dim and gray without Abelard in it.

Pope does not characterize Abelard’s religious commitment with the same darkness as he characterizes Eloisa’s. Abelard’s monastery is described with light imagery: “shrines irradiate, or emblaze the floor” (Line 136). Eloisa’s feelings about being in a convent find contrast through a shift in diction. Instead of language of beauty and admiration, Eloisa’s convent has “lone walls” with “awful arches” and “dim windows” (Lines 141-44). The stark, depressing imagery to describe Eloisa’s surrounding shows how Eloisa sees her feelings reflected in the atmosphere around her. This creates a feeling of sympathy, or pathos, about Eloisa’s life in the convent.

Using imagery of light and dawn, Pope describes a spiritual faith beginning to enter Eloisa’s soul as “dawning grace” (Line 280). Pope uses romantic, angelic imagery to depict the aura of peacefulness and contentment that the other nuns in the convent carry. When speaking about another nun who does not struggle with the sadness that she does, Eloisa notes that “Grace shines around her,” and “angels prompt her golden dreams” (Lines 215-16). Imagery of light, sun, and brightness is associated with purity, spiritual fulfillment, and a disconnection from the earth. In contrast with the imagery of light surrounding the innocent nuns around her, Eloisa connects her own “erring soul” with darkness and impurity, describing her dreams of “unholy joy” (Lines 223-24). The poem’s shifts between language describing darkness and light portray the inner conflict that Eloisa feels.

The Power of the Written Word

As a motif, written communication is a powerful alternative to the expression of physical passion. Pope underscores this motif by having Eloisa plead for Abelard to write to her. While Eloisa has taken a vow of silence as a form of penitence for her scandalous affair with the famous scholar, she still writes to him to attempt to express her feelings. She bemoans their separation, but she hopes that through shared letters they can maintain their closeness by joining her “griefs to thy griefs and echo sighs to thine” (Line 42). She even hopes that by venting his sufferings in letters to her, Eloisa can take on Abelard’s burden. Pope references the history of letters between lovers who are separated by including a reference to sighs being shared as far as “Indus,” referring to the Indus River, all the way to “the Pole” (Line 58).

Eloisa compares herself to a “wretch’s aid,” a “banish’d lover,” and a “captive maid” (Lines 51-52) who has only letters to express her love. She urges Abelard to write her back soon to “speed the soft intercourse from soul to soul” (Line 57). Just seeing Abelard’s name on a letter she opens brings deep sighs and tears to her eyes. In the letter that she intercepts, she reads about the “sad variety of woe” (Line 36) that Abelard has endured due to their relationship. However, rather than Eloisa pleading with Abelard to write her as she does at the beginning of the poem, she wishes for him to never write her again and to forget her. She commands him to “come not, write not, think not once of me” (Line 291), with the repetition of “not” emphasizing Eloisa’s determination to move on from Abelard. Eloisa does this in hopes that she can overcome her feelings for him and move toward spiritual grace.

Eloisa describes her love as “immortal” (Line 344), emphasizing the theme that love survives death through expression in art, poetry, and words. Pope mentions a poet who will one day bring comfort to Eloisa’s tormented soul by expressing her love for Abelard. The written word allows love to survive even after death.