SOURCE: “‘So Easy to Be Lost’: Poet and Self in Pope's The Temple of Fame,” in Papers on Language & Literature, Vol. 29, No. 1, Winter 1993, pp. 3-27.

In the following essay, Wheeler addresses the autobiographical aspects and personal tone of The Temple of Fame, speculating on the nature of Pope's attitude toward literary fame.

When Pope sent Martha Blount a copy of The Temple of Fame, the accompanying letter contained these remarks about fame: “Whatever some may think, Fame is a thing I am much less covetous of, than your Friendship; for that I hope will last all my life, the other I cannot answer for. … Now that I talk of fame, I send you my Temple of Fame, which is just come out: but my sentiments about it you will see better by this Epigram:

What's Fame with Men, by custom of the nation, Is call'd in women only...