Biography of alexander pope summary pdf

Alexander Pope was born on May 21, in London. His father was a linen-draper of Plough Court, Lombard Street. He read, studied, and translated, sometimes teaching himself languages through the act of translation. It was at Binfield that the sixteen-year-old Pope composed his Pastorals published After the onset of his illness, Pope resolved to go to London to learn French and Italian.

In the circles of fashionable London society not the trade districts of Hammersmith or City, where he lived as a child , Pope made a number of literary acquaintances including William Wycherley and William Congreve, both noted comic dramatists. With the help of his literary acquaintances, Pope began to publish his works. During the first decade of the eighteenth century, Pope also composed a descriptive and historical poem on his native region of Windsor Forest, entitled "Windsor-Forest" , which caught the attention of Jonathan Swift, with whom he would later found the Scriblerus Club.

By the time "Windsor-Forest" was published, "The Rape of the Lock" had already been circulated anonymously, but Pope revised and lengthened the work for publication and claimed authorship. Now a famous poet, Pope began work on several projects.

Alexander pope education

Translations at the time were very profitable and popular and it is likely that Pope began this project due to his poor finances. Pope had relied on annuities from his father's investments for some time, and around the time Pope begins this project, the interest on these investments would have taken a marked decline. The translation was not only the key to reviving Pope's finances, but also allowed Pope to write without the assistance of a patron and earned him critical acclaim.

Following this triumph, Pope then undertook a translation of The Odyssey At the same time, Pope was drawn to a friendship with a group of writers with Tory sympathies who styled themselves the Scriblerus Club. Counting Jonathan Swift, John Gay, John Arbuthnot, and Thomas Parnell among its members, the group dedicated itself to the mockery of false learning and antiquarianism.

As a Catholic with Tory sympathies, whose literary friends and political allies were on the losing side, Pope had to be very careful.