Epigram Engraved on the Collar of a Dog Which I Gave to His Royal Highness
I am his Highness' dog at Kew;
Pray tell me, sir, whose dog are you?
Commentary
After a particularly tedious introduction to Pope’s The Rape of the Lock in freshman English, I have avoided him ever since. However, anyone who can so thoroughly excoriate human hierarchy and snobbery in 15 short words (not including the lengthy title) has my undying respect. It looks like biographical information on Pope has been included with his two previous poems appearing on Minstrels, so I am going to gracefully bow out of that responsibility. :)
— Rachel
Links
“The Riddle of the World”, archived at poem #39 has a biography and critical assessment of the poet, plus some nice commentary by Salil Murthy on the art of satire.
poem #331 is an excerpt from Pope’s “Essay on Man”; the accompanying commentary includes lots of interesting material on (read: critical analysis of) his style and themes.