The narrative voice opens the poem by meditating on how great suffering often emerges from

trivial matters and mentions that the story that follows was first communicated to the poet by
a “Muse” named “Caryl.” The narrative voice wonders what might motivate a lord to assault
a lady and a lady to reject a lord.
This opening invocation of the Muse, a goddess of art and poetry, is a convention of epic
poetry and thus establishes the poem’s mock epic style. The reference to “Caryl,”
representing Pope’s real friend John Caryll, links the fictional world to the real incident
which inspired Pope’s writing.
Belinda is lying in bed long after everyone else has gotten up, as she is kept asleep by her
guardian sylph. As she sleeps, he sends her a dream of a handsome young man and whispers
in her ear. The sylph explains to her that a sylph is the guardian of a young and beautiful
virgin. He further explains that after death all women’s souls return to the four elements from
which they came. Fiery women become salamanders, “Soft yielding” women become water
spirits, prudish women’s souls sink down into the earth and become gnomes, and “coquettes,”
light hearted and flirtatious women, become sylphs, which “flutter” through the air. These
sylphs are tasked with protecting the chastity and pleasure of new “belles” entering society.
In this scene, when the sylph whispers into Belinda’s ear, he uncomfortably echoes Satan in
Milton’s “Paradise Lost,” who tempts Eve “Squat like a Toad, close at the ear of Eve;/
Assaying by his Devilish art to reach/ The Organs of her Fancy.” This suggests that there is
something devilish about sylphs, as does the sylph sending Belinda a tempting vision of a
handsome young man when he’s meant to be protecting her chastity. The manner with which
women’s souls are sorted into four crude categories (which distinguish between attractive
women and unattractive women, or prudes and “coquettes”) also introduces the pressures that
Pope’s world puts on women to be considered desirable.
Some young women, the sylph continues, are ruined because they are watched over by
malicious gnomes instead of sylphs. Fortunately for Belinda, she is in the care of the sylphs,
who will make sure to steer her right, though all the ups and downs of life in society and at
parties. Sylphs also make sure that life stays glamorous and exciting for ladies, keeping
things working properly in the “toyshop of the heart.
The idea that some women are forced into ruin because of the influence of the gnomes and
the idea that the sylphs are able to treat the human heart like plaything (a “toyshop”) casts
doubt on the freewill of the people in the poem. It is never completely clear to what extent the
characters are in control and to what extent they are subject to supernatural influence.
The sylph explains that his name is Ariel and that he has consulted the stars and seen that
some disaster is close at hand. He isn’t sure exactly what form this will take, but he
warns Belinda, the “pious maid,” to “beware of man.”
The dog Shock has decided that Belinda has been sleeping for too long and wakes her up.
She reads some love letters and soon forgets the importance of Ariel’s message.
Belinda’s ability to quickly forget Ariel’s message as she reads her love letters points to her
sense of vanity, happy to put all else out of her mind when she is reading people praise her.
With the help of the sylphs and Betty, Belinda begins the elaborate process of dressing and
grooming herself. Betty is figured as a pagan “priestess” while Belinda herself is the
“goddess,” and the dressing table becomes an “altar” for these “sacred rites of pride.”
This description of Belinda’s dressing routine echoes the convention in epic poetry of having
a scene in which the hero is dressed in his armor. Transforming the armor scene into a
dressing scene emphasizes how low the stakes are here; she’s not preparing for war, she’s
preparing to socialize. The religious imagery also makes a witty moral judgement on these
“rites of pride,” suggesting that the vanity at their heart is not compatible with Christian
values.
Belinda needs a whole slew of items to get ready for the day, including “India’s glowing
gems,” “all Arabia,” “tortoise” and “elephant” in the form of “combs,” and “Puffs, powders,
patches, bibles, billet-doux.” The sylphs are crucial to arranging everything carefully (even
though they are unseen), which means that Betty is “praised for labors not her own”.
This passage once again emphasizes the absurdity of Belinda’s vanity by showing just how
many fancy grooming items she needs. In addition, her exotic items point to a broader trend
in this period of colonialism giving the British control over other countries.
When Pope describes a box of Arabian perfumes as “all Arabia,” he is making it seem like
Belinda herself is a great conqueror of these foreign lands, and thus he highlights the self-
importance associated with her beauty.
The mention of “bibles” jumbled in with a slew of trivial items like “Puffs” and “powders”
shows how Belinda has come to regard the process of beautifying herself as being just as
important as her religious duties. Meanwhile, the fact that the sylphs are able to work secretly
so that Betty’s work is no longer really her own once again casts doubt on the extent to which
the poem’s characters truly are responsible for their actions.
Canto II

