What were the main ideas of augustan poetry?

Question:in a certain sense, what were augustan poets "fighting for"? especially in reference with alexander pope's "dunciad", in what way were the dunces impersonating the opposite of everything he and the augustan poets believed in?

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: in a certain sense, what were augustan poets "fighting for"? especially in reference with alexander pope's "dunciad", in what way were the dunces impersonating the opposite of everything he and the augustan poets believed in?

The main beliefs of Augustan poetry were that poetry should be moderate and social in its ambitions.
These are summed up in two Pope quotes:

True ease in writing comes from art, not chance,
As those move easiest who have learned to dance

[The Essay on Criticism]

Know then thyself, presume not God to scan;
The proper study of mankind is man

[The Essay on Man]

in the Dunciad poets are pilloried for a variety of reasons (mainly because Pope disliked them personally in most cases) - but a major charge Pope levels against the dunces is that they write as a form of self-expression, rather than putting their poetry at the service of Reason as they should do.

....

(The great rupture with Augustan classicism came when the Romantic poets insisted that Imagination was more important and more interesting than Reason).

Contrary to popular belief the Augustan poets were not fighting at all. They were peace loving with a 'Romantic' bent who belived passionatly that the fact that August was the 8th month containing 31 days and generally the weather was a bit nicer. In direct contrast the 'dunciads' were opposed to this kind of radical thinking and formed a protest movement. In order to identify themselves they wore pointed hats containing the single letter 'D' and as a form of silent protest they stood in corners with their backs to the room.