An Essay on Criticism is a poem by Alexander Pope, published anonymously in 1711, when he was only twenty-three. In heroic couplets, it sets out the rules of good taste and good judgement for critics and poets, and mocks the faults of bad critics. Many of its lines have become proverbs in English.
Three parts
The first part praises nature and the classical writers as guides for the critic. The second describes the faults that lead critics astray: pride, partial learning, attention to small details.
The third part draws the portrait of the ideal critic, modest, learned and generous, and traces a short history of criticism from Aristotle to Pope's own time.
The heroic couplet
The whole poem is written in rhyming pairs of iambic pentameter lines. Pope's couplets are so balanced and concise that they are easy to remember.
Several of them, on the danger of a little learning or on fools rushing in, are still quoted every day.
A young poet's success
Pope wrote much of the poem in his early twenties. Its success made him known in London literary circles.
It was inspired by Horace's Art of Poetry and by Boileau's Art poétique, which Pope admired.
Anecdotes
A quarrel with Dennis
The critic John Dennis, mocked in the poem, replied with a furious pamphlet, beginning a long feud with Pope.
A small man
Pope was very short and suffered all his life from a spinal disease caught in childhood. His enemies often mocked his appearance.
Frequently asked questions
When was the poem published?
In 1711.
How old was Pope at the time?
About twenty-three.
What verse form does it use?
The heroic couplet.