Pope's Poems and Prose
Describe the poor indians explained by alexander pope in the poem extract from an essay on man?
Essay on man, third stanza, epistle 1
Essay on man, third stanza, epistle 1
Pope seems to envy them a little. He likes the natural connection that Indians have with their God(s), "Sees God in clouds, or hears him in the wind..."He imagines the Indian promised land not in some afterlife but embraced under forest canopy. He thinks the Indians blessed to be away from white mans'/ Christian greed,
"Behind the cloud-topp'd hill, a humbler heav'n;
Some safer world in depth of woods embrac'd,
Some happier island in the wat'ry waste,
Where slaves once more their native land behold,
No fiends torment, no Christians thirst for gold!"