SOURCE: A letter to [John Murray] on February 7, 1821, in The Works of Lord Byron: Letters and Journals, Vol. V, edited by Rowland E. Prothero, Charles Scribner's Sons, 1901, pp. 536-60.

An English poet and dramatist, Byron is considered one of the most important versifiers of the nineteenth century. In the following excerpt from a letter which refutes the points made in W. L. Bowles 's lukewarm introduction to an 1806 edition of Pope's works, Byron acclaims Pope as one of the most prominent and talented figures in English literary history.

The depreciation of Pope is partly founded upon a false idea of the dignity of his order of poetry, to which he has partly contributed by the ingenious boast,

 That not in fancy's maze he wandered long,
But stooped to Truth, and moralised his song. 

He should have written 'rose to truth.' In my mind, the highest of all...