 for ''The Rape of the Lock'']] '''''The Rape of the Lock''''' is a mock-heroic narrative poem written by Alexander Pope, first published anonymously in ''Lintot's Miscellany'' in May 1712 in two cantos (334 lines), but then revised, expanded and reissued under Pope's name on March 2, 1714, in a much-expanded 5-canto version (794 lines). The final form was available in 1717 with the addition of Clarissa's speech on good humour.  The poem satirises a petty squabble by comparing it to the epic world of the gods. It was based on an incident recounted by Pope's friend, John Caryll. Arabella Fermor and her suitor, Lord Petre, were both from aristocratic recusant Catholic families at a period in England when under such laws as the Test Act, all denominations except Anglicanism suffered legal restrictions and penalties (for example Petre could not take up his place in the House of Lords as a Catholic).  Petre, lusting after Arabella, had cut off a lock of her hair without permission, and the consequent argument had created a breach between the two families. Pope, also a Catholic, wrote the poem at the request of friends in an attempt to &quot;comically merge the two.&quot; He utilised the character Belinda to represent Arabella and introduced an entire system of &quot;sylphs,&quot; or guardian spirits of virgins, a parodic version of the gods and goddesses of conventional epic.  Pope’s poem mocks the traditions of classical epics: the abduction of Helen of Troy becomes here the theft of a lock of hair; the gods become minute sylphs; the description of Achilles’ shield becomes an excursus on one of Belinda’s petticoats. He also uses the epic style of invocations, lamentations, exclamations and similes, and in some cases adds parody to imitation by following the framework of actual speeches in Homer’s ''Iliad''. Although the poem is humorous at times, Pope keeps a sense that beauty is fragile, and that the loss of a lock of hair touches Belinda deeply. As his introductory letter makes clear, women in that period were essentially supposed to be decorative rather than rational, and the loss of beauty was a serious matter.   The humour of the poem comes from the storm in a teacup of vanity being couched within the elaborate, formal verbal structure of an epic poem.    Three of Uranus's moons are named after characters from ''The Rape of the Lock'': Belinda, Umbriel, and Ariel, the last name also (previously) appearing in Shakespeare's ''The Tempest''.   It is one of the most commonly cited examples of high burlesque.  ==Dedicatory letter==  Pope added to the second edition the following dedicatory letter:     