Alexander Pope

Pope was born into a Catholic merchant family. Due to the fact that English law required schools to enforce the Church of England at that time, he was denied the opportunity to enter a higher school for education. So he grew up studying with a tutor or taught himself at home. He taught himself a large number of works in Latin, Greek, French and Italian and tried to translate them. He suffered from tuberculosis spondylitis as a child, resulting in a hunchback, and his height did not exceed 1.37 meters.

Pope began to publish poems at the age of 12. At the age of 17, he was recommended by the dramatist William Wycherley (1640-1716) and met some famous literati in London at that time, including John Dryden, who was very influential at the time. With Swift's encouragement, he spent thirteen years translating the ancient Greek epics "Iliad"(translated in 1720) and "Odyssey"(translated in 1726). At the age of 21, Pope published "Pastorals"(1709), and in the following years he published the poem "An Essay on Criticism"(1711), which elaborated on his literary views, and the narrative poem "Windsor Forest"(1713).

His first major work was the poem Critique, published in 1711 at the age of 23.

Many of these famous lines have become English idioms. "Critique" is a long poem of 744 lines. The first 200 lines point out the importance of criticism, 201 lines to 559 lines talk about the examples and reasons of criticism, and 560 lines to 744 lines distill the correct principles of criticism and review the history of European criticism. Pope was deeply influenced by the French classicist literary theorist Nicolas Boileau-Despréaux (1636-1711). In his poem "Critique", Pope argued that only nature is the object worthy of study and description. The poet cannot leave nature, and believes that the poetry of ancient Greece and Rome is the best example of art. Pope followed this classical principle in his literary creation.

In 1712, he wrote the long satirical poem "The Story of the Hair", which was supplemented by two chapters in 1714. The poem describes a boy from a family who secretly cut off a lock of blond hair from a girl from another family, which caused a dispute between the two families. Pope described the incident as spectacular as the Trojan War in "Iliad" and wrote it into a heroic epic.

Pope's masterpiece is the long satirical poem "The Rape of the Lock"(1714), which the poet calls "An Heroi-Comical Poem." This work provides a mild criticism of the boring life of British upper society. Pope's other poems include the long satirical poem "The Dunciad"(1742), the philosophical poem "Moral Essays"(1731-1735),"An Essayon Man"(1734), and "Epistleto Dr. Arbuthnot"(1735). In addition, Pope also compiled a collection of Shakespeare's plays.

Pope's poems often use the "heroic double rhyme style". Many of his words are neat, concise and philosophical, and some of his poems almost become maxims.

In 1725, he re-edited Shakespeare's works, making many changes according to the standards of the time, and was criticized by scholars. He wrote "The Epic of Fools", which portrayed his critics as the darling of "Dull Muse". In the 1930s he planned to write a great work on man, nature, and social relations, but only completed a preface: "On Man" (1734). In 1735 he wrote "To Doctor Arbasno," a satire of moral perverts in high positions with impunity.

Pope also wrote a famous epitaph for Newton:

Nature and the laws of nature are hidden in the darkness.

God said, Give birth to Newton, and everything will be illuminated.

The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations contains 212 incisive quotations from Pope's works. For example,"Only a small amount of knowledge is dangerous","Everyone is at fault, and it is difficult to forgive","Correct learning makes a man", etc.

Since 1719, Pope settled in Twickenham House on the River Thames, often entertaining friends, meeting them through literature, and wrote some articles on architecture and garden design. Pope was poorly evaluated in the 19th century at Twickenham House, believing that his words were too artificial, his rhythm was too rigid, and his satire was a bit inhumane. But in the 20th century, his reputation began to increase again. Some poems such as "The Seizing of the Hair" and some satirical poems were called the highest level of satirical poetry, but some poems such as "On Man" were generally believed to have little original ideas. His translation of "Iliad" and "The Epic of the Fools" have always been controversial.

Pope was the first British poet to attract the attention of mainland Europe, and his works were translated into the languages of many European countries.

He is a representative of neoclassicism in the Enlightenment period, and his works can be divided into four categories: pastoral poetry, satirical poetry, philosophical poetry, and translated works. In the history of English poetry, double rhyme poetry was first used by Chaucer, then developed by Spencer, Marlowe and others, and then promoted by John Dryden. Finally, it was perfected and expanded by Pope, with a neater and more graceful form and a more ups and downs in rhythm. This "heroic double rhyme" has reached the realm of divine rhyme in the art of poetry and has become the highest achievement in the history of British poetry.