Poetry Codex

Restoration & Augustan

Alexander Pope

1688–1744

Alexander Pope (1688–1744) was the foremost English poet of the early 18th century, master of the heroic couplet and the sharpest satirist of his age.

Barred by his Catholicism and ill health from university or public office, he made a career (and a fortune) from his verse and his acclaimed translation of Homer; The Rape of the Lock and An Essay on Man remain his best-loved works.

Major Works (2)

  1. An Essay on Man — Philosophical poem, 1734
  2. The Rape of the Lock — Mock-heroic poem, 1714

Poems (147)

  1. Messiah: A Sacred Eclogue
  2. An Essay on Criticism
  3. Windsor-Forest
  4. Ode on Solitude
  5. The Dying Christian to His Soul
  6. Elegy to the Memory of an Unfortunate Lady
  7. The Temple of Fame
  8. Eloisa to Abelard
  9. Epistle to Miss Blount, with the Works of Voiture
  10. Epistle to Dr Arbuthnot
  11. Spring: The First Pastoral, or Damon
  12. Summer: The Second Pastoral, or Alexis
  13. Autumn: The Third Pastoral, or Hylas and Ægon
  14. Winter: The Fourth Pastoral, or Daphne
  15. The Rape of the Lock
  16. Ode on St Cecilia's Day
  17. Two Choruses to the Tragedy of Brutus
  18. To the Author of a Poem Entitled Successio
  19. Prologue to Mr Addison's Tragedy of Cato
  20. Imitation of Chaucer
  21. The Alley: Imitation of Spenser
  22. Of a Lady Singing to Her Lute: Imitation of Waller
  23. On a Fan of the Author's Design: Imitation of Waller
  24. The Garden: Imitation of Cowley
  25. Weeping: Imitation of Cowley
  26. On Silence: Imitation of the Earl of Rochester
  27. Artemisia: Imitation of the Earl of Dorset
  28. Phryne: Imitation of the Earl of Dorset
  29. The Happy Life of a Country Parson: Imitation of Dr Swift
  30. Epistle to Robert Earl of Oxford and Earl Mortimer
  31. Epistle to James Craggs, Esq., Secretary of State
  32. Epistle to Mr Jervas, with Mr Dryden's Translation of Fresnoy's 'Art of Painting'
  33. Epistle to Mrs Teresa Blount, on Her Leaving the Town after the Coronation
  34. To Mrs M. B. on Her Birthday
  35. To Mr Thomas Southern, on His Birthday, 1742
  36. To Mr John Moore, Author of the Celebrated Worm-Powder
  37. To Mr C., St James's Place
  38. On Charles Earl of Dorset, in the Church of Withyam, in Sussex
  39. On Sir William Trumbull
  40. On the Hon. Simon Harcourt, Only Son of the Lord Chancellor Harcourt, at the Church of Stanton Harcourt, in Oxfordshire, 1720
  41. On James Craggs, Esq., in Westminster Abbey
  42. Intended for Mr Rowe, in Westminster Abbey
  43. On Mrs Corbet, Who Died of a Cancer in Her Breast
  44. On the Monument of the Honourable Robert Digby, and His Sister Mary, Erected by Their Father the Lord Digby, in the Church of Sherborne, in Dorsetshire, 1727
  45. On Sir Godfrey Kneller, in Westminster Abbey, 1723
  46. On General Henry Withers, in Westminster Abbey, 1729
  47. On Mr Elijah Fenton, at Easthamstead, in Berks, 1730
  48. On Mr Gay, in Westminster Abbey, 1732
  49. Intended for Sir Isaac Newton, in Westminster Abbey
  50. On Dr Francis Atterbury, Bishop of Rochester, Who Died in Exile at Paris, 1732
  51. On Edmund Duke of Buckingham, Who Died in the Nineteenth Year of His Age, 1735
  52. For One Who Would Not Be Buried in Westminster Abbey
  53. Another, on the Same
  54. On Two Lovers Struck Dead by Lightning
  55. An Essay on Man, Epistle I
  56. An Essay on Man, Epistle II
  57. An Essay on Man, Epistle III
  58. An Essay on Man, Epistle IV
  59. Horace Imitated: Satire I, to Mr Fortescue
  60. Horace Imitated: Satire II, to Mr Bethel
  61. Horace Imitated: The First Epistle of the First Book, to Lord Bolingbroke
  62. Horace Imitated: The Sixth Epistle of the First Book, to Mr Murray
  63. Horace Imitated: The First Epistle of the Second Book, to Augustus
  64. Horace Imitated: The Second Epistle of the Second Book
  65. Horace Imitated: Book I, Epistle VII, in the Manner of Dr Swift
  66. Horace Imitated: Book II, Satire VI
