Jonathan Swift

"From distant regions Fortune sends     An odd triumvirate of friends;     Where Phoebus pays a scanty stipend,     Where never yet a codling ri"

"At two afternoon for our Psyche inquire,     Her tea-kettle's on, and her smock at the fire:     So loitering, so active; so busy, so idle;"

"High as Longinus to the stars ascends,     So deeply Carthy to the centre tends.     RATIO INTER LONGINUM ET CARTHIUM COMPUTATA     Aetherea"

"A DIALOGUE BETWEEN TOM AND ROBIN[1]     1730      Tom.     Say, Robin, what can Traulus[2] mean     By bellowing thus against the Dean?"

"BY SWIFT AND OTHERS     CHARLES CARTHY, a schoolmaster in the city of Dublin, was publisher of a translation of Horace, in which the Latin was p"

"A GREAT BOTTLE OF WINE, LONG BURIED, BEING THAT DAY DUG UP. 1722-3     Resolv'd my annual verse to pay,     By duty bound, on Stella's day,"

"Quoth the thief to the dog, let me into your door         And I'll give you these delicate bits.     Quoth the dog, I shall then be more villain"

"A bard, grown desirous of saving his pelf,     Built a house he was sure would hold none but himself.     This enraged god Apollo, who Mercury s"

"ON HIS SUCCESSES IN IRELAND     To purchase kingdoms and to buy renown,         Are arts peculiar to dissembling France;     You, mighty mona"

"Right Trusty, and so forth - we let you know     We are very ill used by you mortals below.     For, first, I have often by chemists been told,"

"Know all men by these presents, Death, the tamer,     By mortgage has secured the corpse of Demar;     Nor can four hundred thousand sterling po"

"H. S. E.     CAROLUS Comes de BERKELEY, Vicecomes DURSLEY,     Baro BERKELEY, de Berkeley Cast., MOWBRAY, SEGRAVE,     Et BRUCE, nobilissim"

"When wise Lord Berkeley first came here,[1]         Statesmen and mob expected wonders,     Nor thought to find so great a peer         Ere a w"

"This, the most humorous example of vers de socit in the English language, well illustrates the position of a parson in a family of distinction a"

"Under this stone lies Dick and Dolly.     Doll dying first, Dick grew melancholy;     For Dick without Doll thought living a folly.     Dick l"

"Frail glass! thou mortal art as well as I;         Though none can tell which of us first shall die.     ANSWERED EXTEMPORE BY DR. SWIFT"

"Five hours (and who can do it less in?)     By haughty Celia spent in dressing;     The goddess from her chamber issues,     Array'd in lace, b"

"Patron of the tuneful throng,         O! too nice, and too severe!     Think not, that my country song         Shall displease thy honest ear."

"This day, dear Bec, is thy nativity;     Had Fate a luckier one, she'd give it ye.     She chose a thread of greatest length,     And doubly tw"

"I'm not the grandson of that ass Quin;[1]     Nor can you prove it, Mr. Pasquin.     My grandame had gallants by twenties,     And bore my moth"

"Sir,     I thank you for your comedies.     I'll stay and read 'em now at home a-days,     Because Parcus wrote but sorrily     Thy notes, I'"

"Ah! Strephon, how can you despise     Her, who without thy pity dies!     To Strephon I have still been true,     And of as noble blood as you;"

"Since Anna, whose bounty thy merits had fed,     Ere her own was laid low, had exalted thy head:     And since our good queen to the wise is so"

"IN A LETTER TO A PERSON OF QUALITY. 1728     SIR, 'twas a most unfriendly part     In you, who ought to know my heart,     Are well acquainte"

"BY THE SAME (DR. DELANY)     Hoc tumulata jacet proles Lenaea sepulchro,     Immortale genus, nee peritura jacet;     Quin oritura iterum, mat"

"WOOLLEN-DRAPER IN DUBLIN, WHOSE SIGN WAS THE GOLDEN FLEECE     Jason, the valiant prince of Greece,     From Colchis brought the Golden Fleece;"

"A man with expense and infinite toil,     By digging and dunging, ennobled his soil;     There fruits of the best your taste did invite,     An"

"Because I am by nature blind,     I wisely choose to walk behind;     However, to avoid disgrace,     I let no creature see my face.     My wo"

"BY DR. SWIFT (Dean Smedley's Petition To The Duke Of Grafton)     Dear Smed, I read thy brilliant lines,     Where wit in all its glory shines"

"ON THE SUPPOSED DEATH OF PARTRIDGE THE ALMANACK MAKER.[1] 1708     Well; 'tis as Bickerstaff has guest,     Though we all took it for a jest:"

"So witches bent on bad pursuits,     Assume the shapes of filthy brutes."

