Windsor Forest

Windsor Forest By Alexander Pope Read by Denis Daly Although most of Windsor Forest was written as early as 1704, it was not published until 1713. The poem was completed after the promulgation of the first peace treaty of Utrecht, which is alluded to in terms of approbation in the body of the poem: "At length great Anna said,'Let discord cease!' She said: the world obey'd; and all was peace." The poem is a flattering tribute to the wise rule of Queen Anne and contains several references to the harsher regimes of earlier English monarchs. Pope draws a comparison between the transformation of an ugly waste into a glorious forest reserve and the progressive refinement of sovereign rule in England. This recording concludes with "Lines to Mr Pope on his Poem of 'Windsor Forest'", an encomium by one Father Knapp, from the County of Mayo in Ireland.Public Domain (P)2024 Voices of Today