Jonathan Swift

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Jonathan Swift
Jonathan Swift was born at No. 7, Hoey's Court, Dublin, and was the second child and only son of Jonathan and Abigail Erick (or Herrick) Swift. His father was Irish born and his mother was born in England. Jonathan arrived seven months after his father's untimely death. Most of the facts of Swift's early life are obscure, confused and sometimes contradictory. It is widely believed that his mother returned to England when Jonathan was still very young, then leaving him to be raised by his father's family. His uncle Godwin took primary responsibility for the young Jonathan, sending him with one of his cousins to Kilkenny College (also attended by the philosopher George Berkeley).

advice to the grub street verse-writers
Ye poets ragged and forlorn,
Down from your garrets haste;
Ye rhymers, dead as soon as... [read poem]
atalanta in calydon: a tragedy (complete text)
Tous zontas eu dran. katthanon de pas aner
Ge kai skia. to meden eis ouden repei

EU... [read poem]
ave atque vale
Nous devrions pourtant lui porter quelques fleurs;
Les morts, les pauvres morts, ont de grandes... [read poem]
a ballad of burdens
The burden of fair women. Vain delight,
And love self-slain in some sweet shameful way,... [read poem]
a ballad of death
Kneel down, fair Love, and fill thyself with tears,
Girdle thyself with sighing for a girth... [read poem]
a ballad of françois villon, prince of all ballad-makers
Bird of the bitter bright grey golden morn
Scarce risen upon the dusk of dolorous years,... [read poem]
a channel crossing
Forth from Calais, at dawn of night, when sunset summer on autumn shone,
Fared the steamer aler... [read poem]
choriambics
Love, what ailed thee to leave life that was made lovely, we thought, with love?
What sweet vis... [read poem]
the complaint of lisa
(Double Sestina)

DECAMERON, x. 7

There is no woman living that d... [read poem]
cor cordium
O heart of hearts, the chalice of love's fire,
Hid round with flowers and all the bounty o... [read poem]
dolores (notre-dame des sept douleurs)
Cold eyelids that hide like a jewel
Hard eyes that grow soft for an hour;
The heavy wh... [read poem]
étude réaliste
A baby's feet, like sea-shells pink,
Might tempt, should heaven see meet,
An angel's l... [read poem]
the epitaph in form of a ballad which villon made for himself and his comrades, expecting to be hanged along with them
Men, brother men, that after us yet live,
Let not your hearts too hard against us be;
... [read poem]
faustine
Ave Faustina Imperatrix, morituri te salutant.

Lean back, and get some minutes' pea... [read poem]
a forsaken garden
In a coign of the cliff between lowland and highland,
At the sea-down's edge between windw... [read poem]
the garden of proserpine
Here, where the world is quiet;
Here, where all trouble seems
Dead winds' and spent ... [read poem]
hendecasyllabics
In the month of the long decline of roses
I, beholding the summer dead before me,
Set my f... [read poem]
hertha
I am that which began;
Out of me the years roll;
Out of me God and man;... [read poem]
the higher pantheism in a nutshell
One, who is not, we see: but one, whom we see not, is:
Surely this is not that: but that is ass... [read poem]
hymn to proserpine
Vicisti, Galilæe.

I have lived long enough, having seen one thing, t... [read poem]
in the bay
Beyond the hollow sunset, ere a star
Take heart in heaven from eastward, while the west,
F... [read poem]
itylus
Swallow, my sister, O sister swallow,
How can thine heart be full of the spring?
... [read poem]
the last oracle
(A.D. 361)

eipate toi basilei, xamai pese daidalos aula.
ouketi PHoibos exei kaluba... [read poem]
laus veneris
Asleep or waking is it? for her neck,
Kissed over close, wears yet a purple speck
Wher... [read poem]
a leave-taking
Let us go hence, my songs; she will not hear.
Let us go hence together without fear;
Keep ... [read poem]
in memory of walter savage landor
Back to the flower-town, side by side,
The bright months bring,
New-born, the brideg... [read poem]
march: an ode
1887

Ere frost-flower and snow-blossom faded and fell, and the splendour of winter had p... [read poem]
nephelidia
From the depth of the dreamy decline of the dawn through a notable nimbus of nebulous noonshine,... [read poem]
the pilgrims
Who is your lady of love, O ye that pass
Singing? and is it for sorrow of that which was
... [read poem]
the roundel
A roundel is wrought as a ring or a starbright sphere,
With craft of delight and with cunni... [read poem]
sapphics
All the night sleep came not upon my eyelids,
Shed not dew, nor shook nor unclosed a feather,... [read poem]
a sequence of sonnets on the death of robert browning
The clearest eyes in all the world they read
With sense more keen and spirit of sight more... [read poem]
sestina
I saw my soul at rest upon a day
As a bird sleeping in the nest of night,
Among soft l... [read poem]
a swimmer's dream
NOVEMBER 4, 1889

Somno mollior unda

Dawn is dim on the dark soft water,... [read poem]
to a cat
Stately, kindly, lordly friend,
Condescend
Here to sit by me, and turn
Glorious e... [read poem]
the triumph of time
Before our lives divide for ever,
While time is with us and hands are free,
(Time, swi... [read poem]
the bagel
I stopped to pick up the bagel
rolling away in the wind,
annoyed with myself
for havi... [read poem]
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