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The Epic

Mock Epic

A mock epic, or mock heroic, poem imitates the elaborate form and ceremonious style of the epic genre, and applies it to a commonplace or trivial subject matter; the high brought low. In a masterpiece of this form, The Rape of the Lock, Alexander Pope views through grandiose epic perspective a quarrel between the beaux and belles of his day over the theft of Belinda’s curl. The story includes such elements of epic protocol as supernatural machinery, a voyage, a visit to the underworld, the arming of the hero, epic lists, and a heroically scaled battle between the sexes—although with hatpins, snuff, and abusive language for weapons. The term mock heroic is often applied to other dignified poetic forms which are purposefully mismatched to a lowly subject; for example, to Thomas Gray’s comic “Ode on the Death of a Favourite Cat.”