Advice to the Grub Street Verse-writers

Jonathan Swift 1667 (Dublin) – 1745 (Ireland)



Ye poets ragged and forlorn,
      Down from your garrets haste;
    Ye rhymers, dead as soon as born,
      Not yet consign'd to paste;
     I know a trick to make you thrive;
      O, 'tis a quaint device:
    Your still-born poems shall revive,
      And scorn to wrap up spice.
     Get all your verses printed fair,
     Then let them well be dried;
   And Curll must have a special care
     To leave the margin wide.

    Lend these to paper-sparing Pope;
     And when he sets to write,
   No letter with an envelope
     Could give him more delight.

    When Pope has fill'd the margins round,
     Why then recall your loan;
   Sell them to Curll for fifty pound,
     And swear they are your own.

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on April 20, 2023

36 sec read
82

Quick analysis:

Scheme ABABCDCDEFEF GHGH IJIJ
Closest metre Iambic trimeter
Characters 695
Words 118
Stanzas 3
Stanza Lengths 12, 4, 4

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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    "Advice to the Grub Street Verse-writers" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 29 Mar. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/24254/advice-to-the-grub-street-verse-writers>.

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