EXPLANATIONS:

What dire offence from amorous causes springs, 

What mighty contests rise from trivial things.

Answer: These memorable and note-worthy lines have been quoted from the First Canto of the famous mock-heroic poem namely “The Rape of the Lock” by Alexander Pope, a famous poet of the eighteenth century. Here, Pope in the manner of the epic poets like Homer, Virgil, and Milton has stricken the keynote of the whole poem. In fact, through these lines which are very much poetically compact deadly and corrosive resentments were aroused from the trivial matter. 


At the very outset of the famous heroi-comical poem, Pope has given us foreknowledge of the subject matter of his poem. Society, which has been highlighted through these aphoristic lines, was a very fashionable one. The beaux and belles of the age were imposing and pleasure sacking. They use to pass their valuable time gossiping or love-making. The ladies used to go to bed with their lap dogs and always made a show of their rich garments to their suitors. They used to hanker-after vain pleasure and voluptuousness. Here, actually, Pope rejects the rape of the lock of hair of Belinda who was a fluttering butterfly of beauty. She possessed two locks of hair which increased her charm. But Lord Petre (Baron) out of frivolity cut off one of them. As a result, a corrosive and lasting quarrel began between two catholic families and we cannot but mention that this mock-heroic poem is based on that quarrel. And Alexander Pope has drawn the picture not only of the two catholic families but also of the whole contemporary society even through these two beautiful lines. 


In estimation, we can say that Pope has started his mock-heroic poem in the manner of the epic poets. As Homer’s subject of ‘The Tliad’ is the Rape of Helen, Pope’s subject is the freckle-minded society of eighteenth-century London. The heroic couplet which has been employed in these two lines has also added to the artistic beauty of Pope’s expression. These lines also express the tone and idea of the poem.