An Essay on Criticism

Downloads: Under 100
Pages: 31

Read PDF online Download Save

About this book

This edition of An Essay on Criticism by Alexander Pope comes with introductory and explanatory notes. It includes a sketch of Pope's life, giving his birth in London on May 21, 1688, his home at Twickenham, and his works including the Dunciad and the Essay on Man. He died in 1744.

The poem is in rhymed verse. One passage asks what wit is, saying it is admired and hard to keep, hated by fools, and like a flower that blooms and dies. Another passage is about colours that melt into light and shade and then fade. The notes are keyed by line number and explain names the poem mentions, including Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Petronius and Quintilian.

About the author

Alexander Pope

Alexander Pope (1688-1744) was an English poet, satirist and translator of the Enlightenment era, also described as a philosopher and literary historian. He is associated with Augustan literature, and wrote satirical and discursive poetry as well as translations of Homer. His titles include "An Essay on Man; Moral Essays and Satires".