On An Ill-Managed House

Jonathan Swift 1667 (Dublin) – 1745 (Ireland)



LET me thy properties explain:
A rotten cabin dropping rain:
Chimneys, with scorn rejecting smoke;
Stools, tables, chairs, and bedsteads broke.
Here elements have lost their uses,
Air ripens not, nor earth produces:
In vain we make poor Sheelah toil,
Fire will not roast, nor water boil.
Through all the valleys, hills, and plains,
The Goddess Want, in triumph reigns:
And her chief officers of state,
Sloth, Dirt, and Theft, around her wait.

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 21, 2023

22 sec read
435

Quick analysis:

Scheme AABBCCDDEEFF
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 450
Words 75
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 12

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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