Know than thyself:ALEXANDER POPE

"know then thyself, presume not got to scan; the proper of study of mankind is man." Man has attained great knowledge of the material world .He thinks that he has become wiser than God. But if a man looks into himself he has failed to discover the truth about himself. He knows all other things but he does not know himself. Thus the poet calls man a curious riddle .According to pope the root of man's confusion lies in the fact that man does not try to know himself ,he is not certain about what he is. Analysing man's character poet says that man is a curious paradox .poet has used starting paradoxes as the man does not know whether he should consider himself God or a beast whether he should prefer his mind or body. He is created half to rise and half to fall and he himself is the prey to all. He is both the glory and the jest of the world. The poet has used repetition also and the poet has these techniques successfully .The point he wants to drive home to The Reader is that the proper study of man is man himself. He reminds the Reader again and again that man does not know what or who he himself is but he tries to scan the ways of God. There is the poet's use of heroic couplets which convey his ideas in short.