ABSTRACT
This poem, now known as 'Epistle IV' of the Moral Essays, was the first of the four to be written. It was published, in December 1731, before An Essay on Man which Alexander Pope initially intended it should follow as part of his opus magnum. The Epistle to Burlington was the first poem Pope wrote in the Horatian style which then became the dominant model for the rest of his poetic career. It is based on the method and tone of Horace's Epistles generally, rather than on any one in particular. Pope's subject matter in the Epistle to Burlington concerns good and bad taste in architecture and landscape gardening, and his central theme the proper use of wealth with regard to both. The Timon's Villa section of the poem, is one of the most sustainedly witty and effective pieces of satire Pope wrote.
