To the Reverend Dr. Swift
To thee, dear Swift, these spotless leaves I send;Small is the present, but sincere the friend.Think not so poor a book below thy care;Who knows the price that thou canst make it bear?Tho' tawdry now, and, like Tyrilla's face,The specious front shines out with borrow'd grace;Tho' pasteboards, glitt'ring like a tinsell'd coat,A rasa tabula within denote:Yet, if a venal and corrupted age,And modern vices should provoke thy rage;If, warn'd once more by their impending fate,A sinking country and an injur'd state,Thy great assistance should again demand,And call forth reason to defend the land;Then shall we view these sheets with glad surprise,Inspir'd with thought, and speaking to our eyes;Each vacant space shall then, enrich'd, dispenseTrue force of eloquence, and nervous sense;Inform the judgment, animate the heart,And sacred rules of policy impart.The spangled cov'ring, bright with splendid ore,Shall cheat the sight with empty show no more;But lead us inward to those golden mines,Where all thy soul in native lustre shines.So when the eye surveys some lovely fair,With bloom of beauty graced, with shape and air;How is the rapture heighten'd, when we findHer form excell'd by her celestial mind!
Words in this poem
- tawdry a.
- Bought at the festival of St. Audrey. [Said to be corrupted from Saint Audrey, or Auldrey, meaning Saint Ethelreda, implying therefore, originally, bought at the fair of St. Audrey, where laces and g]
- tabula n.
- A table; a tablet. [L.]
- shall v. i.
- To owe; to be under obligation for. [OE. shal, schal, imp. sholde, scholde, AS. scal, sceal, I am obliged, imp. scolde, sceolde, inf. sculan; akin to OS. skulan, pres. skal, imp. skolda, D. zullen,]
- dispense v. i.
- To compensate; to make up; to make amends.
- lustre n.
- A period of five years; a lustrum. [L. lustrum: cf. F. lustre.]
- graced a.
- Endowed with grace; beautiful; full of graces; honorable.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
To the Reverend Dr. Swift 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, To the Reverend Dr. Swift, in On Poetry: A Rhapsody, and Other Poems (1727), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #14353, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/swift-poems-vol1/to-the-reverend-dr-swift.html, id L25621.
Form and metre
To the Reverend Dr. Swift is 28 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets: heroic couplets. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 92%).
See other poems in heroic couplets, other poems in iambic pentameter.
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 AABBCCDDEEFFGGHHIIJJKKLLBBMM sendA · friendA · careB · bearB · faceC · graceC · coatD · denoteD · ageE · rageE · fateF · stateF · demandG · landG · surpriseH · eyesH · dispenseI · senseI · heartJ · impartJ · oreK · moreK · minesL · shinesL · fairB · airB · findM · mindM
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 pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| To thee, dear Swift, these spotless leaves I send; | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Small is the present, but sincere the friend. | 10 | ···/˘·˘/·· |
| Think not so poor a book below thy care; | 10 | ·········· |
| Who knows the price that thou canst make it bear? | 10 | ·········· |
| Tho' tawdry now, and, like Tyrilla's face, | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| The specious front shines out with borrow'd grace; | 10 | ·/˘····/·· |
| Tho' pasteboards, glitt'ring like a tinsell'd coat, | 11 | ··········· |
| A rasa tabula within denote: | 10 | ···/˘˘··˘/ |
| Yet, if a venal and corrupted age, | 10 | ···/˘·˘/˘· |
| And modern vices should provoke thy rage; | 10 | ·/˘/˘·˘/·· |
| If, warn'd once more by their impending fate, | 10 | ······˘/˘· |
| A sinking country and an injur'd state, | 10 | ·/˘/˘··/˘· |
| Thy great assistance should again demand, | 10 | ··˘/˘·˘/˘/ |
| And call forth reason to defend the land; | 10 | ···/˘·˘/·· |
| Then shall we view these sheets with glad surprise, | 10 | ········˘/ |
| Inspir'd with thought, and speaking to our eyes; | 10 | ˘/···/˘·/· |
| Each vacant space shall then, enrich'd, dispense | 10 | ·/˘···˘/˘/ |
| True force of eloquence, and nervous sense; | 10 | ···/˘˘·/˘· |
| Inform the judgment, animate the heart, | 10 | ˘/·/˘/˘··· |
| And sacred rules of policy impart. | 10 | ·/˘··/˘˘˘/ |
| The spangled cov'ring, bright with splendid ore, | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| Shall cheat the sight with empty show no more; | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| But lead us inward to those golden mines, | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Where all thy soul in native lustre shines. | 10 | ·····/˘/˘· |
| So when the eye surveys some lovely fair, | 10 | ····˘/·/˘· |
| With bloom of beauty graced, with shape and air; | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| How is the rapture heighten'd, when we find | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| Her form excell'd by her celestial mind! | 10 | ··˘/··˘/˘· |
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.