The Maiden Voyage of Jonathan Swift
Graduation Date
Fall 1971
Document Type
Master's Thesis
Document Form
Degree Name
Master of Arts
Program Name
Humanities
Abstract
In this paper, I trace the theme of pride and its consequences through the six poems Swift wrote during the years 1690-1693. As the paper shows, he began his poetic career with odes of praise for men who demonstrated the highest virtues; but the forces of pride kept intruding to mar his panegyric, and they forced Temple to retreat to his garden and sent Sancroft to "his heavenly rest." Moreover, Swift was not personally involved with the forces of pride in the first four poems; but after Sancroft, Swift was personally subjected to the conceit of a country lad and to the attacks of "vast shoals of critics." As a result he rejected the Muse as a delusion of his mind and became determined to express his hate in railing. At the time he did not know in what manner he would express his railing; but as we know, he wrote the prose work, A Tale of a Tub, during the next three years.
In this paper, I discuss each poem in the order Harold Williams arranged them in his edition of The Poems of Jonathan Swift. I also include critical comments about the individual poems by scholars and editors when they aid understanding; otherwise, I have placed this material in the Appendices.