My nomination for greatest English Pope is Alexander Pope, born Lombard Street in the City of London 1688, died Twickenham, Middlesex 1744.
He is indisputably the greatest English poet named Pope from an established Catholic family.
You can see many of his witty couplets on Twitter at #PopeQuotes and #Pope (not Pontifex). Funnier than the other chap IMHO (in my humble opinion).
He said of himself that in his youth he "thought himself the greatest genius that ever was". As he wrote "An Essay On Criticism" when he was about twenty, he might have had a case.
Indeed Dr Johnson wrote (in his 'Lives of the English Poets'):
"Self-confidence is the first requisite to great undertakings. He, indeed, who forms his opinion of himself in solitude, without knowing the powers of other men, is very liable to error; but it was the felicity of Pope to rate himself at his real value."
Beat that you other Popes!
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