Editing Alexander Pope (section)

===''Essay on Criticism''===
{{main|An Essay on Criticism}}
''[[An Essay on Criticism]]'' was first published anonymously on 15 May 1711. Pope began writing the poem early in his career and took about three years to finish it.

At the time the poem was published, its [[heroic couplet]] style was quite a new poetic form and Pope's work an ambitious attempt to identify and refine his own positions as a poet and critic. It was said to be a response to an ongoing debate on the question of whether poetry should be natural, or written according to predetermined artificial rules inherited from the classical past.<ref name="Rogers 2006"/>

The "essay" begins with a discussion of the standard rules that govern poetry, by which a critic passes judgement. Pope comments on the classical authors who dealt with such standards and the authority he believed should be accredited to them. He discusses the laws to which a critic should adhere while analysing poetry, pointing out the important function critics perform in aiding poets with their works, as opposed to simply attacking them.<ref name="Baines 2001"/> The final section of ''An Essay on Criticism'' discusses the moral qualities and virtues inherent in an ideal critic, whom Pope claims is also the ideal man.