![Selected Poems [Of] Jonathan Swift](/jacket/500x500/9780856351358.jpg)
Publisher's Synopsis
Jonathan Swift (1667-1745) 'had a marvellous ear for talk and delighted in popular eccentricities of speech'. His poetry, usually the most neglected area of his prolific output, illustrates this among many other qualities. 'He is a social and sociable poet, not one given to solitary musing,' C. H. Sisson writes in his introduction. 'What is offered to the reader is a sample which illustrates the liveliness, humour and plain-speaking of this part of the author's work.' Herbert Read pointed out in his essay on Swift, 'Goldsmith said that Swift was the first poet who dared describe nature as it is, with all its deformities, and to give exact expression to a turn of thought alike dry, sarcastic and severe.' Dr Johnson, Macaulay and Thackeray were among the writers who found Swift too ferocious and indeed coarse for their tastes, but in this century his poetry has gained an ever wider readership among those attracted by its vigour and satirical inventiveness.
This selection is edited by C. H. Sisson, the distinguished poet and translator, whose most recent work from Carcanet includes a collection of poetms, God Bless Karl Marx! and his version of Virgil's Aeneid.
