Alexander Pope's epic “Heloise to Abelard” could be said to be a poem like no other. Based on love letters exchanged between the two, Pope's poetry was rooted in physical historical evidence. But by taking the side of Eloise and her unrequited love for Abelard, Pope begins to navigate new waters. Furthermore, although before its time, there are elements of romance scattered throughout the poem dealing with individualism, nature, and strong emotions. By reading the letters, and in this article we mean all the letters attributed to the real life of Abelard and Heloise, the reader can see the romantic literary similarity between the historical artifacts and Pope's poem, as well as discover that most likely that Pope was actually the genius grandfather to the subsequent romantic period. The Oxford English Dictionary, affectionately known as the OED, defines the word romantic as fantastical, extravagant, quixotic, and going beyond what is usual and practical. But in contrast, the Oxford English Dictionary states that romance is: “A fictitious story in prose whose scene and incidents are very remote from those of ordinary life; especially one of the genres prevalent in the 16th and 17th centuries, in which the story is often covered in long disquisitions and digressions". As for Heloise in Pope's “Heloise to Abelard,” she conveys her extravagant and fantastic emotions that she harbors for her Abelard to an unknown author when she writes, “Woe well sung will soothe my pensive ghost; He who feels them more will be able to paint them better” (ln. 365-366). Likewise, in the historical letters to Abelard, Heloise often goes to extremes and analyzes Abelard's speeches at the beginning of each letter. At one point Abelard addresses a letter as: “To her only aft...... middle of paper ......ntion before his time, the Pope gave the literary world a poem full of raw emotion , human. and insight into how similar the return to nature is to then and now. Works Cited Kaufman, Charlie, writer. Being John Malkovich. Gramercy Pictures, 1999.Kaufman, Charlie, writer. Eternal sun of the immaculate mind. Focus Features, 2004.Mews, Constant J. The Lost Love Letters of Heloise and Abelard. St. Martin's Press, 1999. Root, Betty. The letters of Abelard and Heloise. Penguin, 1974. Print. “Romanticism”. Continuing Encyclopedia of British Literature. London: Continuum 2006. Creed Reference. web 5 December 2009. “Romanticism”. Encyclopedia of the United States in the Nineteenth Century. Farmington: Gale 2000. Reference to the Creed. web 5 December 2009.The Norton Anthology of English Literature. Eighth edition. Volume C. Stephen Greenblatt, ed.