Alexander Pope Biography

Dictionary of Literary Biography on Alexander Pope

Alexander Pope's prose, even when most intimate, bears directly or indirectly upon his poetry. Accordingly, his essays range from short pieces such as the defense of his pastoral poetry to the extended critical discussions that appear in his translations of Homer and his edition of Shakespeare. And the narratives vary from brief tales, as in the reply to John Dennis's attack on the Essay on Criticism, to longer pieces, as in the Memoirs of Martinus Scriblerus and the lengthy critical discourse The Art of Sinking in Poetry. Even those prose writings which do not bear directly upon the poetry, such as the essay "On Gardens" or "The Club of Little Men," pertain to Pope's public presentation of himself as a poet. In a larger sense, the prose writings illuminate not only Pope's poetry and personal life but also the general situation of the satirist in the early eighteenth century. But Pope's skillful interweaving of his life and his work makes it at times almost impossible to separate fact and fiction.

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