The Lisbon Earthquake

"An Essay on Man, Epistle 1" by Alexander Pope (1733)

Alexander Pope’s An Essay on Man is made up of four epistles, or letters, that were published between 1733 and 1734. The poem is the preeminent example of Restoration-era poetic essay, and it shares many similarities with Voltaire’s “The Lisbon Earthquake.” Both, for instance, are written in heroic couplets. Both are also poems that set out to prove a point. Pope’s poem, Essay on Man, tries to "vindicate the ways of God to man" (Line 16). An Essay on Man is partially responsible for the spread of the optimistic philosophy Voltaire attacks in his poem. Voltaire engages with many ideas from Pope’s work, including the argument that people should not complain about their position because they cannot know God’s plan. Voltaire also took the line “what is, is right” in the subtitle of his poem from Line 292 of Pope’s first epistle.

"Mac Flecknoe" by John Dryden (1682)

John Dryden, along with Alexander Pope and Jonathan Swift, was one of the main innovators in English satirical verse in the 17th and 18th century. Mac Flecknoe is regarded as one of the most significant mock-heroic poems in the English language.