Editing Alexander Pope (section)

===Later life and works=== 
{{Quote box |width=225px |align=left |quoted=true |bgcolor=#FFFFF0 |salign=right
 |quote =<poem>
FATHER of all! in every age,
:In every clime adored,
By saint, by savage, and by sage,
:[[Jehovah]], [[Jove]], or Lord!

If I am right, thy grace impart
:Still in the right to stay;
If I am wrong, O, teach my heart
:To find that better way!

Save me alike from foolish pride,
:Or impious discontent,
At aught thy wisdom has denied,
:Or aught thy goodness lent.

Teach me to feel another's woe,
:To hide the fault I see;
That mercy I to others show,
:That mercy show to me.

Mean though I am, not wholly so,
:Since quickened by thy breath;
O, lead me wheresoe'er I go,
:Through this day's life or death! 

To thee, whose temple is all space,
:Whose altar, earth, sea, skies!
One chorus let all Being raise!
:All Nature's incense rise! 
</poem>|author=Pope|source ="The Universal Prayer"<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=kXd4bRr71a4C&dq=Oliver+Wendell+Holmes+Katydid&pg=PA269 ''A Library of Poetry and Song: Being Choice Selections from The Best Poets. With An Introduction by William Cullen Bryant''], New York, J. B. Ford and Company, 1871, pp. 269-270.</ref>}} 

[[File:Alexander Pope dying.png|thumb|The death of Alexander Pope from ''Museus'', a [[threnody]] by [[William Mason (poet)|William Mason]]. [[Diana (mythology)|Diana]] holds the dying Pope, and [[John Milton]], [[Edmund Spenser]], and [[Geoffrey Chaucer]] prepare to welcome him to heaven.]]

The ''Imitations of Horace'' that followed (1733–1738) were written in the popular Augustan form of an "imitation" of a classical poet, not so much a translation of his works as an updating with contemporary references. Pope used the model of [[Horace]] to satirise life under [[George II of Great Britain|George II]], especially what he saw as the widespread corruption tainting the country under Walpole's influence and the poor quality of the court's artistic taste. Pope added as an introduction to ''Imitations'' a wholly original poem that reviews his own literary career and includes famous portraits of Lord [[John Hervey, 2nd Baron Hervey|Hervey]] ("[[Sporus]]"), [[Thomas Hay, 9th Earl of Kinnoull]] ("Balbus") and Addison ("Atticus").

In 1738 came "The Universal Prayer".<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://freemasonry.bcy.ca/biography/pope_a/prayer.html |title=Alexander Pope 'Universal Prayer' |author=McKeown, Trevor W. |work=bcy.ca |access-date=12 April 2007 |archive-date=28 January 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170128120922/http://freemasonry.bcy.ca/biography/pope_a/prayer.html |url-status=live }} [http://www.eighteenthcenturypoetry.org/works/o3702-w0010.shtml Full-text] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160617083225/http://www.eighteenthcenturypoetry.org/works/o3702-w0010.shtml |date=17 June 2016 }}. Also at the Eighteenth-Century Poetry Archive (ECPA).</ref>

Among the younger poets whose work Pope admired was [[Joseph Thurston (poet)|Joseph Thurston]].<ref>James Sambrook (2004) "Thurston, Josephlocked (1704–1732)", ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography''. Oxford University Press. {{doi|10.1093/ref:odnb/70938}}</ref> After 1738, Pope himself wrote little. He toyed with the idea of composing a patriotic epic in blank verse called ''Brutus'', but only the opening lines survive. His major work in those years was to revise and expand his masterpiece, ''The Dunciad''. Book Four appeared in 1742 and a full revision of the whole poem the following year. Here Pope replaced the "hero" Lewis Theobald with the [[Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom|Poet Laureate]], [[Colley Cibber]] as "king of dunces". However, the real focus of the revised poem is Walpole and his works. By now Pope's health, which had never been good, was failing. When told by his physician, on the morning of his death, that he was better, Pope replied: "Here am I, dying of a hundred good symptoms."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Ruffhead |first=Owen |title=The Life of Alexander Pope; With a Critical Essay on His Writings and Genius |url=https://archive.org/details/lifealexanderpo00ruffgoog |year=1769 |page=[https://archive.org/details/lifealexanderpo00ruffgoog/page/n479 475]}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Dyce |first=Alexander |title=The Poetical Works of Alexander Pope, with a Life, by A. Dyce |year=1863 |page=cxxxi}}</ref> He died at his villa surrounded by friends on 30 May 1744, about eleven o'clock at night. On the previous day, 29 May 1744, Pope had called for a priest and received the [[Last Rites]] of the Catholic Church. He was buried in the nave of [[St Mary's Church, Twickenham]].