Epistle in poetry
Epistle in poetry refers to a specific form of verse that mimics the structure of a letter, traditionally addressing a person or group personally known to the poet. This literary genre can be traced back to the Roman Empire, where poets like Horace and Ovid famously wrote letters in verse format, with Ovid’s "Heroides" being a notable collection that addressed mythological heroines. The epistolary form has evolved over the centuries, drawing influence from both classical literature and Christian scripture, as seen in the epistles of the New Testament.
While epistolary poetry lacks strict structural requirements, it often serves two primary functions: as elevated love letters or as rhetorical mediums for philosophical exploration. The form gained significant traction in English literature during the eighteenth century, particularly through the works of Alexander Pope, whose influential poems like "Eloisa to Abelard" and "Epistle to Dr. Arbuthnot" exemplify its creative potential. Although its popularity waned after this period, epistolary poetry has continued to resonate in literary circles, adapting to modern and postmodern contexts by incorporating conversational and confessional elements. Today, poets use this form not just for personal reflection but also as a means to engage with broader social and political themes.
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Epistle in poetry
An epistle or epistolary poem is a verse-form letter that traditionally uses a direct-address method in which the poet speaks to a person or group personally known to them. Etymologically derived from the Latin word epistula, which means “a letter,” epistles have historically conformed to one of two main forms. One of these forms sees authors use epistles to ask philosophical questions, either of the poem’s subject or its readers. The other, more classical, form involves epistolary verse as a medium for a romantic overture.
Deriving from the practice of composing written correspondence in verse form, a tradition that dates to the era of the Roman Empire, epistolary poetry also emerged from scriptural traditions in the Christian Bible. In addition, the form has analogues in prosaic writing, with the epistolary novel marking a particularly prominent example.
Background
Historical analysis of epistolary poetry typically places the genre’s origins in the Roman Empire, when letter-writers frequently composed their correspondence in verse formats. Inspired by the practice, major Roman poets, including Horace and Ovid, adapted it into their original poetic compositions, with Ovid becoming particularly known for his mastery of the form. Some of Ovid’s most accomplished epistolary poems are collected in The Heroides, a compilation of epistles that use elegiac couplets to address famous heroines from Greek and Roman mythological traditions.
Ovid’s epistolary poems influenced the genre for centuries, shaping the form’s treatments in the courtly literature produced during the High (ca. 1000–ca. 1300) and Late Middle Ages (ca. 1300–ca. 1500). The influence continued into the era of the European Renaissance (ca. 1450–ca. 1650). Epistles also traced a developmental path through the Greek literary tradition, where the form coalesced as a literary genre by the fourth century AD and later had shaping impacts on Byzantine literary culture. Commentators note that the epistle’s strong presence in the post-classical era of Greek literature has historically been both overlooked and undervalued.
Epistolary literature is additionally rooted in the Christian scriptural tradition. The New Testament of the Christian Bible contains twenty-seven books, of which twenty-one are presented as epistles. While Biblical epistles take prosaic formats, they can be viewed as introducing the spiritual and philosophical elements that later became defining features of secular Western epistolary poetry. Literary historians credit the Elizabethan- and Jacobean-era historian, poet, and playwright Samuel Daniel as the first author to popularize the epistle as a poetic form in the English language.
Traditional scholarly viewpoints hold that English epistolary verse achieved the height of its literary influence during the eighteenth century, when it became one of the preferred formats of the influential author, satirist, and social commentator Alexander Pope. Pope is widely considered to have written some of the most accomplished examples of epistolary verse ever composed in the English language, with his “Epistle to Dr. Arbuthnot” ranking as an oft-cited example of the genre at its peak.
Overview
Epistolary poetry has no specific structural or metrical requirements and can take virtually any form. In the Ovidian tradition, epistles function as elevated love letters. Literary figures, including Pope, also adapted these poems into rhetorical media for asking and exploring complex philosophical questions. Pope’s epistles, which are generally considered representative of the form at the peak of its influence in the English language, contain examples of both. His 1717 poem “Eloisa to Abelard” was inspired by a famous love story from the Middle Ages. It became a sensation upon its initial publication and sparked widespread literary and popular interest in the epistolary genre. Pope’s later poem “Epistle to Dr. Arbuthnot,” written in 1734 and first published the following year, is presented in heroic couplets as a direct address to a doctor friend of Pope’s, who was dying. Commemorating their friendship in the poem, Pope also incorporated a compelling defense of the practice of satire into the work as a means of responding to his rivals and critics.
Despite declining in popularity after the eighteenth century, epistolary poems have nevertheless retained a prominent place in the canon of English poetry. Literary critics note that the form combines the specific convention of letter-writing with a virtually limitless accompanying set of creative possibilities, which commentators often describe as accounting for the epistle’s continued appeal. Despite the innumerable ways in which poets can present epistles, they typically take direct-address forms in which the poet, or a persona representing the poet, speaks directly to the person or fictional character to whom the verse-form letter is addressed. Poets often use the form as a thinly veiled method for directly addressing their readers and for exploring salient personal, social, or political issues.
Numerous high-profile literary figures followed Pope as prominent users of epistolary poetry, including Lord Byron and Robert Browning, who guided the genre’s continuation into the nineteenth century. Their epistolary works generally retained the formal and elevated character established during the preceding century, with epistles later evolving to include a more relaxed and informal set of conventions as modernist influences recast the boundaries of many literary genres during the twentieth century.
Epistles in the modern and postmodern traditions have tended to display more conversational and confessional elements, with contemporary authors often using them as vehicles for social and political commentary. Other manifestations extend epistolary verse to mundane elements of everyday experience, with the 1934 poem “This Is Just to Say” by the imagist poet William Carlos Williams offering one of the best-known such examples.
Bibliography
Dowling, William C. The Epistolary Moment: The Poetics of the Eighteenth-Century Verse Epistle. Princeton University Press, 2014.
Drummond, Gavin. “The Difficulty of We: The Epistolary Poems of Michael Longley and Derek Mahon.” The Yearbook of English Studies, Vol. 35 (2005): pp. 31–42.
“Epistle.” Poetry Foundation, 2023, www.poetryfoundation.org/learn/glossary-terms/epistle. Accessed 20 Nov. 2023.
“Epistolary Poem.” Academy of American Poets, poets.org/glossary/epistolary-poem. Accessed 20 Nov. 2023.
Riehle, Alexander and Krystina Kubina (eds.). Epistolary Poetry in Byzantium and Beyond: An Anthology with Critical Essays. Routledge, 2021.
Salter, G. Connor. “What Is an Epistle? What Are Epistles in the Bible?” Christianity, 30 Apr. 2021, www.christianity.com/wiki/bible/what-is-an-epistle-what-are-the-epistles-in-the-bible.html. Accessed 20 Nov. 2023.
Wessels, Christian. “The Reanimating Power of Epistolary Poetry.” Emerson College, 2023, blog.pshares.org/the-reanimating-power-of-epistolary-poetry/. Accessed 20 Nov. 2023.
Zdanys, Jonas. Pushing the Envelope: Epistolary Poems. Lamar University Press, 2015.