Pope's Ideal in "An Essay on Criticism"

Abstract

This article attempts to understand the speaker in Alexander Pope's "An Essay on Criticism" in terms of Pope's biography and his ideals. In this attempt, it covers the parallelisms that the poem draws between life and literature, art and aesthetics, and criticism and character. It concludes with the idea that the speaker of the poem is not Pope himself but an inspiring ideal, calling forth artists and critics, Pope included, to produce moving works of art.