The Rape of the Lock and Other Poems (Illustrated)

Lord Petre, a British nobleman, cut off a lock a hair from Arabella Fermor, a beautiful woman that he admired. The letter that begins the epic poem was written to this same woman. The theft of Arabella Fermor's hair caused a feud between the Petre and Fermor familes. A mutual friend of Pope and the battling families convinced Pope to write a satire describing the silliness of the feud.