Abstract
Abstract Pope's famous phrase, which expresses a critical commonplace of his age, makes it clear that the dimension of a literary work of art that was uppermost in a critic's mind when he concerned himself with mimetic representation in literature was the element of ‘sound’. It was his ear which he most immediately relied upon when he wanted to judge an imitative quality of a text, and not so much his eye; it is the primary orality of poetry that made him less aware of the fact that poetry, as a sensual phenomenon, might have a visual dimension, as well, besides the more obvious acoustical one. Aural iconicity is historically and genetically prior to visual iconicity in literature.
Published Version
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