Editing Alexander Pope (section)

==Reception==
By the mid-18th century, new fashions in poetry emerged. A decade after Pope's death, Joseph Warton claimed that Pope's style was not the most excellent form of the art. The Romantic movement that rose to prominence in early 19th-century England was more ambivalent about his work. Though [[Lord Byron]] identified Pope as one of his chief influences – believing his own scathing satire of contemporary English literature ''English Bards and Scotch Reviewers'' to be a continuance of Pope's tradition – [[William Wordsworth]] found Pope's style too decadent to represent the human condition.<ref name="Alexander Pope' 2000"/> George Gilfillan in an 1856 study called Pope's talent "a rose peering into the summer air, fine, rather than powerful".<ref>George Gilfillan (1856) "The Genius and Poetry of Pope", ''The Poetical Works of Alexander Pope'', Vol. 11.</ref>

Pope's reputation revived in the 20th century. His work was full of references to the people and places of his time, which aided people's understanding of the past. The post-war period stressed the power of Pope's poetry, recognising that Pope's immersion in Christian and Biblical culture lent depth to his poetry. For example, Maynard Mack, in the late 20th-century, argued that Pope's moral vision demanded as much respect as his technical excellence. Between 1953 and 1967 the definitive Twickenham edition of Pope's poems appeared in ten volumes, including an index volume.<ref name="Alexander Pope' 2000"/>