The Rape of the Lock

Make no mistake about it, you can pretty much always tell if a poem was written by Alexander Pope. If it's in perfectly-crafted heroic couplets, if it's witty and satirical, and if it has a ton of classical references in it, you're reading an Alexander special. Remember, Pope was the poster boy for early 18th century neoclassicism.

The Rape of the Lock is probably one of the most user-friendly and kind of all of Pope's poetry: later in life, when the political tide turned against him and the party he supported, he mainly wrote super-scathing satires against people in power and against what he saw as the depraved, immoral conduct of his age (yes, Pope became quite the curmudgeon later in life).

If you really want an advanced-level Pope experience, take a look at his last long satiric poem, The Dunciad of 1743. It depicts a total cultural and political apocalypse of bad taste, bad books, and worse government. Can you imagine what the man would have thought of Here Comes Honey Boo Boo and Duck Dynasty?