A philosophical poem defending providence and man's place in the ordered chain of being — whatever is, is right.
Books that mention An Essay on Man (3)
Middlemarch by George Eliot: “Minchin for his part liked to keep the mental windows open and objected to fixed limits; if the Unitarian brewer jested about the Athanasian Creed, Dr. Minchin quoted Pope's "Essay on Man."”
The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table by Oliver Wendell Holmes: “The old gentleman opposite all at once asked me if I ever read anything better than Pope's "Essay on Man"?”
Pale Fire by Vladimir Nabokov: “This is, of course, from Pope's Essay on Man.”