Alexander Pope, the English poet was born in London in 1688. He translated Homer and the first installment of the Iliad appeared in 1715. He was never in the best of health and at age twelve he was crippled by a tubercular infection of the spine which resulted in stunted growth. He died in 1744.

Matthew Prior was an English poet and diplomat born in Dorset 1664. He was buried in Poet's Corner in Westminster Abbey in 1721.