Alexander Pope was born on May 21, 1688 in London, England. He was ill as a child and was left only 4' 6" tall with curvature of the spine and was a lifelong sufferer from headaches. Pope was a poet and satirist, best known for his poem The Rape of the Lock and his translation of Homer's Iliad. His epigrams are some of the most frequently quoted passages in the English language. He died in 1744.