Jonathan Swift

"The shepherds and the nymphs were seen     Pleading before the Cyprian queen.     The counsel for the fair began,     Accusing the false creatu"

"OCCASIONED BY "APOLLO TO THE DEAN" 1720     Parnassus, February the twenty-seventh.     The poets assembled here on the eleventh,     Conve"

"DISCOVERED BY HARLEQUIN, THE BISHOP OF ROCHESTER'S FRENCH DOG,[1] IN A DIALOGUE BETWEEN A WHIG AND A TORY     I ask'd a Whig the other"

"FROM A CERTAIN DOCTOR TO A CERTAIN GREAT LORD. BEING A CHRISTMAS-BOX FOR DR. DELANY     As Jove will not attend on less,     When things of"

"I marched three miles through scorching sand,     With zeal in heart, and notes in hand;     I rode four more to Great St. Mary,     Using four"

"Ireland is now our royal care,     We lately fix'd our viceroy there.     How near was she to be undone,     Till pious love inspired her son!"

"Written in the year 1713, when the Queen's ministers were quarrelling among themselves.     Observe the dying father speak:     Try, lads, c"

"A bard, on whom Phoebus his spirit bestow'd,     Resolving t'acknowledge the bounty he owed,     Found out a new method at once of confessing,"

"AN EXCELLENT NEW SONG     To the Tune of "I tell thee, Dick, where I have been."[2]         Ye Commons and Peers,         Pray lend me your"

"Joan cudgels Ned, yet Ned's a bully;     Will cudgels Bess, yet Will's a cully.     Die Ned and Bess; give Will to Joan,     She dares not say"

"WRITTEN IN NOVEMBER, 1731 [1]     Occasioned by reading the following maxim in Rochefoucauld, "Dans l'adversit de nos meilleurs amis, nous trou"

"Some ancient authors wisely write,     That he who drinks will wake at night,     Will never fail to lose his rest,     And feel a streightness"

"All of us in one you'll find,     Brethren of a wondrous kind;     Yet among us all no brother     Knows one tittle of the other;     We in f"

"Poor Hall, renown'd for comely hair,     Whose hands, perhaps, were not so fair,     Yet had a Jezebel as near;     Hall, of small scripture co"

"The queen has lately lost a part     Of her ENTIRELY-ENGLISH[1] heart,     For want of which, by way of botch,     She pieced it up again with"

""Sunt quibus in Satir," etc.     WRITTEN BY MR. LINDSAY, IN 1729     DR. SWIFT     Since there are persons who complain     There's too m"

"Resolve me this, ye happy dead,     Who've lain some hundred years in bed,     From every persecution free     That in this wretched life we se"

"The nymph who wrote this in an amorous fit,     I cannot but envy the pride of her wit,     Which thus she will venture profusely to throw"

"1729[1] (Verses Written During Lord Carteret's Administration Of Ireland)         Credis ob haec me, Pastor, opes fortasse rogare,         P"

"Inscribed To Lord Carteret[1] (Verses Written During Lord Carteret's Administration Of Ireland)     1724     Gratior et pulcro veniens in corpo"

"Given by O'Rourke, a powerful chieftain of Ulster in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, previously to his making a visit to her court. A song was compo"

"I with borrow'd silver shine     What you see is none of mine.     First I show you but a quarter,     Like the bow that guards the Tartar:"

"Mordanto fills the trump of fame,     The Christian world his deeds proclaim,     And prints are crowded with his name.         In journey"

"ORE cibum portans catulus dum spectat in undis,     Apparet liquido praedae melioris imago:     Dum speciosa diu damna admiratur, et alt     A"

"From Venus born, thy beauty shows;     But who thy father, no man knows:     Nor can the skilful herald trace     The founder of thy ancient ra"

"Her majesty never shall be my exalter;     And yet she would raise me, I know, by a halter!"

"The wise pretend to make it clear,     'Tis no great loss to lose an ear.     Why are we then so fond of two,     When by experience one would"

"The church and clergy here, no doubt,         Are very near a-kin;     Both weather-beaten are without,         And empty both within."

"12 o'Clock at Noon     Sept. 12, 1718.     SIR,     Perhaps you may wonder, I send you so soon     Another epistle; consider 'tis noon."

