He made English versions of the first book of the _Thebais_ of Statius; several of the stories of Chaucer, and one of Ovid's Epistles, all of which were produced before he was fifteen.
ESSAY ON CRITICISM .-- He was not quite twenty-one when he wrote his _Essay on Criticism_, in which he lays down the canons of just criticism, and the causes which prevent it.

In illustration, he attacks the multitude of critics of that day, and is particularly harsh in his handling of a few among them.

He gained a name by this excellent poem, but he made many enemies, and among them one John Dennis, whom he had satirized under the name of Appius.

Dennis was his life-long foe.
Perhaps there is no better proof of the lasting and deserved popularity of this Essay, than the numerous quotations from it, not only in works on rhetoric and literary criticism, but in our ordinary intercourse with men.
Couplets and lines have become household words wherever the English language is spoken.

How often do we hear the sciolist condemned in these words: A little learning is a dangerous thing; Drink deep, or touch not the Pierian spring?
Irreverence and rash speculation are satirized thus: Nay, fly to altars; there they'll talk you dead, For fools rush in where angels fear to tread.
We may waive a special notice of his _Pastorals_, which, like those of Dryden, are but clever imitations of Theocritus and anachronisms of the Alexandrian period.