  67. Horace Imitated: Book IV, Ode I, to Venus
  68. Horace Imitated: Part of the Ninth Ode of the Fourth Book
  69. The Satires of Dr John Donne Versified: Satire II
  70. The Satires of Dr John Donne Versified: Satire IV
  71. Epilogue to the Satires, Dialogue I
  72. Epilogue to the Satires, Dialogue II
  73. Moral Essays, Epistle I: To Sir Richard Temple, Lord Cobham
  74. Moral Essays, Epistle II: To a Lady
  75. Moral Essays, Epistle III: To Allen Lord Bathurst
  76. Moral Essays, Epistle IV: To Richard Boyle, Earl of Burlington
  77. Moral Essays, Epistle V: To Mr Addison, Occasioned by His Dialogues on Medals
  78. A Prologue to a Play for Mr Dennis's Benefit, in 1733
  79. Prologue to Thomson's Sophonisba
  80. Prologue, Designed for Mr D'Urfey's Last Play
  81. Prologue to The Three Hours after Marriage
  82. Epilogue to Mr Rowe's Jane Shore, Designed for Mrs Oldfield
  83. The Basset-Table: An Eclogue
  84. Lines on Receiving from the Right Hon. the Lady Frances Shirley a Standish and Two Pens
  85. Verbatim from Boileau
  86. Answer to the Following Question of Mrs Howe
  87. Occasioned by Some Verses of His Grace the Duke of Buckingham
  88. Macer: A Character
  89. Song, by a Person of Quality
  90. On a Certain Lady at Court
  91. On His Grotto at Twickenham, Composed of Marbles, Spars, Gems, Ores, and Minerals
  92. Roxana, or the Drawing-Room: An Eclogue
  93. To Lady Mary Wortley Montagu
  94. Extemporaneous Lines on a Portrait of Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, Painted by Kneller
  95. Lines Sung by Durastanti, When She Took Leave of the English Stage
  96. Upon the Duke of Marlborough's House at Woodstock
  97. Verses Left by Mr Pope on His Lying in the Same Bed Which Wilmot, the Celebrated Earl of Rochester, Slept in at Adderbury, July 9, 1739
  98. The Challenge, a Court Ballad
  99. The Three Gentle Shepherds
  100. Epigram, Engraved on the Collar of a Dog Which I Gave to His Royal Highness
  101. The Translator
  102. The Looking-Glass: On Mrs Pulteney
  103. A Farewell to London in the Year 1715
  104. Sandys' Ghost; or, a Proper New Ballad on the New Ovid's Metamorphoses
  105. Umbra
  106. Sylvia, a Fragment
  107. Impromptu to Lady Winchelsea
  108. Epigram: A Bishop, by His Neighbours Hated
  109. Epigram on the Feuds about Handel and Bononcini
  110. On Mrs Tofts, a Celebrated Opera Singer
  111. The Balance of Europe
  112. Epitaph on Lord Coningsby
  113. Epigram: You Beat Your Pate
  114. Epigram from the French
  115. Epitaph on Gay
  116. Epigram on the Toasts of the Kit-Cat Club, Anno 1716
  117. To a Lady, with the 'Temple of Fame'
  118. On the Countess of Burlington Cutting Paper
  119. On Drawings of the Statues of Apollo, Venus, and Hercules, Made for Pope by Sir Godfrey Kneller
  120. On Bentley's 'Milton'
  121. Lines Written in Windsor Forest
  122. To Erinna
  123. A Dialogue
  124. Ode to Quinbus Flestrin, the Man Mountain
  125. The Lamentation of Glumdalclitch for the Loss of Grildrig: A Pastoral
  126. To Mr Lemuel Gulliver: The Grateful Address of the Unhappy Houyhnhnms
  127. Mary Gulliver to Captain Lemuel Gulliver: An Epistle
  128. A Fragment of a Poem, 1740
  129. The Fourth Epistle of the First Book of Horace
  130. Epigram on One Who Made Long Epitaphs
  131. On an Old Gate Erected in Chiswick Gardens
  132. A Fragment
  133. To Mr Gay, Who Had Congratulated Pope on Finishing His House and Gardens
  134. Argus
  135. Prayer of Brutus, from Geoffrey of Monmouth
  136. Lines on a Grotto, at Crux-Easton, Hants
  137. The Universal Prayer
  138. The Dunciad, Book I
  139. The Dunciad, Book II
  140. The Dunciad, Book III
  141. The Dunciad, Book IV
  142. Sappho to Phaon (from Ovid)
  143. The Fable of Dryope (from Ovid)
  144. Vertumnus and Pomona (from Ovid)
  145. January and May (from Chaucer)
  146. The Wife of Bath, Her Prologue (from Chaucer)
  147. Paraphrase on Thomas à Kempis

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