Difference between revisions of "Alexander Pope"

Revision as of 22:31, July 19, 2025

Alexander Pope (1688–1744) was a prominent English poet, essayist and satirist who is considered one of the finest poets of the Enlightenment.

He began writing verses when 12; at which age he wrote:

Happy the man,whose wish and care

A few paternal acres bound,

Content to breathe his native air

In his own ground.

and completed his finest work, An Essay on Criticism (1711), at only age 23. That work is best known for its insight:

To err is human, to forgive, divine.

His great intellectual achievement was to translate the Iliad and Odyssey, classical Greek works, into English.

Pope remained a Catholic his entire life despite discrimination against Catholics in England at the time. He remains one of the most-quoted of all English writers with gems that include:

Damn with faint praise

A little knowledge is a dangerous thing

Expression is the dress of thought

For fools rush in where wise men fear to tread

Hope springs eternal to the human breast

An honest man’s the noblest work of God

On a lighter note... written on the collar of a dog he gave to the Prince of Wales...

I am his highness's dog at Kew; / Pray tell me, sir, whose dog are you?