Alexander Pope

Alexander Pope (1688-1744) was an English poet, satirist, translator, and master of the heroic couplet. His major works include An Essay on Criticism, The Rape of the Lock, An Essay on Man, The Dunciad, and his influential translation of Homer. Pope mattered because he gave eighteenth-century English poetry some of its sharpest wit, polish, balance, and moral compression. Disabled by illness from childhood and excluded from some public avenues as a Catholic, he nonetheless became one of the most commercially and culturally successful writers of his age. His poetry attacks dullness, pride, bad taste, and human presumption while also reflecting on order, error, and forgiveness. His quotes endure because they have the finish of proverbs: to err is human, to forgive divine, and premature certainty is one of learning's enemies.

Common Themes