The poetry of Alexander Pope (1688–1744) was once so well known, filling page after page of school anthologies, that editors would seek out his minor and lesser-known poems, just to present something a little different — the B-sides of his greatest hits, on the assumption that everyone already knew the A-sides. That assumption is, one suspects, not as true anymore. “The Rape of the Lock” is now assigned, when assigned at all, with a trigger warning. “Elegy to the Memory of an Unfortunate Lady” has disappeared. And “An Essay on Man” — once considered Pope’s major work and a necessary adjunct to any general education — has dropped away as too uninteresting to force students to read. So, for the May 21 birthday of Pope, let’s remember again the A-side: the most glittering passage from his most glittering work, in the full power of his rhymed pentameter couplets.

An Essay on Man: Epistle II
by Alexander Pope

Know then thyself, presume not God to scan
The proper study of Mankind is Man.
Placed on this isthmus of a middle state,
A Being darkly wise, and rudely great:
With too much knowledge for the Sceptic side,
With too much weakness for the Stoic’s pride,
He hangs between; in doubt to act, or rest;
In doubt to deem himself a God, or Beast;
In doubt his mind and body to prefer;
Born but to die, and reas’ning but to err;
Whether he thinks too little, or too much;
Chaos of Thought and Passion, all confus’d;
Still by himself, abus’d or disabus’d;
Created half to rise and half to fall;
Great Lord of all things, yet a prey to all,
Sole judge of truth, in endless error hurl’d;
The glory, jest, and riddle of the world.

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With “Poem of the Day,” The New York Sun offers a daily portion of verse selected by Joseph Bottum with the help of the North Carolina poet Sally Thomas, The Sun’s associate poetry editor. Tied to the day, or the season, or just individual taste, the poems will be typically drawn from the lesser-known portion of the history of English verse. In the coming months we will be reaching out to contemporary poets for examples of current, primarily formalist work, to show that poetry can still serve as a delight to the ear, an instruction to the mind, and a tonic for the soul.