True wit is nature to advantage dressed, What oft was thought but ne’er so well expressed

The Imitations of Horace (1733-38) raise issues of political neutrality, partisanship and moral satire, and as such are a key text of the Augustan age. The conclusion of An Essay on Man, ‘Whatever is, is right’, may seem sadly banal; but a great many of Pope’s lines are among the most memorable and quotable from English poetry. His technical ability and wit, although firmly based in the neoclassical spirit of the time, raised Pope’s achievement to considerable heights.