Alexander Pope

Among Alexander Pope’s most notable works is The Rape of the Lock, a brilliant mock-heroic poem that satirizes a high-society feud over a stolen lock of hair by treating it as an epic Trojan war. He is also revered for An Essay on Criticism and An Essay on Man, landmark philosophical poems written in flawless heroic couplets that shaped Enlightenment thought. Additionally, his monumental translations of Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey earned him massive critical acclaim and the rare achievement of lifetime financial independence.