New Cratylus, Hope describes his acquisitionsrnin aggressive, almost imperialisticrnterms, doubtlessly knowing he wouldrnscandalize his critics: “I explored andrnplundered other languages, mostly byrnmy own efforts, with a few helpingrnlessons from professional teachers.”rnHope excuses his greed by explaining, “ifrnwe go straight to the poetry in learningrnanother language, we get to the purernessence.” Armed with his looted knowledge,rnhe draws upon a range of allusionrnfar beyond English literature. Few criticsrnare competent to comment. F’or thernrecord, I have some Latin and a smatteringrnof French. I’m not equipped tornjudge Hope’s translation of AnnarnAkhmatova. I do know English versificationrnwell enough to realize that any decoderrnof Hope’s work needs the prosodicrnequivalent of a rock-climber’s tool kit.rnNot only could Hope manage the mostrndifficult stanzas, like the effortless Byronicrnottava rima of “A Letter From Rome,”rnbut he even tried his hand at classicalrnLatin hexameter, which he carried offrnbrilliantly in English, a feat with littlernprecedent. Yet Hope’s omnivorousrnmind has been by no means content torngorge itself only on languages and poetry.rnHe is also a keen observer of the naturalrnworld who has read widely in thernsciences, seeking the meanings and interrelationshipsrnof everything he sees.rnTo illustrate, let me quote an early poemrnin full, “The Pleasure of Princes”rnfrom Selected Poems:rnWhat pleasures have great princes?rnThese: to knowrnThemselves reputed mad withrnpride or power;rnTo speak few words—few wordsrnand short bring lowrnThis ancient house, that city withrnflame devour;rnTo make old men, their fathers’rnenemies,rnDrimk on the vintage of the formerrnage;rnTo have great painters show theirrnmistressesrnNaked to the succeeding time;rnengagernThe cunning of able, treacherousrnministersrnTo ser’e, despite themselves, therncause they hate.rnAnd leave a prosperous kingdom torntheir heirsrnNursed by the caterpillars of thernstate;rnTo keep their spies in good men’srnhearts; to readrnThe malice of the wise and actrnbetimes;rnTo hear the Grand Remonstrancesrnof greed.rnLed by the pure; to cheat justice ofrnher crimes;rnTo beget worthless sons and, beingrnold.rnBy starlight climb the battlements,rnand whilernThe pacing sentry hugs himselfrnwith cold.rnKeep vigil like a lover, muse andrnsmile.rnAnd think, to see from the grimrncastle steeprnThe midnight city below rejoicernand shine:rn”There my great demon grumblesrnin his sleeprnAnd dreams of his destrucdon, andrnof mine.”rnWhat can we say of Hope as a politicalrnthinker, based on this poem? First andrnforemost, he has read his Machiavelli (inrnItalian, of course). Second, we can see atrnonce his kinship with Auden, and alsornhis differences. In this early poem, hernemploys Auden’s complex syntax alongrnwith Audenesque phrases like “the caterpillarsrnof the state” and “Grand Remonstrances.”rnHe shares Auden’s distaste forrnthe prerogatives of aristocracy, which thernEnglishman had expressed in such poemsrnas “Embassy” and “Song.” Is Hope’srnpoetry scented with a whiff of envy, likernAuden’s, or is Hope obliquely indicating,rnin this Italianate context, his contemptrnfor the British class system which so dismayedrnhim at Oxford? Given Hope’srnhumble upbringing in rural Tasmania, Irnwould suspect the latter. And he adds arnliberal dose of his own political agnosticism.rnWhere he accounts one of thernruler’s pleasures “to cheat justice of herrncrimes,” I detect a sly, almost conspiratorialrnsympathy with the prince. Hopernseems to be hinting that Plato’s philosopherrnking is beyond human reach. Thernwily, self-serving prince is the best rulerrnany state could expect. Only the princernwould suborn the clever, intoxicate therntyrannous with “vintage of the formerrnage,” and tranquilize the populace withrnprosperity.rnAuden never used the word justicernflippantly, only sincerely or ironically. Arnfrustrated idealist, he never wholly abandonedrnhis faith in the idea of secular perfection,rneven if he seemed to concede itsrnachievement was beyond human reach.rnOne of his favorite poetic strategies wasrnto juxtapose comfortable and complacentrncharacters with the wretched of thernearth, as though wealth were the cause ofrnpoverty. In this respect, he had an instinctivernaffinity for so-called liberationrntheology. We should remember that Auden,rntroubled by a sense of individualrnand collective sin, returned to thernChurch in his later years. Hope, on thernother hand, has scant expectation of justice,rneither human or divine. He knowsrnthe mob can call a lynching “justice”rnwithout batting its eyelids, and he doesn’trnplace much trust in judges, either—theyrnare too easily corrupted. In “The Pleasurernof Princes,” Hope holds withrnMachiavelli that the best governmentrnkeeps armed watch while wearing a velvetrnglove. The 20th century has demonstratedrnthe peril of Auden’s ideal; it remainsrnto be seen whether the 21st willrnprove that humanity should also dispensernwith the guard, the glove, and thernprince.rnIn 1984, when he was 77, Hope finishedrna new book of poetry. The Age ofrnReason. The text consisted of 11 largernpoems, all in heroic couplets, a formrnwidely used by 18th-century poets andrnsubsequently retired as over-simple andrnoverdone. Hope made no attempt to duplicaternthe diction of the time: Thisrnwould have resulted in mere parody. Instead,rnas he explains in a short preface,rnhis couplets were written in a style “modifiedrnto accept the rhythms of contemporaryrnEnglish and avoiding all conventionalrnpoetic devices apart from those ofrnmetre.” Several of the poems are epistolary.rnOthers invent dialogue for historicalrnfigures. Together, they constitiite anrnextraordinary evocation of that era, asrnwell as an implicit rebuke to our own forrnthe ideologies which obscure our understandingrnof the past.rnThe Age of Reason varies in qualityrnfrom poem to poem, but the two best,rn”The Isle of Aves” and “The BamboornFlute,” match the finest work of the 18thrncentiiry or of our own. Both are epistolaryrnpoems. “The Isle of Aves” depicts anrnexchange between two sea captains,rnLemuel Gulliver and William Dampier,rnwho sailed the world’s oceans at the bid-rnMARCH 1999/43rnrnrn