Analysis of The Place of the Damned

Jonathan Swift 1667 (Dublin) – 1745 (Ireland)



All folks who pretend to religion and grace,
Allow there's a HELL, but dispute of the place:
But, if HELL may by logical rules be defined
The place of the damned -I'll tell you my mind.
Wherever the damned do chiefly abound,
Most certainly there is HELL to be found:
Damned poets, damned critics, damned blockheads, damned knaves,
Damned senators bribed, damned prostitute slaves;
Damned lawyers and judges, damned lords and damned squires;
Damned spies and informers, damned friends and damned liars;
Damned villains, corrupted in every station;
Damned time-serving priests all over the nation;
And into the bargain I'll readily give you
Damned ignorant prelates, and counsellors privy.
Then let us no longer by parsons be flammed,
For we know by these marks the place of the damned:
And HELL to be sure is at Paris or Rome.
How happy for us that it is not at home!


Scheme AABBCCDDEEFFGHBIJJ
Poetic Form
Metre 11101101001 01101101101 111111001101 0110111111 0100111001 1100111111 1101101111 110011101 110010110110 110010110110 110010010010 11101110010 001010110011 110010010010 11111011011 11111101101 01111111011 11011111111
Closest metre Iambic hexameter
Characters 857
Words 151
Sentences 5
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 18
Lines Amount 18
Letters per line (avg) 38
Words per line (avg) 8
Letters per stanza (avg) 687
Words per stanza (avg) 149
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on April 22, 2023

46 sec read
498

Jonathan Swift

Jonathan Swift was an Anglo-Irish satirist, essayist, political pamphleteer, poet and cleric who became Dean of St Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin. more…

All Jonathan Swift poems | Jonathan Swift Books

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