His +Ode to Solitude+ was written at the age of twelve; his +Pastorals+ when he was fifteen. His +Essay on Criticism+, which was composed in his twentieth year, though not published till 1711, established his reputation as a writer of neat, clear, sparkling, and elegant verse. The +Rape of the Lock+ raised his reputation still higher. Macaulay pronounced it his best poem. De Quincey declared it to be “the most exquisite monument of playful fancy that universal literature offers.” Another critic has called it the “perfection of the mock-heroic.” Pope’s most successful poem-- if we measure it by the fame and the money it brought him-- was his translation of the +Iliad+ of Homer. A great scholar said of this translation that it was “a very pretty poem, but not Homer.” The fact is that Pope did not translate directly from the Greek, but from a French or a Latin version which he kept beside him. Whatever its faults, and however great its deficiency as a representation of the powerful and deep simplicity of the original Greek, no one can deny the charm and finish of its versification, or the rapidity, facility, and melody of the flow of the verse. These qualities make this work unique in English poetry. 12. After finishing the +Iliad+, Pope undertook a translation of the +Odyssey+ of Homer. This was not so successful; nor was it so well done. In fact, Pope translated only half of it himself; the other half was written by two scholars called Broome and Fenton. His next great poem was the +Dunciad+,-- a satire upon those petty writers, carping critics, and hired defamers who had tried to write down the reputation of Pope’s Homeric work. “The composition of the ‘Dunciad’ revealed to Pope where his true strength lay, in blending personalities with moral reflections.” 13. Pope’s greatest works were written between 1730 and 1740; and they consist of the +Moral Essays+, the +Essay on Man+, and the +Epistles and Satires+. These poems are full of the finest thoughts, expressed in the most perfect form. Mr Ruskin quotes the couplet-- “Never elated, while one man’s oppressed; Never dejected, whilst another’s blessed,”-- as “the most complete, concise, and lofty expression of moral temper existing in English words.” The poem of Pope which shows his best and most striking qualities in their most characteristic form, is probably the +Epistle to Dr Arbuthnot+ or +Prologue to the Satires+. In this poem occur the celebrated lines about Addison-- which make a perfect portrait, although it is far from being a true likeness. His pithy lines and couplets have obtained a permanent place in literature. Thus we have:-- “True wit is nature to advantage dressed, What oft was thought, but ne’er so well expressed.” “Good-nature and good-sense must ever join. To err is human, to forgive divine.” “All seems infected that the infected spy, As all looks yellow to the jaundic’d eye.”