manuscript containing earlier versions of several passages of
the Iliad, one of which is the famous ‘nightpiece’ included in
this selection.^12 Comparison of the earlier lines with the
finished product can serve to illuminate both the poetical
method and the character of Pope. The Trojan warriors have
beaten back the Greeks to their fortifications before the ships
and, as night falls, they light their camp-fires on the Trojan
plain. At this point Homer introduces a five-line simile, the
bare bones of which are accurately represented in this literal
version by Richmond Lattimore:
As when in the sky the stars about the moon’s shining
are seen in all their glory, when the air has fallen to stillness,
and all the high places of the hills are clear, and the
shoulders out-jutting,
and the deep ravines, as endless bright air spills from
the heavens
and all the stars are seen, to make glad the heart of
the shepherd.
(VIII, 555–9)^13The literal version cannot of course suggest what Pope saw in
the simile; for this we may first go to the appreciative prose
description in the notes that accompany the version:
This comparison is inferior to none in Homer. It is the most
beautiful nightpiece that can be found in poetry. He
presents you with a prospect of the heavens, the seas and
the earth: the stars shine, the air is serene, the world
enlightened and the moon mounted in glory.^14The seas are not actually mentioned by Homer and in the
figurative emphasis Pope makes explicit what he took to be
the implicit meaning, which he had translated in his version.
Homer’s scene has been imaginatively extended, embellished,
and transformed. However, for immediate purposes it is the
growth in his imaginative involvement that is to be remarked.
In the opening Pope’s first thoughts centre upon stillness
and shining, brightness and lustre:
As when in stillness of the silent night,
As when the moon in all her lustre bright.