The Day of Judgment
With a whirl of thought oppress'd,I sunk from reverie to rest.An horrid vision seized my head;I saw the graves give up their dead!Jove, arm'd with terrors, bursts the skies,And thunder roars and lightning flies!Amaz'd, confus'd, its fate unknown,The world stands trembling at his throne!While each pale sinner hung his head,Jove, nodding, shook the heavens, and said:"Offending race of human kind,By nature, reason, learning, blind;You who, through frailty, stepp'd aside;And you, who never fell--through pride:You who in different sects were shamm'd,And come to see each other damn'd;(So some folk told you, but they knewNo more of Jove's designs than you;)--The world's mad business now is o'er,And I resent these pranks no more.--I to such blockheads set my wit!I damn such fools!--Go, go, you're bit."
Words in this poem
- reverie n.
- A loose or irregular train of thought occurring in musing or mediation; deep musing; daydream. [F. réverie, fr. rêver to dream, rave, be light-headed. Cf. Rave.]
- horrid a.
- Rough; rugged; bristling. [L. horridus. See Horror, and cf. Ordure.]
- jove n.
- The chief divinity of the ancient Romans; Jupiter. [L. Jupiter, gen. Jovis, OL. Jovis, nom. & gen. for Djovis; akin to E. Tuesday. See Tuesday, and cf. Jupiter.]
- sinner n.
- One who has sinned; especially, one who has sinned without repenting; hence, a persistent and incorrigible transgressor; one condemned by the law of God.
- shook v. t.
- To pack, as staves, in a shook.
- frailty n.
- The condition quality of being frail, physically, mentally, or morally, frailness; infirmity; weakness of resolution; liableness to be deceived or seduced. [OE. frelete, freilte, OF. fraileté, fr. L. fragilitas. See Frail, a., and cf. Fragility.]
- folk n.
- In Anglo-Saxon times, the people of a group of townships or villages; a community; a tribe. [AS. folc; akin to D. volk, OS. & OHG. folk, G. volk, Icel. f, Sw. & Dan. folk, Lith. pulkas crowd, and perh. to E. follow.]
- resent v. t.
- To be sensible of; to feel; as: (a) In a good sense, to take well; to receive with satisfaction. [F. ressentir; L. pref. re- re- + sentire to feel. See Sense.]
- damn v. t.
- To condemn; to declare guilty; to doom; to adjudge to punishment; to sentence; to censhure. [OE. damnen dap), OF. damner, dampner, F. damner, fr. L. damnare, damnatum, to condemn, fr. damnum damage, a fine, penalty. Cf. Condemn, Damage.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Day of Judgment is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Poems of Jonathan Swift, D.D., Volume 1, Project Gutenberg ebook #14353; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Jonathan Swift, The Day of Judgment, in On Poetry: A Rhapsody, and Other Poems (1727), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #14353, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/swift-poems-vol1/the-day-of-judgment.html, id L24555.
Form and metre
The Day of Judgment is 22 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets, 82% of the lines: octosyllabic couplets. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 91%).
See other poems in octosyllabic couplets, other poems in iambic tetrameter.
Measured by Laurel's pipeline, not copied from a handbook: how stress and metre are counted, how rhyme is lettered, how a drifted rhyme is found. Where the dictionary cannot confirm a rhyme the letter is withheld, not guessed.
Rhyme words, stanza by stanza
The word that ends each line, lettered by the rhyme it makes; a dash is a line whose rhyme the dictionary could not confirm.
- 1 AABBCCDDBBEEFF--GG--HH oppress'dA · restA · headB · deadB · skiesC · fliesC · unknownD · throneD · headB · saidB · kindE · blindE · asideF · prideF · shamm'd · damn'd · knewG · youG · o'er · more · witH · bitH
Scansion, line by line
Each line with its syllable count and the stresses the words themselves fix: / stressed, ˘ unstressed, · a syllable the word leaves free and the metre decides. Read against iambic tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| With a whirl of thought oppress'd, | 7 | ·····˘/ |
| I sunk from reverie to rest. | 8 | ···/˘˘·· |
| An horrid vision seized my head; | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| I saw the graves give up their dead! | 8 | ········ |
| Jove, arm'd with terrors, bursts the skies, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| And thunder roars and lightning flies! | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Amaz'd, confus'd, its fate unknown, | 8 | ˘/˘/··˘/ |
| The world stands trembling at his throne! | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| While each pale sinner hung his head, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Jove, nodding, shook the heavens, and said: | 9 | ·/˘··/˘·· |
| "Offending race of human kind, | 8 | ˘/˘··/˘· |
| By nature, reason, learning, blind; | 8 | ·/˘/˘/˘· |
| You who, through frailty, stepp'd aside; | 8 | ···/˘·˘/ |
| And you, who never fell--through pride: | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| You who in different sects were shamm'd, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| And come to see each other damn'd; | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| (So some folk told you, but they knew | 8 | ········ |
| No more of Jove's designs than you;) | 8 | ····˘/·· |
| --The world's mad business now is o'er, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| And I resent these pranks no more. | 8 | ··˘/···· |
| --I to such blockheads set my wit! | 8 | ···/···· |
| I damn such fools!--Go, go, you're bit." | 8 | ········ |
The reader shows the same poem with its rhymes coloured and a stress row above each line, the notes beside their stanzas, and any word's definition on a tap; the analysis page takes the whole book apart. How every part of this site was made.