- Source
- The Rape of the Lock
- Date
- 1714
- Local voice
- Poetic speaker · Mock-heroic narrator
Meaning of “At ev'ry word a reputation dies.”
Pope compresses the destructive speed of fashionable gossip into a comic line about reputations being damaged in ordinary conversation.
Where does it come from?
The Rape of the Lock, Canto III, line 16 in the 1714 second edition. ‘At ev’ry Word a Reputation dies’ is already present in that edition and remains dated 1714; the line occurs in a satirical description of fashionable social talk rather than as literal reportage.
Why the local voice matters
The Rape of the Lock, Canto III; the line occurs in a satirical description of fashionable social talk rather than as literal reportage.
