Talk:Alexander Pope

I changed this: "He was the last major poet to write in traditional rhyming couplets; he developed the heroic couplet beyond that of any previous poet, and essentially exhausted its usefulness for later poets." There's room for disagreement about who's major, but I'd count Keats (Lamia) and Frost ("The Bear", "A Considerable Speck", "The Egg and the Machine", "The Onset", "The Tuft of Flowers"). I don't know whether the current version is true. Does anyone have any information on use of the heroic couplet before and after Pope? —JerryFriedman 20:08, 6 Dec 2004 (UTC)

140.180.165.138, thanks for your valuable additions today and a happy new year! Could you please try to formulate the opening sentence more neutrally and encyclopedically, though? Or attribute it, or something. I've provisionally tamed the POV (what about Blake?), but I'm sure you can do it better.--Bishonen | Talk 05:16, 1 Jan 2005 (UTC)

Just a small change to point up the fact that Cibber replaced Theobald as the 'hero' of the Dunciad rather than simply being "added to the list of dunces". aldiboronti 17:48, 3 Jan 2005

• Yep. Anybody wants to see fuller accounts of this, please compare newly refurbished articles The Dunciad and Colley Cibber. Thanks, aldiboronti!--Bishonen | Talk 19:14, 3 Jan 2005 (UTC)

The notion that Pope was "educated mostly outside "normal" schools and colleges as a result of the penal laws that were in force at the time to uphold the status of the established Church of England." seems anachronistic - it would not have been unusual in that period to have not gone to school. Certainly a catholic family would have made education outside the school system more likely, but I am not sure this comment adds much. --AYArktos 10:57, 31 Mar 2005 (UTC)

Date of birth

Hello, your article is very good and it helped me to write an essay for university about Pope. But in a German introduction to English Literature I found that his birthday was on the 22th May. So I need to change this. I would also like to add something about his interest into landscape gardening. (unsigned comment by user Daniela Wecker on 9 May)

That's not so sure. Other sites tell he was born on the 21st. Should see... (unsigned comment by IP 212.194.59.142 20 May)

when was his birthday?

anonymous edited this and other articles saying Pope was born on the 21st instead of the 22nd. I changed it back based on this source, among others. -Lethe | Talk 03:24, May 23, 2005 (UTC)

Connecticut, automobile pioneer

Looks like there was another notable person who went with this name. Quote "They have a lovely example: in 1915 the people of Hertford, Connecticut, erected a memorial to a local automobile pioneer called Alexander Pope (not the poet)." [1]

Dissent

I'm sorry to be cranky, but this article is pretty insufficient for a poet as significant as Shakespeare or Wordsworth. As a poet, it's possible that no one in English matched him for technical skill. As a person, he has an extremely interesting life. As an historical person only is he less interesting than someone like Wordsworth. To have his Pastorals skipped over (see Augustan poetry), to miss out on what each of the Moral Epistles were, to not mention the imitations of Horace and Virgil, to make Rape of the Lock a quick mention, it all goes against my own interests. Unfortunately, it has been an age since I've read Maynard Mack's biography, but I surely hope that someone passing by this article with Mack fresh in his or her head, or someone with an interest in this article's state and has access to a U. library and can go read Mack (and Aubrey Williams's critical work on Pope), can incrementally build this up. I'd love to see Pope's article be a Featured Article, or at least FA quality. Geogre 4 July 2005 14:18 (UTC) (No, this is not on my list.)

Aye. It would make a nice excuse to visit the local library on a sunny Saturday afternoon! --Ardonik.talk()^* 05:07, August 24, 2005 (UTC)

Yeah, I know it annoys me when I see an article on something I sort of know about, but not quite enough, that could really be improved. But you should do what you can to better it - a little goes a long way on these kinds of things, I find. john k 06:40, 24 August 2005 (UTC)

Hello, agreeing with Geogre, I think this article should mention something of the Pope v. Curll lawsuit, which apparently is "a foundational case in English and American copyright law" (so says Mark Rose, in _Authors and Owners_, Harvard University Press, 1993, p.60)? There are 3 scholarly works on this by James McLaverty, and they sound very interesting, colorful, important, etc. See: James McLaverty, "The First Printing and Publication of Pope's Letters", Library 6th ser. 2 1980.

Diana

Who is Diana? Her name is mentioned in the image but is linked to disambiguation page.

Clarified as of February 28. I redirected the link to Diana (mythology), the page on the Roman goddess. ~e.o.t.d~ 06:31, 6 March 2006 (UTC)

Hi, I would like to add an external link to the World of Biography entry

• Alexander Pope Biography to this article. Does anybody have any objections?