Belinda sails along the river Thames, and everyone is dazzled by her beauty. She is wearing
a bejeweled cross which is so sparkling that even “Jews” and “infidels” would want to kiss it.
She smiles at everyone and her eyes are luminous, “Bright as the sun.” She is so beautiful
that any “female errors” she might make would be instantly forgotten when anyone looked on
her face.
Most epic poems include a sea voyage, so Belinda’s travelling by boat emphasizes her role as
a parody of an epic hero. Her bejeweled cross, which is so beautiful that even “Jews” and
“infidels” would be attracted by it, suggests Belinda’s lack of religious conviction—the cross
is a beautiful ornament rather than a symbol of her faith, a point Pope underscores by noting
its appeal to non-Christians. But Pope does suggest that perhaps her vanity is not all bad. The
phrase “female errors” suggests that, as a woman, Belinda’s behavior is criticized more
harshly than a man’s. So, if her beauty means that these “errors” are instantly forgotten when
gazing on her face, it seems only fair and wise that she cultivate her beauty to escape unfair
moral scrutiny.

Belinda’s hair, “to the destruction of mankind,” is styled into two beautiful curls.
These locks of hair are so attractive that any man who looks on them is overcome with desire
for her—the curls are “labyrinths” in which Love “detains” his “slaves,” binding men’s hearts
in “slender chains.” The Baron is one such man, and he resolves to take one lock, either
through trickery or by force.

Earlier that day, before the sun rose, the Baron prayed to Love for success in gaining his
“prize” by building a pyre out of various objects associated with love, including volumes of
French romances, “garters,” “gloves,” and love letters.

The pyre is a reference to both pagan religious tradition and the epic tradition. Pyres were
normally built for funerary purposes, but here the Baron is using his pyre to burn trivial items
like “garters” and “gloves” in order to pray to the god Love.

In this way, Pope continues his parody of court life. This moment also recalls the female
vanity of Belinda’s own pagan altar, fashioned from her dressing table. In Pope’s time, men
were expected to be morally and intellectually superior to women, but the parallel between
the Baron’s frivolous pyre and Belinda’s dressing table altar paints the two as being morally
equivalent in their frivolity.

Back on the boat, everything seems to be going perfectly and everyone is happy—except
for Ariel who is still troubled by the idea that something terrible is going to happen. He
summons an army of sylphs, which descends down onto the boat. The army is made up of
sylphs in an array of different forms and dresses.
Ariel addresses them, calling out: “Ye Sylphs and Sylphids, to your chief give ear, / Fays,
Fairies, Genii, Elves, and Daemons, hear!” He then continues by enumerating all the different
roles spirits can have—some guide the planets, others create the weather—and he reminds
them of the sylph’s role in guarding the beautiful.
Here Pope complicates the sylphs’ influence even further. He has previously created echoes
between Ariel and Satan in “Paradise Lost” to imply that the sylphs may be more devilish
than they appear. Here, Pope echoes Milton again, but this time mimicking the voice of God
himself, who calls out to the angels, “Hear all ye Angels, Progenie of Light, / Thrones,
Dominations, Princedoms, Vertues, Powers, / Hear my Decree.”
The effect is to suggest that Ariel’s motivation is somewhere between angelic and devilish,
but Pope keeps this mysterious.
Ariel explains to the assembled group that he just can’t shake the feeling that something
terrible is going to happen. He doesn’t know what it is, but he’s worried that it could be
anything from Belinda losing her virginity to staining her new dress to losing her heart or a
necklace at a ball.
To protect Belinda, Ariel assigns various sylphs different tasks. Zephyretta will look after
her fan, Brillante will look after her earrings, Momentilla will look after her
watch, Crispissa will look after her lock, and Ariel himself will look after her Shock.

Fifty sylphs will look after Belinda’s petticoat, which is described as the “sevenfold fence”
“stiff with hoops” and “armed with ribs of whale,” “the silver bound” with a “wide
circumference.” Ariel completes his speech by explaining that, should anyone fail to look
after their charge, they shall be severely punished. Quickly, all of them fall in line and await
the dreaded event Ariel has predicted.
The description of Belinda’s petticoat here mirrors Pope’s own descriptions of Ajax’s
“sevenfold shield” and Achilles’ “broad shield,” surrounded by “living silver.” This furthers
Pope’s characterization of Belinda as a parody of an epic hero, but it also emphasizes once
again the significance of chastity in her world. While the shields of heroes exist to protect
their lives, Belinda’s petticoat serves to restrict access to her sexually, and so the comparison
of the petticoat to a shield suggests that for Belinda the loss of her virginity would be
essentially fatal.

