..."Wits" in the modern sense they never intended to be; nor did they believe, with Alexander Pope, that "True Wit is Nature to advantage dress'd/ What oft was thought, but ne'er so well expressed." Their aim was rather to use the old verse forms, the old diction, in order to convince...

...power of making bright and acceptable the drab, mechanic guesses of writers with an eye to reality. True wit is nature to advantage dress'd, What oft was thought, but ne'er so well express'd. The Refrain in Poe's Poetry Anthony Caputi EDGAR ALLAN POE'S use of the refrain constitutes a valuable...

...Wit" make the by now familiar transition from dress to nakedness: Poets like Painters, thus, unskill'd to trace The naked Nature and the living Grace, With Gold and Jewels cover ev'ry Part, And hide with Ornaments their Want of Art. True Wit is Nature to Advantage drest, What...

...nothing's just or fit; One glaring chaos and wild heap of wit. Poets like painters, thus, unskilled to trace The naked nature and the living grace, With...their want of art. True wit is nature to advantage dressed, What oft was thought, but ne'er so well expressed; Something, whose truth convinced at sight...

...ne'er was, nor is, nor e'er shall be. 8876 An Essay on Criticism Poets like painters, thus unskilled not be friends upon any other terms than upon the terms of equality. 12674 ev'ry part. And hide with ornaments their want of art. 8877 An Essay on Criticism Expresslon is the...

...just don't have the language to talk about it? Steven Pinker, 1994, The Language Instinct, Ch. 3 2:97 True Wit is Nature to advantage dress'd, / What oft was thought, but ne'er so well express'd. Alexander Pope, 1711, 'An Essay on Criticism', 297 2:98 Expression is the dress of thought, and still...

...well as in dress and language, shows a mean or corrupted taste. Poets, like painters, thus unskilled to trace The naked nature and the living grace, With...every part, And hide with ornaments their want of art. No one property recommends a machine more than its simplicity; not singly for better answering its...

...poem "An Essay on Criticism," Alexander Pope gives us the handy couplet that recognizes this process: True wit is nature to advantage dress'd, What oft was thought, but ne'er so well express'd. Some three hundred years later, writers are still eager to borrow pieces of wisdom that have already...