Poem of the Day: ‘An Essay on Man’

The poetry of Alexander Pope (1688–1744) was once so well known, filling page after page of school anthologies, that editors would seek out his minor and lesser-known poems, just to present something a little different — the B-sides of his greatest hits, on the assumption that everyone already knew the A-sides. That assumption is, one suspects, not as true anymore. “The Rape of the Lock” is now assigned, when assigned at all, with a trigger warning. “Elegy to the Memory of an Unfortunate Lady” has disappeared. And “An Essay on Man” — once considered Pope’s major work and a necessary adjunct to any general education — has dropped away as too uninteresting to force students to read. So, for the May 21 birthday of Pope, let’s remember again the A-side: the most glittering passage from his most glittering work, in the full power of his rhymed pentameter couplets.