The best way of learning to enjoy Pope is to get by heart the epistle to Arbuthnot.

That epistle is, as I have said, his Apologia.

In its some 400 lines, he has managed to compress more of his feelings and thoughts than would fill an ordinary autobiography.

It is true that the epistle requires a commentator.

It wants some familiarity with the events of Pope's life, and many lines convey only a part of their meaning unless we are familiar not only with the events, but with the characters of the persons mentioned.