Who is Jonathan Swift

Jonathan Swift (30 November 1667 – 19 October 1745) was an Anglo-Irish satirist, author, essayist, political pamphleteer (first for the Whigs, then for the Tories), poet, and Anglican cleric who became Dean of St Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin, hence his common sobriquet, "Dean Swift".

Swift is remembered for works such as A Tale of a Tub (1704), An Argument Against Abolishing Christianity (1712), Gulliver's Travels (1726), and A Modest Proposal (1729). He is regarded by the Encyclopædia Britannica as the foremost prose satirist in the English language, and is less well known for his poetry. He originally published all of his works under pseudonyms—such as Lemuel Gulliver, Isaac Bickerstaff, M. B. Drapier—or anonymously. He was a master of two styles of satire, the Horatian an...
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Jonathan Swift Poems

  • A Quibbling Elegy On Judge Boat
    To mournful ditties, Clio, change thy note,
    Since cruel fate has sunk our Justice Boat;
    Why should he sink, where nothing seem'd to press
    His lading little, and his ballast less? ...
  • Traulus. Part I
    A DIALOGUE BETWEEN TOM AND ROBIN[1]
    1730

    Tom. ...
  • The Answer. By Dr. Swift
    Lindsay mistakes the matter quite,
    And honest Paulus judges right.
    Then, why these quarrels to the sun,
    Without whose aid you're all undone? ...
  • To Stella
    WRITTEN ON THE DAY OF HER BIRTH, MARCH 13, 1723-4, BUT NOT ON THE SUBJECT, WHEN I WAS SICK IN BED

    Tormented with incessant pains,
    Can I devise poetic strains? ...
  • Clad All In Brown
    TO DICK[1]

    Foulest brute that stinks below,
    Why in this brown dost thou appear? ...
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Top 10 most used topics by Jonathan Swift

Good 115 Great 89 Long 84 Place 81 Head 80 True 76 Wise 72 High 65 Face 63 Thought 62


Jonathan Swift Quotes

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Comments about Jonathan Swift

Ahmad05094370: jonathan swift: live every day of your life.
Thiscepot: "may you live all the days of your life." -jonathan swift
Mensreapod: so much of this reads as satire, you could probably pass it off as a jonathan swift bit. wonder what he'd have done with a subpoena from this enochian nightmare?
Annia: more fun "satire" from the boys. jonathan swift would be proud!
Khalil_spencer: in the latest pythonesque version of academic life in the u.s., a wayne state prof has been suspended for a) advocating killing speakers you don't like; or b) writing a pretty good jonathan swift style satire. take your pick.
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Victor: He has a way of making great subjects very easy to be understood.

Poem of the day

Bliss Carman and Richard Hovey Poem
Hem And Haw
 by Bliss Carman and Richard Hovey

Hem and Haw were the sons of sin,
Created to shally and shirk;
Hem lay 'round and Haw looked on
While God did all the work.

Hem was a fogy, and Haw was a prig,
For both had the dull, dull mind;
And whenever they found a thing to do,
...

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