Satirical Elegy (Jonathan Swift) - Poetry Analysis

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 s----k.

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.

Analysis

Context

-Written by Johnathan Swift

-The ‘late famous general’ was said to be fictional, so that Swift would not be prosecuted for his slander, though it was most likely based upon John Churchill, the first Duke of Marlborough.

Form

-Structure: 12 lines of rhyming couplets that do not repeat a rhyme once. Fist stanza is open couplets apart from the last couplet, which is closed. This is followed by a shorter stanza of 4 lines of rhyming couplets.

-Meter: 4 iambic feet – iambic tetrameter. These are mock heroic couplets. 5 iambic feet would be heroic couplets (what Shakespeare writes in). Therefore, the general falls one short.

-An elegy, written after a funeral, would usually repent the deceased.

Narrative Analysis

-‘His Grace! Impossible! What Dead!’ – asyndeton. The repeated exclamatives are hyperbolic, suggesting indiscretion, and a sort of gossipy tone.

-‘Of old age too and in his bed!’ – seething with sarcasm. Mocks the ideas that a great general would not be out on the field fighting, but would rather die of old age in his bed.

-Anaphora on ‘and’ at the beginning of lines.

-‘The last loud trump must wake him now’ – pun on the word trump, while referencing the Christian idea of judgement after death.

-‘And trust me, as the noise grows stronger,/he’s wish to sleep a little longer.’ – alliteration for emphasis. Open couplet for emphasis.

-‘Could he be indeed so old’ – assonance on the ‘e’ sound.

-‘Threescore, I think, is pretty high’ – 60. The average life expectancy is 70, so he again falls 10 short.

-‘He left behind so great a stink’ – Might have been better for him to die in battle rather than gain a bad reputation. The stink may be his past deeds, or perhaps the literal remains he has left behind.

-‘Come hither, all ye empty things,

Ye bybbles 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’

-References to the children of monarchs, who live off the state rather than their own careers

-‘Tide of state’ – new governments?

-‘Bubbles rais’d by breath of kings’ – metaphor. Puffed up, and pretty, but with little substance.

-Patronising – takes advantage of the General while he is dead, so the ridicule is brutal.

-It warns about privilege – use it for good, and change people’s lives.