The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift/Volume 18/Verses on Two Celebrated Modern Poets

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Bettesworth's Exultation, Upon Hearing that His Name Would Be Transmitted to Posterity in Dr. Swift's Works

The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 18
(c. 1710–1740)
by Jonathan Swift, edited by Thomas Sheridan, John Nichols, John Boyle, Patrick Delany, John Hawkesworth, Deane Swift, William Bowyer, John Birch, and George Faulkner

Verses on Two Celebrated Modern Poets

To the Rev. Dr. Swift, Dean of St. Patrick's: a Birthday Poem 1736

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1691579The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 18
— Verses on Two Celebrated Modern Poetsc. 1710-1740Jonathan Swift

VERSES

ON TWO CELEBRATED MODERN POETS.

BEHOLD, those monarch oaks, that rise,
With lofty branches to the skies,
Have large proportioned roots that grow
With equal longitude below:
Two bards, that now in fashion reign,
Most aptly this device explain:
If this to clouds and stars will venture,
That creeps as far to reach the centre;
Or, more to show the thing I mean,
Have you not o'er a sawpit seen,
A skill'd mechanick, that has stood
High on a length of prostrate wood,
Who hired a subterraneous friend,
To take his iron by the end;
But which excell'd was never found,
The man above, or under ground.
The moral is so plain to hit,
That, had I been the god of wit,
Then, in a sawpit and wet weather,
Should Young and Philips drudge together^[1].

↑ This is to be understood as a censure only of the poetical character of those gentlemen. As men, the dean esteemed them both; and on Philips in particular conferred many signal acts of friendship.

[1] This is to be understood as a censure only of the poetical character of those gentlemen. As men, the dean esteemed them both; and on Philips in particular conferred many signal acts of friendship.

[1]