A review by toggle_fow
Essay on Man and Other Poems by Alexander Pope

reflective slow-paced

3.75

Yes, we're back with another, slightly different edition. This one doesn't include his anti-pretentious landscaping poem, but instead has an iconic one called "An Essay On Criticism."

Some gems:

• "Tis hard to say, if greater want of skill / Appear in writing or in judging ill"

• "Some neither can for wits nor critics pass / As heavy mules are neither horse nor ass"

• "Whoever thinks a faultless piece to see / Thinks what ne'er was, nor is, nor e'er shall be / In every work regard the writer's end / Since none can compass more than they intend; / And if the means be just, the conduct true / Applause, in spite of trivial faults, is due"

• "'Tis not enough your counsel still be true; / Blunt truths more mischief than nice falsehoods do / Men must be taught as if you taught them not / And things unknown proposed as things forgot"

• "Others for Language all their care express / And value books, as women men, for dress" (L O L)

Look at this. This man has been harshly reviewed by somebody and is SO SALTY he wrote an entire multi-page poem about it. I freaking love Pope. What a legend. (Also, apparently the saying "to err is human, to forgive divine" is from this poem??)