Canto III

The boat arrives at Hampton Court, where Queen Anne takes counsel “and sometimes tea.”
The ladies and gentlemen disperse to enjoy the pleasures of a day at court—namely,
gossiping with one another about everything from social engagements to the Queen to the
décor. At “every word a reputation dies.” This is all happening while the governmental
functions of the court continue, somewhat hurriedly, as they are about to halt for lunch. The
“hungry judges” quickly sign sentences and people condemned to death are hanged at the
gallows so their jurors can eat sooner.
This passage highlights the triviality of the world of the court. When Pope shows Queen
Anne taking both counsel and tea, he comically mixes serious business with leisure. He also
highlights this mixture in his description of the inane chattering of the lords and ladies, which
nonetheless leads to the death of reputations. The darker side of this mixing of personal
pleasure and serious business is revealed in the judges’ hastily condemning people to death in
order that they may eat sooner, demonstrating that this is a place in which personal greed is
placed above justice or empathy.

Belinda sits down to a game of ombre with two gentlemen “to decide their doom” and
arranges her cards. The sylphs glide down to perch upon the cards, their rank corresponding
to the card value, apparently because their female vanity and love of social rank lives on.
The word “doom” continues Pope’s pattern of treating the events at court with exaggerated
seriousness for comic effect, emphasizing their triviality. The sylphs’ love of social rank on
account of their once being society belles satirizes the triviality of court life further by
mocking its love of rank.
Belinda’s cards “Draw forth to combat,” and she declares that spades will be trumps. At the
beginning of the game, things are going well for Belinda as she plays her strongest cards.
Her first card, the “Spadillo,” “Led off two captive trumps and swept the board.” Her next
card, the “manillo,” is just as successful, but her third card, the “basto,” is less successful and
only gains one trump card and one “plebian” card. But she then plays the King of Spades,
which proves to be a very successful move. Thus far Belinda is winning.

Epic poetry always features spectacular battles, usually great clashes between civilizations
involving both mortals and gods. Pope’s description of the “combat” of the card game offers
a parodic imitation of this sort of epic struggle, though of course it is significantly less
impressive, which in turn emphasizes the silliness and self-importance of life at court.
Then the Baron begins to dominate the game. His Queen of Spades beats her King of Clubs,
and then he plays his high diamond cards, creating such an upset on the table that the
“pierced battalions dis-united fall.” He even wins Belinda’s Queen of Hearts with his Knave
of Spades, and she fears she is about to lose. However, he plays his Ace and, to his surprise,
she plays the King of Hearts, meaning that she wins.
Here Pope continues his comic treatment of the card game as a satirically poor stand-in for an
epic battle, as demonstrated by his description of the “pierced battalions.” The fierce struggle
between the Baron and Belinda also foreshadows the later tension between the two, as each
struggles to dominate the other.

As Belinda celebrates her success, the narrative voice laments how little mortals know of the
future and the disaster that is to come on this “victorious day” when Belinda’s “honors” will
be “snatched away.”
This parodies the convention in epic poetry of receiving a warning in a moment of pride. The
mention of Belinda’s lost “honors” is also of note, as it sounds as if she will lose her virginity
(and with it her reputation), though it is not clear yet what is actually going to happen to her.
Coffee is served on the “altars of Japan” and on “China’s earth.” The coffee sends up steam
which heads to the Baron’s brain and reminds him of his plan to steal Belinda’s lock, even
though the narrative voice once again wishes he would stop before it’s too late, and urges him
to think of “Scylla’s fate.”
Exotic items make a reappearance, highlighting the pompous colonialism of people at court.
Pope’s description of the tea serving makes it sound as if these ridiculous characters control
all the “altars of Japan” and “China’s earth,” when they really only have access to a couple of
Japanese trays and some Chinese tea. Meanwhile, the narrative voice’s warning to the Baron
to think of “Syclla’s fate” once again comically compares the high stakes of classical
literature with the low stakes of the present situation, as Scylla was changed into a bird
forever after she plucked one of her father’s hairs, a magical hair on which his power
depended.
Just at that moment, Clarissa pulls out a pair of scissors, and offers them to the Baron like a
lady in a courtly romance arming a knight with his weapon. The Baron moves to chop off
the lock. Suddenly, all the sylphs hurry to Belinda’s neck and attempt to fiddle with her hair
and twist her earring three times to get her attention. But each time, the Baron slips away and
then comes back again.
Here the comparison Pope makes between the Baron and an honorable knight from a
romance emphasizes the Baron’s own self-serving form of masculinity in contrast to a
knight’s brave service on behalf of others. Instead of defending ladies, the Baron seeks to
steal from and humiliate them.
Ariel accesses Belinda’s inner thoughts, but—to his shock—finds “An earthly lover lurking
there.” This resigns him to the loss of the lock. The Baron snips it off.
Pope’s narration here is a little opaque, but what has happened is that Ariel has discovered
that Belinda’s thoughts are not as chaste as he would wish, and so he allows the Baron to snip
off the lock. It seems that Ariel feels that Belinda either deserves or wishes to be violated,
particularly since the snipping of the lock has sexual undertones. This emphasizes the
extreme restrictions this world places on female sexuality, where Belinda’s private thoughts
—not even her actions—can result in punishment for being too sexual. This also highlights
the fickleness of Ariel’s character, as in Canto I he tempts her mind with the vision of the
young man, but now he judges her for her sexually-charged thoughts and abandons her.

