“Ye soft illusions, dear deceits, arise!”: Apostrophe as Suture in “Eloisa to Abelard”

This article examines how Alexander Pope uses apostrophe in “Eloisa to Abelard” (1717) to overcome the problem of Eloisa’s frustrated desire and isolation. Because apostrophe allows Eloisa to dissociate herself into agentive body parts that act as independent subjects, her desire is fully actualized in the poem without being fully attributed to her. Apostrophe also allows Eloisa to achieve physical continuity with her surroundings, which are metonymically linked to Abelard, and to achieve temporal continuity with her past, which allows her to resolve, at least temporarily, the trauma of Abelard’s castration. However, these incessant apostrophic turns also draw attention to Eloisa’s disconnection from the subjectivized objects and absent others that are animated by her poetic voice. Using the concept of the “reverse shot” of modern cinema, I argue that the final apostrophe, which extends beyond the frame of the poem, is able to efface this disconnection by transferring the power of invocation to Pope himself