Alexander Pope

Alexander Pope Poems

Alexander Pope is one of the best-known writers of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. His works, ‘The Rape of the Lockand ‘The Duncaid’, made his career, along with his An Essay on Criticism. Pope’s translations of Homer’s works are also quite popular. According to The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations, he’s the second-most quoted writer in the English language. ‘The Rape of the Lock,’ commonly considered to be the most popular of Pope’s poems, was published in 1712 and satirizes a high society quarrel. Read more about Alexander Pope.

Epigram Engraved on the Collar of a Dog Which I Gave to His Royal Highness

by Alexander Pope

‘Epigram Engraved on the Collar of a Dog’ is a humorous, playful, and extremely concise poem that presents the dog’s feelings of superiority.

While demonstrating Pope's wit, the poem is not his most famous or the most serious poetic offering. It's also not his best-known piece of writing.

I am his Highness' dog at Kew;

Pray tell me, sir, whose dog are you?

Ode on Solitude

by Alexander Pope

‘Ode on Solitude’ by Alexander Pope is a beautiful and peaceful poem. It asserts a speaker’s desire to live a good, simple life and go unnoticed by the world.

Happy the man, whose wish and care

A few paternal acres bound,

Content to breathe his native air,

In his own ground.

On a Certain Lady at Court

by Alexander Pope

Written in 1717, Pope’s ‘On a Certain Lady at Court’ is about Catharine Howard, one of the waiting-women of Queen Caroline and a mistress to George II. Pope satirizes the lady’s qualities as she rejects his genuine love.

Sound and Sense

by Alexander Pope

Pope included ‘Sound and Sense’ in An Essay on Criticism which he published when he was only twenty-three years old.

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