Mock-heroic poetry elevates

Step 1: Analyze the question The question asks what mock-heroic (also called mock-epic) poetry elevates. The key word is "elevates", meaning it raises something to a higher or grander level.

Step 2: Explain the concept Mock-heroic poetry is a form of satire. It takes a trivial, petty or everyday subject and treats it in the grand, serious style of the classical epic (like Homer's Iliad or Virgil's Aeneid). It uses elevated language, epic similes, invocations of the Muse, supernatural beings, and heroic battles. The gap between the small subject and the grand style produces humour and gentle ridicule.

Classic examples:

• Alexander Pope's The Rape of the Lock, where a quarrel over a snipped lock of hair is told like an epic war.
• Dryden's MacFlecknoe.

Step 3: Evaluate the options

• A. Wrong. Elevating the important tales of past heroes is what a true epic does, not a mock one.
• B. Correct. Mock-heroic raises trivial subject matter by dressing it in the style of the classical epic.
• C. This describes satire or irony in general (exposing pretence), not specifically what mock-heroic elevates.
• D. Wrong. Mock-heroic is not about celebrating human relationships, and Homer's epics are the model it imitates, not its theme.

Step 4: Answer Mock-heroic poetry elevates trivial subject-matter by using the style of the classical epic, which is option B.

Exam tip: Remember "mock = small topic, big style." If an option says a trivial or petty subject is treated in a grand style, it is the mock-heroic one. If it says important heroic deeds are treated seriously, that is the genuine epic.