An Essay on Criticism is one of the first major poems written by the English writer Alexander Pope (1688–1744). It is written in a type of rhyming verse called heroic couplets.

The poem first appeared in 1711, but was written in 1709, and it is clear from Pope's correspondence[1] that many of the poem's ideas had existed in prose form since at least 1706. It is a verse essay written in the Horatian mode and is primarily concerned with how writers and critics behave in the new literary commerce of Pope's contemporary age. The poem covers a range of good criticism and advice, and represents many of the chief literary ideals of Pope's age.