Can someone please help me? I need to explain what this quote means.
“Those oft are stratagems which error may seem,
Nor is it Homer nods, but we that dream”

What does it mean? Im confused? Help!

Thanks

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Those oft are stratagems        (Often there are plans)

  

  which errors seem               (which seem like errors to us)

  

  Nor is it Homer nods,           (It is not the author "Homer" who was dreaming)

  

  but we that dream               (but we who are daydreaming)

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The gist of the quote in my opinion is that we often misread the classics. This is not because the author didn't know what he was saying, but we cause we are misinterpreting what's been said.



Les

Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 11/10/2005 12:42AM by lg.

Odd...
I read an interpretation after i posted this that states

“There are often those who are great who see these as errors,
It isn’t the great Homer who makes mistakes, it is for us to imagine”


This quote is explaining Homer’s alleged errors in his works. Alexander Pope sides with Horace in saying that Homers mistakes are made on purpose in order to make a more exciting story that uses imagination.

Whould that make sense?

David, you're probably right. Is this for a class on poetry?


Les

No, it is for a general English class.

here nodding is already interpreted for you:
[dictionary.reference.com] />
Anyway, I do not quite agree with the interpretation you found.
This part is strange: "There are often those who are great who see these as errors," Those?? who?? Also, it does not say Homer made mistakes on purpose. It says Homer did not make mistakes! I fully agree with Les.

To explain better, I would say:
“Those oft are stratagems which error may seem,"
That which may seem to be an error, often is done on purpose.

"Nor is it Homer nods, but we that dream”
Similarly, it is not Homer who is sleeping, but us." (we sleep when we dream, don't we?)

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/10/2005 06:01PM by Desi.

[www.bartleby.com] />
He is referring to "Homer sometimes nods", meaning that even the best folks sometimes make mistakes. The whole thing is,

Indignor quandoque bonus dormitat Homerus;
Verum opere in longo fas est obrepere somnum.

(It's a shame when even the worthy Homer nods, but one gets drowsy in so long a work.)

So Alex is saying with,


I know there are to whose presumptuous thoughts
Those freer beauties, ev'n in them, seem faults.
Some figures monstrous and misshaped appear,
Consider'd singly, or beheld too near,
Which, but proportion'd to their light or place,
Due distance reconciles to form and grace.
A prudent chief not always must display
His powers in equal ranks and fair array,
But with th'occasion and the place comply,
Conceal his force, nay, seem sometimes to fly.
Those oft are stratagems which errors seem,
Nor is it Homer nods, but we that dream.


It is not that a prudent chief's presumptuous thoughts are faults, but may also be dreams of what could/should be. Is that pure, unadulterated baloney? Yup.