Windsor Forest was written and finished by Alexander Pope in 1712, which is during the prime of the British Empire. Pope wants to imagine a world free from strife, but still wants it to be ruled under the British flag (Pope, 405-407). With this in mind, the poem is filled with many nods at the power of the British Navy and of the Empire as a whole: “The bright-ey’d perch with fins of Tyrian dye,/ The silver eel, in shining volumes roll’d,/The yellow carp, in scales bedrop’d with gold,/Swift trouts, diversify’d with crimson stains,/And pykes, the tyrants of the watry plains” (Pope, 142-146). The colours of the fish are very important to consider, since the tyrian (a royal blue) and crimson (red) fish as well as the pyke (white) represent the exact colors of the Union flag (Belfast, 95).
Fig. 3. “Tyrian Blue,” Sewing and Software Center, 2014. Web. 1 April, 2014.
The gold and silver fish can also represent the wealth that Britain has acquired due to its naval strength and dominance over all of the major trade routes. Due to the fact that the fish represent the flag and wealth, they can also represent Britain’s dominance over the ocean. The fish are figurative ships scouring the oceans for wealth and power, and they remain unrivaled by any other oddly colored fish. Since they had the strongest navy in the world when the poem was written, Pope wants to convey the greatness of the British Empire to all of his readers. It was done out of a sense of nationalism and pride due to the great power of the British empire.
Another important image is that of the English oaks, which were used to build all of the ships in the British fleet (Pope, 218-220). However, the idea of the British oak is not limited to Pope’s poem. It is a consistent image in much of the 18th century literature, as it is a source of pride for the nation. The power of British nature, especially the oak, are a part of the extremely powerful British navy; it directly relates the image of the oak to success and strength.
Pope also reflects on the nature of the very “popular” slave trade that Britain was a major part of. He wishes for a world where it did not exist, and the poem ends the topic on a sign of hope for change in the future.
In the Navy... During the Eighteenth Century 