An Essay on Criticsm

Alexander Pope was only twenty-two when he wrote An Essay on Criticism, a beautiful, 744-line poem of heroic couplets. Through his study of good criticism, Pope tells us that we must understand nature before we can write well.

The Sound must seem an Eccho of the Sense.
Soft is the Strain when Zephyr gently blows,
And the smooth Stream in smoother Numbers flows;
But when loud Surges lash the sounding Shore,
The hoarse, rough Verse shou'd like the Torrent roar.

Pope makes me wonder what I'm doing with my life. Do writers sometimes intimidate you, reader? Because for me, this happens all the time.