"From Pliny, "Hist. Nat.," lib. x, 67; lib. xxix.     As mastiff dogs, in modern phrase, are     Call'd Pompey, Scipio, and Caesar;     As pies"

"As Lord Carteret's residence in Ireland as Viceroy was a series of cabals against the authority of the Prime Minister, he failed not, as well from"

"Dr. King, Archbishop of Dublin, stood high in Swift's estimation by his opposition to Wood's coinage.     BY HONEST JO. ONE OF HIS GRACE'S FARME"

"Deprived of root, and branch and rind,     Yet flowers I bear of every kind:     And such is my prolific power,     They bloom in less than hal"

"Good Halifax and pious Wharton cry,     The Church has vapours; there's no danger nigh.     In those we love not, we no danger see,     And wer"

"Mighty Thomas, a solemn senatus[1] I call,     To consult for Sapphira;[2] so come one and all;     Quit books, and quit business, your cure and"

"1708     When Mother Cludd[1] had rose from play,     And call'd to take the cards away,     Van saw, but seem'd not to regard,     How Mis"

"TO THE LORD TREASURER OXFORD     1710     Atlas, we read in ancient song,     Was so exceeding tall and strong,     He bore the skies upon"

"As when a beauteous nymph decays,     We say she's past her dancing days;     So poets lose their feet by time,     And can no longer dance in"

"The immediate provocation to this fierce satire upon the Irish Parliament was the introduction of a Bill to put an end to the tithe on pasturage,"

"Don't think these few lines which I send, a reproach,     From my Muse in a car, to your Muse in a coach.     The great god of poems delights in"

"Carteret was welcomed to the shore     First with the brazen cannon's roar;     To meet him next the soldier comes,     With brazen trumps and"

"Here lies the Earl of Suffolk's fool,         Men call'd him Dicky Pearce;     His folly served to make folks laugh,         When wit and mirth"

"AGAINST WOOD'S HALFPENCE     To the tune of "London is a fine town," & c.     O Dublin is a fine town         And a gallant city,"

"WRITTEN IN THE YEAR 1715, ON AN ATTEMPT TO REPEAL THE TEST ACT     A bitch, that was full pregnant grown     By all the dogs and curs in tow"

"Libertas et natale solum: [2]     Fine words! I wonder where you stole 'em.     Could nothing but thy chief reproach     Serve for a motto on"

"By Satan taught, all conjurors know     Your mistress in a glass to show,     And you can do as much:     In this the devil and you agree;"

"Queen of wit and beauty, Betty,     Never may the Muse forget ye,     How thy face charms every shepherd,     Spotted over like a leopard!"

"DURING WALPOLE'S ADMINISTRATION, A. D. 1725     Quoth King Robin, our ribbons I see are too few     Of St. Andrew's the green, and St. Ge"

"When on my bosom thy bright eyes,         Florinda, dart their heavenly beams,     I feel not the least love surprise,         Yet endless tear"

"IN THE DORIC MANNER     Shepherd.     Echo, I ween, will in the woods reply,                     And quaintly answer que"

"While, Stella, to your lasting praise     The Muse her annual tribute pays,     While I assign myself a task     Which you expect, but scorn to"

"When Naboth's vineyard[1] look'd so fine,     The king cried out, "Would this were mine!"     And yet no reason could prevail     To bring the"

"All human race would fain be wits,     And millions miss for one that hits.     Young's universal passion, pride,[1]     Was never known to spr"

""About three months ago, at Windsor, a poor knight's widow was buried in the cloisters. In digging the grave, the sexton struck against a sm"

"Whate'er your predecessors taught us,     I have a great esteem for Plautus;     And think your boys may gather there-hence     More wit and hu"

"You always are making a god of your spouse;     But this neither Reason nor Conscience allows;     Perhaps you will say, 'tis in gratitude due,"

"Ye people of Ireland, both country and city,     Come listen with patience, and hear out my ditty:     At this time I'll choose to be wiser than"

"BY MR. LINDSAY[1]      Dublin, Sept. 7, 1728.     "A SLAVE to crowds, scorch'd with the summer's heats,     In courts the wretched lawyer to"

"I will not build on yonder mount;     And, should you call me to account,     Consulting with myself, I find     It was no levity of mind."

"- URBS INTACTA MANET - semper intacta manebit,         Tangere crabrones quis bene sanus amat?     TRANSLATION     A thistle is the Scotti"