A sylph gets caught in the way and gets cut in half by the scissors, but he quickly recovers as
“airy substance soon unites again.” Belinda cries out in horror while the Baron shouts out his
victory. The narrative voice muses on how little chance the lock had against the scissors,
since steel “could the labor of the gods destroy, / And strike to dust the imperial towers of
Troy.”

This passage echoes Book VI of Milton’s Paradise Lost, in which the archangels battle
against Satan. The humorous contrast between the incredibly high-stakes battle and the
relatively low-stakes hair snipping emphasizes the triviality of courtly life. In particular, the
verbal echo in question (“airy substance soon unites again”) recalls Satan’s being stabbed
with a sword (“but th' Ethereal substance clos'd / Not long divisible”). This once again draws
a comparison between the role of Satan and the role of the sylphs, calling their motivation
into question.

Canto IV

Belinda is still quite upset about the loss of her lock, and her frustration and despair are deeper and

more consuming than the despair of “ardent lovers robbed of all their bliss” and “tyrants fierce that

unrepenting die.” In this moment, the sylphs leave her.

The comparison between Belinda’s melodramatic despair and the despair of people enduring much

greater suffering than a bad haircut once again emphasizes the silliness of what’s going on. The fact

that the sylphs, guardians of beautiful virgins, now leave her reinforces the idea that there is a sense in

which the Baron has metaphorically sexually violated her, making her no longer a virgin.

Umbriel, the gnome, a “dusky melancholy sprite,” appears and descends to the subterranean Cave

of Spleen. When he first enters, he encounters the personified East wind languishing on a bed, away

from the rays of the sun, with a migraine.

Many epics include a descent into the underworld, for example Homer’s Odyssey and Virgil’s Aeneid.

Here Umbriel echoes that descent as he flies down to the Cave of Spleen, a kind of hell of female

bodily dysfunction, as shown by the East wind’s painful migraine, (as the wind was historically

thought to be the source of migraines).

As he moves deeper into the Cave, Umbriel sees the Queen of Spleen’s two handmaids—Ill-Nature

and Affectation. Ill-Nature is a withered old maid in a dress of black and white, with a heart full of

spite for others. Affectation is youthful and sickly, and has been taught to speak with a lisp and to

hang her head to the side. She is richly dressed, languishing on expensive bedding.

The Cave of Spleen acts as kind of a dark mirror for the lively court above and offers a grotesque

glimpse of what happens to the women who are excluded from court life on account of failing to be
youthful and beautiful society belles. Ill-Nature is thus depicted as a kind of social outcast, an old and

unmarried woman, while Affectation represents the worst excesses of put-on femininity, a belle gone

too far, whose unattractive lisping and hanging her head to the side is designed to strike the viewer as

helpless and who may be surrounded by the comforts of wealth but is still sickly.

Umbriel continues through the Cave. A strange vapor hangs in the air, out of which strange shapes

arise. These include women who are “expiring,” “glaring fiends,” “snakes,” “Pale spectres,” “gaping

tombs,” “lakes of liquid gold” and “angels in machines.” There are also various bodies warped by the

powers of spleen on all sides, including “living teapots,” men who are pregnant, and women who

have been transformed into bottles and call out for corks. Umbriel passes along safely, holding a piece

of “spleenwort” in his hand.

