But Pope was strongest exactly where Crabbe was weak.

He had achieved absolute mastery of form, and could condense into a couplet some truth which Crabbe expanded, often excellently, in a hundred lines of very unequal workmanship.

The _Quarterly_ reviewer quotes, as admirable of its kind, the description in _The Borough_ of the card-club, with the bickerings and ill-nature of the old ladies and gentlemen who frequented it.

It is in truth very graphic, and no doubt absolutely faithful to life; but it is rather metrical fiction than poetry.

There is more of the essence of poetry in a single couplet of Pope's: "See how the world its veterans rewards-- A youth of frolics, an old age of cards." For here the expression is faultless, and Pope has educed an eternally pathetic truth, of universal application.
Even had the gentle remonstrances of the two reviewers never been expressed, it would seem as if Crabbe had already arrived at somewhat similar conclusions on his own account.