The Temple of Fame

The Temple of Fame: A Vision is an eighteenth-century poem by Alexander Pope, directly inspired by Geoffrey Chaucer's fourteenth-century poem The House of Fame (Hous of Fame in the original spelling). First published in 1715,[1] the poem comprises 524 lines which, like Chaucer's original version, take the form of a dream vision. The poem's precise date of composition is ambiguous, but Pope asserted that it was composed in 1711[2] even though its initial publication was implied by a letter from Pope to Martha Blount, written in 1714, in which he referred to the poem as ‘just out.’ Eventually the work was classified by the poet himself as a ‘juvenile poem’ among his earlier translations and imitations.[3]

Alexander Pope, author of The Temple of Fame.