The Poetical Works of Alexander Pope. Volume 2

Few readers familiar with Pope's towering arguments and robust phrases know that the poet, essayist, and man of letters himself stood only 4' 6". Despite the tubercular illness which stunted his growth, Pope was a prodigious child, teaching himself Latin, Greek, French, and Italian by age fifteen. Jonathan Swift's friend and fellow-satirist, Pope earned with his vitriol the title 'Wicked Wasp of Twickenham,' a reference to the name of his villa. Perhaps more famous than his satirical writings are the poems The Rape of the Lock, and An Essay on Man, as well as his masterful translations of Homer's Iliad and Odyssey. He remains an undisputed master of the heroic couplet and of English poetry in general.