ABSTRACT
The memorial garden of Alexander Pope (eighteenth-century poet), which dates from 1744 in Twickenham, England, represents a key turning point in the evolution of landscape design. Traditional formal landscapes presented order and symmetry over the natural world in accordance with theological and political hierarchal principals that understood the church and state as representatives of divine power and dominion. In contrast, Pope’s garden relied upon Romantic philosophy, which privileged an idealized, Edenic nature and championed the individual. Pope’s garden made this break from the traditional by loosening axial relationships, disregarding symmetry, and allowing the natural to take precedence over the idealized. In Pope’s garden, one could reflect on his relationship to nature, society, and the self. In doing so, Pope’s garden embodies a shift away from the outward gaze of the pre-modern world and towards an interiority—psychological and spatial—as the construction of the garden emphasizes self-reflection, personal evaluation, and memory. This pivotal historical moment is shown to have far-reaching influence on European and American landscape design from Père Lachaise in Paris to Mount Auburn near Boston.