In Pope’s time, the spleen—an organ—was believed to send up vapors to the brain which induced

hysteria and neurosis, as mirrored in the presence of the strange vapor which hangs in the air of the

cave. But the effects of spleen were also believed to include various forms of sexual dysfunction. So,

fittingly the cave includes women with distinctly unladylike sexual appetites, those who are

“expiring” (a term used to mean both death and orgasm), and women transformed into bottles calling

out for phallic corks.

Eventually Umbriel reaches the Queen of Spleen herself. He hails her as the ruler of women between

the ages of 15 and 50, making them either hysterical and ill or making them frantically attempt to

compose poetry and plays. Umbriel explains that there is a beautiful woman who enjoys herself too

much and looks down on the Queen’s powers, and he cites his past services for her, mentioning

ruining women’s complexions, bringing about cuckoldry, rumpling up petticoats and bedding to make

it seem like illicit sexual encounters have taken place where they haven’t, messing up a prude’s

headdress, and killing a beloved lapdog. He then asks her to touch Belinda with “chagrin,” as this one

act will create a great deal of discord.

That the Queen of Spleen influences women aged 15 to 50 (the years in which women typically

menstruate) reinforces the idea that spleen is closely tied to sexual dysfunction. Meanwhile, Umbriel’s

list of ways he has interfered with mortals once again highlights the extent to which mortals in the

poem are not totally responsible for their actions. While society likely judged these women for their
bad complexions or adulterous affairs, it’s suggested here that, since Umbriel is actually to blame,

these women cannot be judged for their actions.

Although it seems like the Queen of Spleen will reject Umbriel’s request, she does grant it. She

binds together a bag for him like the one in which, according to myth, Ulysses once held the winds.

This bag contains “the force of female lungs, / Sighs, sobs, and passions, and the war of tongues.” She

also gives him a vial which holds “fainting fears, / Soft sorrows, melting griefs, and flowing tears.”

He is overjoyed and speeds back to the world above ground.

“Ulysses” is the Latin name for Odysseus, so here Pope is referencing a scene from Homer’s Odyssey,

in which Odysseus receives the winds from Aeolus. This continues the mock epic style of the

narration, which comically draws a contrast between the lofty and high stakes world of epic poetry

and the triviality of this poem’s own narrative.

When Umbriel returns, he finds Belinda in the arms of Thalestris, a lady at court, who is lamenting

the lock’s loss. She asks if it was for this that Belinda took such pains with her hair, doing everything

from using “torturing irons” to straining her “tender head” with “fillets.” She worries that

the Baron will put the lock on display for everyone to see and that Belinda’s reputation will be ruined.

She further worries that being Belinda’s friend will reflect badly on her, and even that the Baron will

have the lock placed in the center of a ring and display it on his hand for the rest of time.

Thalestris’ melodramatic description of all the pains Belinda has taken to perfect her hairdo, including

“torturing irons” and “fillets,” suggests the absurd importance of beauty at the court. She thinks of

Belinda as having bravely and dutifully carried out these painful rituals and attributes that to virtue,

rather than vanity.

Thalestris goes to her suitor Lord Plume, who is apparently particularly proud of his expensive snuff

box and fashionable cane. He confronts the Baron and demands that he return the lock to Belinda,

but the Baron refuses. He says that although it is a pity that Sir Plume speaks so finely in vain, he will

not give up the lock while he breathes air through his nostrils.

Lord Plume’s name recalls the word “plume,” meaning a decorative feather (like a peacock’s).

Coupled with the details of his fancy snuff box and cane, he forms a parodic portrait of a vain male

courtier, a counterpart to the vanity of the ladies at court.

dejected. She gives a speech about how she wishes she had never tasted the pleasures of court and had

stayed at home instead. She insists that the day was full of bad omens, including her dropping her

“patch box” three times, “The tottering china shook without a wind,” and Shock behaving unusually.

She even remembers that a sylph warned her that a disaster was to come, but that she didn’t

understand until it was too late. She wishes to tear off the remaining lock, feeling that it “tempts once

more” the Baron’s “sacrilegious hands.”

Umbriel’s pouring the vial of “sorrows” over Belinda means she is not totally responsible for her

actions—a recurring problem in the poem, since mortals are influenced by supernatural forces. It is

thus difficult to tell if she really means anything she says about wishing she had been more modest

and stayed away from the glamorous court. The mention of omens also ties into the mock epic style,

trivially parodying the serious warnings of the gods in epic poems with the mention of totally banal

events like Belinda’s dropping her “patch box” or her china shaking.