Alexander Pope, Imitations of Horace

Ian Gordon (Anglia Ruskin University)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.1.05: English Writing and Culture from the Glorious Revolution to the French Revolution, 1689-1789.
Vol. editors: Paul Baines (University of Liverpool), Daniel Cook (University of Dundee), Nicole Kennedy (University of Newcastle), Pat Rogers (University of South Florida), Nicholas Seager (University of Keele), Sean Seeger (University of Essex)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1733 - 1738

Places

England (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Adaptation
Poetry (any)

Resources

In the five years between February 1733 and March 1738 Pope published eleven poems that he directly described as Imitations of Horace. In a sense, of course, he had imitated Horace all his life – the four Ethic Epistles ( “Moral Essays”), An Epistle to Dr Arbuthnot and the Epilogue to the Satires: Dialogues I & II were all deeply influenced by the Roman poet's example. Pope's admiration for Horace was explicit in as early a work as An Essay on Criticism, 1711:

Horace still charms with graceful Negligence,
And without Method talks us into Sense,
Will like a Friend familiarly convey
The truest Notion in the easiest way (653-6)

The move to writing formal Imitations of Horace, however, marked a step beyond taking him as a general model. Pope imitated, and separately...

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2308 words

Citation: Gordon, Ian. "Imitations of Horace". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 21 March 2002 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=4549, accessed 05 December 2025.]

Alexander Pope, Imitations of Horace

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