Biography of Alexander Pope great author complete biography for Class 10, Class 12 and Graduation
| Full Name | Alexander Pope |
| Born | 21 May 1688 O.S. London, England |
| Died On | 30 May 1744 (aged 56) |
| Occupation | Poet, writer, translator |
| Children | Rosalind Hicks |
| Father Name | Alexander Pope Sr. |
Alexander Pope was born in London as the son of Alexander Pope, a Roman Catholic linen merchant, and Edith (Turner) Pope. At that time Catholics suffered from repressive legislation and prejudices – they were not allowed to enter any universities or held public employment. Thus Pope had an uneven education, which was often interrupted. He was largely educated at home. Pope’s aunt taught him to read. Latin and Greek he learned from a local priest and later he acquired knowledge of French and Italian poetry. Pope also attended clandestine Catholic schools. While still at school he wrote a play based on speeches from the Iliad.
After moving to London, Pope published his first major work, An Essay on Criticism, a discussion based on neoclassical doctrines. In 1712 Pope published an early version of The Rape Of The Lock, an elegant satire about the hysterical battles between the sexes, and the follies of a young with her “puffs, powders, patches, Bibles, billet-doux”. The work was expanded in 1714. Its first version consisted of two cantos (1712) and the final version five cantos (1714). Rape of the Lock was based on a quarrel between two families with whom Pope was acquainted.
Pope admired Horace and Vergilius and valued them as models for poetry. His great achievements were the translations of the Iliad and Odyssey into English. They were very successful and enabled him to move to Twickenham from the anti-Catholic pressure of the Jacobites.
Later in Imitations Of Horace (1733), Pope wrote an attack on his former friend Lady Mary as ‘Sappho’. “Give me again my hollow tree, / A crust of bread, and liberty” In the 1730s Pope published (Essay On Man (1733-34), which examined the human condition against Miltonic, cosmic background. In Moral Essays 1731) Pope separated behavior from character.
In his time, Pope was famous for his witty satires and aggressive, bitter quarrels with other writers. When his edition of William Shakespeare was attacked he answered with the savage burlesque The Dunciad (1728), which was widened in 1742. It ridiculed writers, scientists, and critics. “While pensive poets painful vigils keep, / Sleepless themselves to give their readers sleep.” During his last years, Pope designed a romantic ‘grot’ in a tunnel, which linked the waterfront with his back garden. It was walled with shells and pieces of mirror.
Pope died on May 30, 1744. He left his property to Martha Blount. With the growth of Romanticism Pope’s poetry was increasingly keen as outdated and the ‘Age of Pope’ ended. It was not until the 1930s that a serious attempt was made to rediscover the poet’s work.
