from WINDSOR FORESTThe poem was first written in 1704 and substantially revised
in the year 1713 when it was published just before the formal
ratification of the treaty of Utrecht between Britain and
France which secured peace in Europe. The extracts are as
follows: 1–42, 85–118, 235–76, 427–end.
5 Granville George Granville, Lord Lansdowne to
whom the poem was dedicated. He was himself a
poet and author of the verse ‘Essay upon unnatural
flights in poetry’.
31 our oaks the British navy.
37 Pan...Pomona the nature god in Greek myth, often
associated with the spring, and the Roman goddess of
fruitfulness associated with the autumn.
39 Ceres the Roman goddess of agriculture and
fertility.
42 a Stuart It was published in the last year of Queen
Anne’s reign.
50 golden years referring both to the harvest, and to the
golden age of peace, virtue, and plenty celebrated in
pastoral poetry.
77 this bright court of Queen Anne. Virgil had similarly
praised the life of civilized and philosophic retirement
in the second of his Georgics, poems in praise of
country life.
99 Scipio Scipio Africanus after his victories over
Hannibal in the second Punic War withdrew from
public life and retired to his country estate.
100 Atticus Titus Pomponius called Atticus because he
withdrew from Rome to Athens (in Attica) taking up
a life of study in preference to politics.
Trumbull Sir William Trumbull (1639–1716), an
early friend of Pope who retired from public life in
1698.
101 Ye sacred Nine the nine Muses. Following Virgil,
Pope pays tribute to his poetic predecessors.
106 Cooper’s Hill both an actual hill bordering on the
forest and a topographical poem by John Denham of