Alexander Pope wrote pastoral poetry in his teens, and it's not altogether awful. He began An Essay on Criticism in his teens, and what's more, he never received any higher education (Too Catholic for Oxbridge), so should you believe an undergraduate degree is the be all and end all of personal education, you're probably wrong.
An Essay On Criticism by Alexander Pope - Goodreads.
An Essay on Criticism, didactic poem in heroic couplets by Alexander Pope, first published anonymously in 1711 when the author was 22 years old. Although inspired by Horace ’s Ars poetica, this work of literary criticism borrowed from the writers of the Augustan Age.AN ESSAY ON CRITICISM. Written in the Year 1709. (by Pope, Alexander) THE CONTENTS OF THE Essay on Criticism. PART I. 1. That 'tis as great a fault to judge ill, as to write-ill, and a more dangerous one to the public. 2. The variety of men's Tastes; of a true Taste, how rare to be found.Alexander Pope’s Essay on Criticism is an attempt to balance theology and aesthetics. Pope in his essay follows the tradition of Horace’s Ars Poetica. His essay concerns with good literary criticism and poetry, and how they stay in harmony.
These were followed by the Essay on Criticism, 1711; Rape of the Lock (when completed, the most graceful, airy, and imaginative of his works), 1712-1714; Windsor Forest, 1713; Temple of Fame, 1715. In a collection of his works printed in 1717 he included the Epistle of Eloisa and Elegy on an Unfortunate Lady, two poems inimitable for pathetic beauty and finished melodious versification.An Essay on Criticism was the first major poem written by the English writer Alexander Pope (1688-1744). However, despite the title, the poem is not as much an original analysis as it is a compilation of Pope's various literary opinions.
