Pope, Alexander. English poet. Son of a linendraper. Born in London in 1688, and began as a child to write verses. He made his reputation by the "Essay on Criticism," and soon became the friend of Swift and other leading writers, and produced "The Rape of the Lock," verse translations of the "Iliad" and "Odyssey," "The Dunciad," and the "Essay on Man," besides taking part in "Miscellanies" with Swift, Arbuthnot, and others. Pope died in 1744.

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