The Vanity of Human Wishes (Masterplots II: Poetry, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: Samuel Johnson
- First Published: 1749
- Type of Work: Satire
- Genres: Satire, Poetry
- Subjects: Power, personal or social, Politics, Immortality, Beauty, England or English people, Eighteenth century, Death or dying, Greed, Health, Military life or service, Life, biological, Wealth, Students or student life, Learning or scholarship, Happiness, Prayers
The Poem
Samuel Johnson’s The Vanity of Human Wishes imitates, as its subtitle states, Juvenal’s tenth satire. The 368 lines of iambic pentameter in rhymed couplets do not claim to provide an exact translation but rather to apply the poem to eighteenth century England. While Johnson therefore feels free to modernize the allusions, he follows his model closely. The poem opens with the proposition that people ask for the wrong things and points out the folly of the first common request, riches. An interlude follows during which the poet invokes Democritus, known as the...
[The entire page is 1607 words long]
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