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Alexander Pope

Alexander Pope (1688-1744) was an eminent English poet, born in London, of Roman Catholic parents. He was a sickly child, and marred by deformity, and imperfectly educated. He began to write verse at the age of 12 in which he afterwards became such a master. His "Pastorals" appeared in 1709, "Essay on Criticism" in 1711, and "Rape of the Lock" in 1712, in the production of which he was brought into relationship with the leading literary men of the time, and in particular Swift, between whom and him a lifelong friendship was formed. In 1715-20 appeared his translation of the "Iliad," and in 1723-25 that of the "Odyssey," for which two works, it is believed, he received some £9000. Afterwards, in 1728, appeared the "Dunciad," a scathing satire of all the small fry of poets and critics that had annoyed him, and in 1732 appeared the first part of the famous "Essay on Man". He was a vain man, far from amiable, and sometimes vindictive to a degree, though he was capable of warm attachments, and many of his faults were due to a not unnatural sensitiveness as a deformed man. However, as a poet, he is entitled to the homage which Professor Saintsbury pays when he characterises him as "one of the greatest masters of poetic form that the world has ever seen".

Wisdom & Quotes

  • Ambition ...
The glorious fault of angels and of gods.
- Elegy to the Memory of an Unfortunate Lady
  • Nor in the critic let the man be lost.
- An Essay on Criticism
  • To err in human, to forgive, divine.
- An Essay on Criticism
  • For fools rush in where angels fear to tread.
- An Essay on Criticism
  • A little learning is a dangerous thing.
- An Essay on Criticism
  • Be not the first by whom the new are tried,
Nor yet the last to lay the old aside.
- An Essay on Criticism
  • True wit is nature to advantage dressed,
What oft was thought, but ne'er so well expressed.
- An Essay on Criticism
  • True ease in writing comes from art, not chance.
- An Essay on Criticism
  • Do good by stealth, and blush to find it fame.
- Epilogue to the Satires
  • Who shall decide when doctors disagree?
- Of the Use of Riches
  • Most women have no characters at all.
- Moral Essays
  • 'Tis education forms the common mind,
Just as the twig is bent, the tree's inclined.
- Moral Essays, Epistle I
  • Fame can never make us lie down contentedly on a deathbed.
- letter to William Trumbell, March 12, 1713
  • For forms of government let fools contest,
Whate'er is best administered in best.
- Essay on Man
  • An honest man's the noblest work of God.
- An Essay on Man
  • Hope springs eternal in the human breast:
Man never is, but always to be blest.
- An Essay on Man
  • Know then thyself, presume not God to scan;
The proper study of mankind in man.
- An Essay on Man
  • Lo, the poor Indian! Whose untutored mind
Sees God in clouds, or hears him in the wind;
His soul proud science never taught to stray
Far as the solar walk, or milky way.
- An Essay on Man
  • All nature is but art, unknown to thee;
All chance, direction, which thou canst not see;
All discord, harmony not understood;
All partial evil, universal good.
- An Essay on Man
  • Order is heaven's first law.
- An Essay on Man
  • All are but parts of one stupendous whole,
Whose body nature is, and God the soul.
- An Essay on Man
  • Happy the man whose wish and care
A few paternal acres bound,
Content to breathe his native air
In his own ground.
- Ode on Solitude
  • Not louder shrieks to pitying heaven are cast,
When husbands or when lapdogs breathe their last.
- The Rape of the Lock
  • If to her share some female errors fall,
Look on her face, and you'll forget ‘em all.
- The Rape of the Lock
  • Charms strike the sight, but merit wins the soul.
- The Rape of the Lock
  • I never knew any man in my life who could not bear another's misfortunes perfectly like a Christian.
- Thoughts on Various Subjects
  • When men grow virtuous in their old age, they only make a sacrifice to God of the devil's leavings.
- Thoughts on Various Subjects
  • Nature and nature's laws lay hid in night:
God said, 'Let Newton be!' And all was light.
- epitaph written for Sir Isaac Newton
  • The people's voice is odd,
It is, and is not, the voice of God.
- Imitations of Horace
  • Party-spirit… at best is but the madness of many for the gain of a few.
- letter to E. Blount, August 27, 1714
  • Who reasons wisely in not therefore wise;
His pride in reasoning, not in acting, lies.
- Moral Essays
  • Where'er you walk, cool gales shall fan the glade,
Trees where you sit shall crowd into a shade;
Where'er you tread, the blushing flowers shall rise,
And all things flourish where you turn your eyes.
- Summer, in Pastorals

John Gay

Nearby pages
Alexander Sergeievitch Menschikoff, Alexander Severus, Alexander Smith, Alexander technique, Alexander the corrector

Page last modified on Wednesday August 21, 2024 01:31:03 GMT-0000