Grace Walker VCU Senior Port: Jonathan Swift

Jonathan Swift was born in Dublin, Ireland November 30th, 1667. During his lifetime Swift was an Anglo-Irish satirist, an essaysit, and a poet. He also worked for the Whigs and then the Tories as a political pamphleteer. His best known work is Gulliver’s Travels. He is also well known for A Modest Proposal, A Journal to Stella, Draipier’s Letters, The Battle of the Books, An Argument Against Abolishing Christianity, and A Tale of Tub. According to Wikepedia, “Swift is probably the foremost prose satirist in the English language, and is less well known for his poetry.” Swift attended Dublin University in 1682, where he recieved his B.A. When political troubles arose in Ireland due to the Glorious Revolution, Swift was forced to flee to England, where he obtained a posistion as secretary to Sir William Temple, an English diplomat. In 1692, Swift recieved his M.A. from Hertford College, Oxford University. In 1694 Swift was ordained a priest in the Established Church of Ireland. During the years 1707 to 1709 Swift became very politically active. During the 1720’s Swift began writing Gulliver’s Travels, back then known as Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World, in Four Parts, by Lemuel Gulliver, first a surgeon, and then a captain of several ships. Lemuel Gulliver was one of Swift’s pseudonyms that he published work under. According to Wikepedia, “Much of the material reflects his political experiences of the preceding decade. For instance, the episode when the giant Gulliver puts out the Lilliputian palace fire by urinating on it can be seen as a metaphor for the Tories' illegal peace treaty; having done a good thing in an unfortunate manner.” Swift’s health began to decline the in the late 1730s and early 1740s, many disputing whether or not he was also insane. In 1742 Swift suffered a stroke and lost the ability to speak. He died October 19th, 1745. Swift is considered a master of both the Horatian and Juvenalian styles of satire.