On Poetry: A Rhapsody (Masterplots II: Poetry, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
The Poem
Jonathan Swift’s On Poetry: A Rhapsody consists of 494 lines of iambic tetrameter couplets that satirize the relationship of poetic inspiration, vocation, and flattery of those in positions of political power, both kings and prime ministers. The poem dramatizes the corrupting results of misplaced human ambition that ignores one’s true aptitudes and that transforms poetry from an inspired art form into a debased and chaotic utterance.
In the first verse paragraph of the poem, animals are presented as wiser than people because animals follow their...
[The entire page is 1635 words long]
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