Eloisa to Abelard

Pope explores the thematic argument between life’s spiritual aspects and its material, sensual aspects. Eloisa’s conflict between passionate love and spirituality is the driving force of the poem’s lyrical movements, and Pope advances the theme by showing Eloisa’s inability to reconcile her love for Abelard with her desire to love God. He portrays the tortured process Eloisa endures as she struggles with the mixed emotions in her heart stemming from this conflict. Pope uses literary devices such as juxtaposition and paradox to better reflect how conflicting impulses cannot be harmonized for Eloisa.

“Eloisa to Abelard” addresses passion versus spirituality in a pivotal scene about death and the concept of mortality, when Eloisa exclaims, “O Death, all-eloquent! you only prove / What dust we dote on” (Lines 335-36). The alliteration of death, dust, and dote emphasizes Eloisa’s painful realization that one day her beloved Abelard will die. The word “dote” juxtaposes love and passion with the notion of dust, emphasizing Eloisa’s recognition that both she and Abelard will become nothing but dust, but perhaps through an everlasting afterlife they will be able to share their love eternally. Though Eloisa hopes that love can outlast the process of bodily decay, when she contemplates the notion of death, she does not find relief in the concept of an afterlife but instead feels a greater desire to live her life fully and passionately.