Pope’s poetry, the editors of this collection suggest,
provides…an index to social criticism, to enlightened religious belief, to witty and vivacious writing, and to the bearing of much of the Western literary tradition on the eighteenth-century mind. Approaches to Teaching Pope’s Poetry strives to make Pope’s genius and versatility shine in the classroom.

Like other books in the MLA’s Approaches to Teaching World Literature series, this one is divided into two parts. The first part,
Materials,
features a survey of useful reference materials as well as recommendations on available editions and anthologies. The essays in the second part,
Approaches,
discuss Pope’s wit and use of satire, his debt to Horace, and his relationship with the Scriblerians; present Pope’s poetry alongside verse and parodies by his contemporaries; and share strategies for teaching individual poems in a variety of courses. Several essays discuss Pope’s influence on the English Romantics, especially Byron and Wordsworth.