Among these will be recognized that
of which the opening lines are:
Rise, crowned with light, imperial Salem, rise;
Exalt thy towering head and lift thine eyes.
In 1713 he published a poem on _Windsor Forest_, and an _Ode on St.
Cecilia's Day_, in imitation of Dryden. He also furnished the beautiful
prologue to Addison's Cato.
TRANSLATION OF THE ILIAD.--He now proposed to himself a task which was to
give him more reputation and far greater emolument than anything he had
yet accomplished--a translation of the Iliad of Homer. This was a great
desideratum, and men of all parties conspired to encourage and reward him.
Chapman's Homer, excellent as it was, was not in a popular measure, and
was known only to scholars.
In the execution of this project, Pope labored for six years--writing by
day and dreaming of his work at night; translating thirty or forty lines
before rising in the morning, and jotting down portions even while on a
journey. Pope's polished pentameters, when read, are very unlike the
full-voiced hexameters of Homer; but the errors in the translation are
comparatively few and unimportant, and his own poetry is in his best vein.
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