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When those fair suns shall set, as set they must, And all those tresses shall be laid in dust; This lock, the Muse shall consecrate to fame, And midst the stars inscribe Belinda’s name! Meaning. These final lines of the poem occur after Belinda’s lock has mysteriously disappeared from the courtly battle and has ascended into the heavens to become a constellation. But in these final lines Pope appears to finally settle the question of the value of beauty which has recurred throughout the poem. He often paints Belinda’s and the court’s interest in her looks as morally wrong, since all looks ultimately fade, as Clarissa notes in her speech. On the other hand, he emphasizes that the superficiality of the world she lives in at least partially justifies Belinda’s concerns about her beauty, as beauty gives her power over the men who otherwise would seek to control her. Finally, in the lock’s fantastical ascension to the heavens, Pope acknowledges that much beauty is indeed ultimately transient, as the “fair suns” of Belinda’s eyes one day “shall set” and her “tresses shall be laid in dust.” But he also notes that this lock is special, as it shall be celebrated by the “Muse” (a goddess of art and poetry), and this will mean that Belinda’s name shall live forever more. The point he’s making is that while so much of physical beauty ultimately leads to nothing, poetic beauty, the Muse’s charge, endures forever. By inspiring poetry like his own, beauty can, in a way, live forever, too.