Epigram Engraved on the Collar of a Dog Which I Gave to His Royal Highness -- Alexander Pope

Guest poem submitted by Rachel Granfield:

(Poem #666) 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? -- Alexander Pope

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.