A satirical elegy
Jonathan Swift’s poem “A Satirical Elegy on the Death of a Late Famous General” was written in 1722, upon the death of John Churchill, the first Duke of Marlborough. The poem wasn’t published until 1765, after Swift’s death.
Jonathan Swift was born on 30 November 1667 in Dublin, Ireland, and he died on 19 October 1745 in Dublin, Ireland, at the age of 77.Swift was an Anglo-Irish satirist, author, essayist, political pamphleteer, poet, and Anglican cleric. He is remembered for works such as A Tale of a Tub, Gulliver’s Travels, and A Modest Proposal. Regarded as the foremost prose satirist in the English language, he is less well known for his poetry. His deadpan, ironic writing style has led to such satire being termed “Swiftian”.
External links:
His Grace! impossible! what, dead! Of old age too, and in his bed! And could that mighty warrior fall, And so inglorious, after all? Well, since he’s gone, no matter how, The last loud trump must wake him now; And, trust me, as the noise grows stronger, He’d wish to sleep a little longer. And could he be indeed so old As by the newspapers we’re told? Threescore, I think, is pretty high; ’Twas time in conscience he should die! This world he cumber’d long enough; He burnt his candle to the snuff; And that’s the reason, some folks think, He left behind so great a stink. Behold his funeral appears, Nor widow’s sighs, nor orphan’s tears, Wont at such times each heart to pierce, Attend the progress of his hearse. But what of that? his friends may say, He had those honours in his day. True to his profit and his pride, He made them weep before he died. Come hither, all ye empty things! Ye bubbles rais’d by breath of kings! Who float upon the tide of state; Come hither, and behold your fate! Let pride be taught by this rebuke, How very mean a thing’s a duke; From all his ill-got honours flung, Turn’d to that dirt from whence he sprung.