Readers’ first impression on both “Ode on solitude” and “Acquainted with the night” is that
the two poets possess a variety of poetical imagery to flowingly and skilfully sketch out a
picture of being alone. In Pope’s poem, the imagery which contains vivid nature scenery and
profuse prosperity is extremely bright and picturesque. “A few pattern acres bound” (2) and
“Whose herds with milk, whose fields with bread/Whose flocks supply him with attire/Whose
trees in summer yield him shade” (6,7,8) all illustrate the narrator’s pride of his own land
through many generations as well as his simple peasant life. It is a self-sufficient life
