In Pope's day, literary art was at the province of the upper class society and so he wrote this poem taking in mind the limited and specialized audience that would be reading and studying it. Allusions would have, and still do, exclude many readers as they assume a certain intelligence. Therefore, in this age, contemporary readers find a large number of literary allusions used by Pope to enhance the points makes.

Before reading Pope's poem, it is important to establish the era that he was writing in to understand and appreciate the style that he was inclined to use. He was one of the well-known writers from the Augustan Age where writing and criticism of poetry and drama was guided by the rules and precedents derived from ancient Greek and Roman authors. To learn these rules, a close study of the Classical authors was undertaken by many of...