An Essay on criticism - wikipedia An Essay on criticism Frontispiece An Essay on Criticism is one of the first major poems written by the English writer Alexander Pope ( 1688 -- 1744 ). It is the source of the famous quotations `` To err is human, to forgive divine '' and `` A little learning is a dang'rous thing, '' frequently misquoted as `` A little knowledge is a dang'rous thing. '' It first appeared in 1711 after having been written in 1709, and it is clear from Pope 's correspondence that many of the poem 's ideas had existed in prose form since at least 1706. Composed in heroic couplets ( pairs of adjacent rhyming lines of iambic pentameter ) and written in the Horatian mode of satire, it is a verse essay primarily concerned with how writers and critics behave in the new literary commerce of Pope 's contemporary age. The poem covers a range of good criticism and advice, and represents many of the chief literary ideals of Pope 's age. Pope contends in the poem 's opening couplets that bad criticism does greater harm than bad writing : ' Tis hard to say, if greater Want of Skill Appear in Writing or in Judging ill, But, of the two, less dang'rous is th ' Offence, To tire our Patience, than mis - lead our Sense Some few in that, but Numbers err in this, Ten Censure wrong for one who Writes amiss ; A Fool might once himself alone expose, Now One in Verse makes many more in Prose... ( 1 -- 8 ) Despite the harmful effects of bad criticism, literature requires worthy criticism. Pope delineates common faults of poets, e.g., settling for easy and cliché rhymes : And ten low words oft creep in one dull line : While they ring round the same unvaried chimes, With sure returns of still expected rhymes ; Wher'er you find `` the cooling western breeze '', In the next line, it `` whispers through the trees '' ; If crystal streams `` with pleasing murmurs creep '', The reader 's threatened ( not in vain ) with `` sleep ''... ( 347 -- 353 ) Throughout the poem, Pope refers to ancient writers such as Virgil, Homer, Aristotle, Horace and Longinus. This is a testament to his belief that the `` Imitation of the ancients '' is the ultimate standard for taste. Pope also says, `` True ease in writing comes from art, not chance, / As those move easiest who have learned to dance '' ( 362 -- 363 ), meaning poets are made, not born. As is usual in Pope 's poems, the Essay concludes with a reference to Pope himself. Walsh, the last of the critics mentioned, was a mentor and friend of Pope who had died in 1710. An Essay on Criticism was famously and fiercely attacked by John Dennis, who is mentioned mockingly in the work. Consequently, Dennis also appears in Pope 's later satire, The Dunciad. Part II of An Essay on Criticism includes a famous couplet : A little learning is a dangerous thing ; Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring. This is in reference to the spring in the Pierian Mountains in Macedonia, sacred to the Muses. The first line of this couplet is often misquoted as `` a little knowledge is a dangerous thing ''. The Essay also gives this famous line ( towards the end of Part II ) : To err is human, to forgive divine. The phrase `` fools rush in where angels fear to tread '' from Part III has become part of the popular lexicon, and has been used for and in various works. See also Dunning -- Kruger effect, the empirically observed pattern that individuals possessing a nonzero but low degree of competence in a field tend to overestimate their competence whereas individuals possessing high competence in that field tend to accurately assess or even underestimate their competence relative to others ' References Jump up ^ An Essay on Criticism ( 1 ed. ). London : Printed for W. Lewis in Russel Street, Covent Garden ; and Sold by W. Taylor at the Ship in Pater - Noster Row, T. Osborn near the Walks, and J. Graves in St. James Street. 1711. Retrieved 21 May 2015. via Google books Jump up ^ 22 October 1706 : Correspondence, i. 23 -- 24. External links Wikiquote has quotations related to : An Essay on Criticism Wikisource has original text related to this article : An Essay on Criticism An Essay on Criticism at the Eighteenth - Century Poetry Archive ( ECPA ) Full text of the Essay An Essay on Criticism at Project Gutenberg ( much punctuation is missing ) A Study Guide for the Essay, by Walter Jackson Bate An Essay on Criticism public domain audiobook at LibriVox Alexander Pope Plays Three Hours After Marriage ( 1717 ) Essays `` Peri Bathous, Or the Art of Sinking in Poetry '' ( 1727 ) Poetry `` Ode on Solitude '' ( 1700 ) An Essay on Criticism ( 1711 ) Messiah ( Latin poem ) ( 1712 ) The Rape of the Lock ( 1712 ) The Temple of Fame ( 1715 ) Eloisa to Abelard ( 1717 ) `` Elegy to the Memory of an Unfortunate Lady '' ( 1717 ) The Dunciad ( 1728 -- 9, 1742 -- 3 ) An Essay on Man ( 1734 ) Moral Essays ( 1731 - 35 ) Epistle to Dr Arbuthnot ( 1735 ) Related Popeswood Binfield Scriblerus Club Memoirs of Martinus Scriblerus `` Who breaks a butterfly upon a wheel ? '' Heroic couplet People Martha Blount John Caryll Retrieved from `` https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=An_Essay_on_Criticism&oldid=781814832 '' Categories : British poems Works by Alexander Pope 1711 poems Hidden categories : Use dmy dates from September 2011 Articles with Project Gutenberg links Articles with LibriVox links Talk About Wikipedia Wikiquote Deutsch Français Italiano Edit links This page was last edited on 23 May 2017, at 11 : 20. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution - ShareAlike License ; additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia ® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization. About Wikipedia

Question: who said to error is human to forgive divine
Answer: Alexander Pope