OXFORD WORLD'S CLASSICS/ SELECTED POETRY

Though critical opinion on Alexander Pope has frequently been divided, he is now regarded as the most important poet of the early ei ghteenth century. An invalid from infancy, he devoted his energies towards literature and achieved remarkable success with his first published work at the age of twenty-one. A succession of brilliant poems followed, including An Essay on Criticism (1711), Windsor Forest (1715), and his masterpiece, The Rape of the Lock. A second period of great poetry was begun in 1728 with the appearance of t he first ...[Read more]