"In your indignation what mercy appears,     While Jonathan's threaten'd with loss of his ears;     For who would not think it a much better choi"

"Cut the name of the man [1] who his mistress denied,     And let the first of it be only applied     To join with the prophet[2] who David did c"

"Hither from Mexico I came,     To serve a proud Iernian dame:     Was long submitted to her will;     At length she lost me at quadrille."

"Beneath this verdant hillock lies     Demar, the wealthy and the wise,     His heirs,[1] that he might safely rest,     Have put his carcass in"

"Upon Hearing That His Name Would Be Transmitted To Posterity In Dr. Swift's Works.     By William Dunkin     Well! now, since the heat of my p"

"Traulus, of amphibious breed,     Motley fruit of mongrel seed;     By the dam from lordlings sprung.     By the sire exhaled from dung:     T"

"Peruse my leaves thro' ev'ry part,     And think thou seest my owner's heart,     Scrawl'd o'er with trifles thus, and quite     As hard, as se"

"Shall then my kindred all my glory claim,     And boldly rob me of eternal fame?     To every art my gen'rous aid I lend,     To music, paintin"

"What though the Dean hears not the knell     Of the next church's passing bell;     What though the thunder from a cloud,     Or that from fema"

"Tim[2] and Dick had equal fame,         And both had equal knowledge;     Tom could write and spell his name,         But Dick had seen the col"

"The very reverend Dean Smedley,     Of dulness, pride, conceit, a medley,     Was equally allow'd to shine     As poet, scholar, and divine;"

"We are little airy creatures,     All of different voice and features;     One of us in glass is set,     One of us you'll find in jet.     T'"

"On rainy days alone I dine     Upon a chick and pint of wine.     On rainy days I dine alone,     And pick my chicken to the bone;     But thi"

"St. Patrick's Dean, your country's pride,     My early and my only guide,     Let me among the rest attend,     Your pupil and your humble frie"

"Lindsay mistakes the matter quite,     And honest Paulus judges right.     Then, why these quarrels to the sun,     Without whose aid you're al"

"Patrick astore,[1] what news upon the town?     By my soul there's bad news, for the gold she was pull'd down,     The gold she was pull'd down,"

"Our brethren of England, who love us so dear,         And in all they do for us so kindly do mean,     (A blessing upon them!) have sent us this"

"TO A FRIEND WHO MARRIED A SHREW. 1724     NELL scolded in so loud a din,     That Will durst hardly venture in:     He mark'd the conjugal dis"

"How could you, Gay, disgrace the Muse's train,     To serve a tasteless court twelve years in vain![2]     Fain would I think our female friend"

"Grave Dean of St. Patrick's, how comes it to pass,     That you, who know music no more than an ass,     That you who so lately were writing of"

"Poor Monsieur his conscience preserved for a year,     Yet in one hour he lost it, 'tis known far and near;     To whom did he lose it? - A judg"

""Here learn from moral truth and wit refined,     How vice and folly have debased mankind;     Strong sense and humour arm in virtue's cause;"

"1734-5     Make Rundle bishop! fie for shame!     An Arian to usurp the name!     A bishop in the isle of saints!     How will his brethren"

"WRITTEN FOR THE HONOUR OF THE FAIR SEX. 1731     Corinna, pride of Drury-Lane,     For whom no shepherd sighs in vain;     Never did Covent-G"

"1730     In ancient times, the wise were able     In proper terms to write a fable:     Their tales would always justly suit     The charact"

"BY SIR ARTHUR ACHESON. 1728     Good cause have I to sing and vapour,     For I am landlord to the Drapier:     He, that of every ear's the c"

"When first the squire and tinker Wood     Gravely consulting Ireland's good,     Together mingled in a mass     Smith's dust, and copper, lead,"

"And shall the Patriot who maintain'd your cause,     From future ages only meet applause?     Shall he, who timely rose t'his country's aid,"

"(Horace speaking.)     You've read, sir, in poetic strain,     How Varus and the Mantuan swain     Have on my birth-day been invited,     (Bu"