:: The Young Enthusiast ::

Swift begins by noting that man is the only beast who will attempt to expand his abilities beyond what nature has provided him:

And, where his genius least inclines,
Absurdly bends his whole designs. (23-4)

Chief among those who commit this blunder are poets, who all believe they are “blasted with poetic fire” (42) when most are fit only for common trades. However, Swift, kind and generous as he is, decides to impart some advice to the beginning poet. First, Swift argues, one should consult with one’s own mind and give an honest assessment of where your genius lies. Once you have decided on a genre and written a poem, take care to prepare it for the press and send it by the penny post to the publisher Lintot and enjoy the sight of your own work circulating in the world, “A bastard of your own begetting” (116).

The next day the young poet should go to Will’s coffee-house and hear the critics assess his work. Likely they will openly mock your work but don’t despair; it will only last until “some fresh blockhead takes your place” (142). If and when your second essay fails, appeal to the political parties for patronage since “the vilest verse thrives best at court” (188). Don’t hold back in your praise of the current administration; after all, your work could still prove useful in the future:

Your garland in the following reign,
Change but the names, will do again. (247-8)

On the off chance one thinks that being a party stooge is too base a trade, one can always “put on the critic’s brow” (251) and judge the other poets. Of course one will have to learn all of the critical jargon presently in vogue, including learning Aristotle’s rules by rote and being able to quote scraps of Horace you have gleaned second-hand.

From here Swift moves toward some more general commentary on the current state of the poetry scene, decrying the state of patronage at court,

Whence Gay was banished in disgrace,
Where Pope will never show his face;
Where Young must torture his invention,
To flatter knaves, or lose his pension. (323-7)

Swift is also disappointed with the way that literary fame’s only benefit seems to be the increase of attacks on one’s work and person (Swift explains this wittily, noting Hobbes’ state of nature as state of war and arguing that the stronger generally prey upon the weaker in nature, not the other way around as in the literary scene). Swift also parodies the idea of the great chain of being, noting that:

In bulk there are not more degrees,
From elephants to mites in cheese,
Than what a curious eye may trace
In creatures of the rhyming race.
From bad to worse, and worse they fall,
But, who can reach the worst of all? (399-404)

Swift ends the poem (actually, it doesn’t really end; like in A Tale of a Tub there is a defect in the manuscript) with a pocking panegyric upon Britain, noting with barely-contained irony how that nation’s monarchs are immune to the folly of those in other nations and how English society rewards merit, protects its poor, etc.

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