A Dialogue.

This epistolary exchange between Pope and Craggs, structured as a two-voice dialogue in heroic couplets, interrogates the corrosive effects of power on personal integrity. The poem’s formal precision ten lines of iambic pentameter, rhymed AABBCCDD mirrors the rigid social hierarchies it critiques, while the conversational tone and first-person pronouns lend immediacy to the moral dilemma. Pope’s opening stanza, though deferential, subtly underscores his anxiety about Craggs’ potential moral lapse, using understatement (I hope) to heighten the tension. Craggs’ reply, darker in tone, acknowledges the possibility of self-corruption (grow the worse for growing greater) and inverts the expected dynamic by suggesting Pope should be the one ashamed. The volta arrives in the final line, where Craggs’ self-awareness Pope must be ashamed of Craggs reveals a tragicomic reversal. The poem’s final line, with its blunt alliteration (Pope must be ashamed), leaves an indelible impression of power’s capacity to erode even the most sincere friendships.