The Rape of the Lock Resources

This page is almost as fun to read as ours is—but not quite. Full of jokey language, and more background info about the poem, plus a hyperlinked version.

Looking for just the right lines to write on that blank birthday card you bought for your mom? Pope was a genius at putting together pithy couplets and catchy phrases. Find a ton of them here.

Learn more about the posh palace where Belinda lost her locks

Want to really see how big Belinda's skirt was, or the fluffiness of the wigs worn by the Baron and Sir Plume? High fashion in Pope's day was pretty insane, and often beautiful. Go back to the days when men wore satin and women's hair was bigger than the 80s, here in this interactive website from London's Victoria and Albert Museum.

As you can imagine from such a gorgeously-written poem, The Rape of the Lock has inspired some equally gorgeous illustrations—what artist could resist trying to depict sunny Belinda, or those diaphanous Sylphs? The late 19th-century artist Aubrey Beardsley did some particularly amazing ones, which you can find here on the University of Reading's library website. Don't blame us if these give you some good tattoo inspiration.

Believe it or not, there are a bunch of wacky videos out there dramatizing The Rape of the Lock. Most of them are posted on YouTube by college students who made videos of the poem for their final projects. This page puts eight of them together for your viewing convenience. Our absolute favorite of all of those is the sock-puppet version, which you'll find in a whole menu of other versions (just click on the image of the sock puppets in the top row). You'll also find a video version in full 18th-century costume. Fun to watch, but it's all sung in Italian.

You can find some fantastic audio readings of The Rape of the Lock, and a bunch of other Pope poems, too, here at the Pennsound Classics website. They're all read by Professor John Richetti, a specialist in the field who also has a sense of humor.

No doubt about it, the discovery of coffee in Africa and the Americas was huge for Europe in the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries. We know that a cup of joe was strategic for the Baron in The Rape of the Lock. Find out why and how in this audio segment from National Public Radio.

The National Portrait Gallery in London has a ton of paintings, engravings, drawings, and statues of Alexander Pope (we told you the man was a legend). Take a look at all of them here—especially a little chalk sketch of the poet that will show you exactly how short and twisted his tuberculosis left him—and click the title link above for one of many.

Want to read more of Pope's stuff? This inexpensive and well-edited edition is a great place to have all of his greatest hits in one paperback.

This is a cheap, good reproduction of the gorgeous edition of 1896, with Beardsley's decadent illustrations.

Pope was as good of a letter writer as he was a poet. Check out this free e-book of his letters, steep yourself in more of the man's talent, and we guarantee your emails, text messages, and tweets will improve. We can't promise better snapchats though.

How about a bio of Pope, written by Virginia Woolf's father? Check it out here:

Here's a great article, written by a student for students, that puts The Rape of the Lock into the larger context of 18th-century satire. It reads Pope's poem side by side with his best buddy Jonathan Swift's creepy satire, A Modest Proposal. What does Belinda's lock have to do with corporate cannibalism in 18th-century Ireland? Read on and find out.