Alexander Pope's "The Rape of the Lock" engages the reader by telling the tale of a beauteous young woman who has been terribly wronged when an amorous suitor purloins a lock of hair. He begins his tale with an introduction, an apology of sorts, to one Arabella Fermor.Pope makes light of the fairer sex, and indeed poets themselves, as he states " . . . for the ancient poets are in one respect like many modern ladies: let an action be never so trivial in itself, they always make it appear of the utmost importance" (492). In his web page titled "The Mock Epic as Genre," David Cody, Associate Professor of English, Hartwick College states, ". . . the Mock-Epic is a lit