“Verses on the Death of Dr.Swift” “As Rochefoucald his maxims drew from nature, I believe’em true, They argue no corrupted mind in him; the fault is in mankind.” In the first four lines the poem is telling you that the sewage system that is always full and smells so bad is no body’s fault, but the men who made the sewer drainage. In lines six thru ten, “In all distresses of our friends, We first consult our private ends, While Nature kindly bent to ease us, Points out some circumstance to please us.” This tells us that when you have to go sit on the toilet and use it your body feels a sense of relief. In lines fourteen thru twenty the writer moves to more serious tone. Our equal raised above our size. Who would not at a crowded show stand high himself, keep others low? I love my friend as well as you, But why should he obstruct my view? Then let me have the higher post: I ask for an inch at most.” In these lines he’s trying to say that if someone is taller than you they shouldn’t stand in front and block your view. In lines twenty-one thru twenty-six he talks about if you find a loved one in a battle hope that they win the battle and not be killed. “If in a battle you should find one, whom you love of all mankind, Had some heroic action done. A champion killed, or trophy won; Rather than this be overtopped, Would you not wish his laurels cropped?” Lines twenty-seven thru thirty “Dear honest Ned is in the gout, Lies racked with pain, and you without: How patiently you hear him groan! How glad the case is not your own!” Here he talks about how glad he is that it’s his friend who has terrible stomach and bowel problems and is in a lot of pain and that he’s glad it’s his friend and not him. In lines thirty-five thru forty –four he talks about how even the strongest of friendships still give into caring only about themselves at times and that to much envy or pride can separate you and the happiest he feels is when his friends feel the worst. In lines forty-five thru fifty-five he talks about that he doesn’t have all the answers like the Pope or a doctor. He also doesn’t want to be out done by another poet, and because of his jealousy he no longer considers Arbuthnot his friend and wants everything the Pope has and hopes that a disease like pox to kill him. In lines fifty-six thru sixty-four he talks about how he showed people how to write story’s until they embarrassed him by throwing his works aside which made him stop writing. In lines sixty-five and sixty-six he talks about how he is jealous because others show to be better than he is. In lines sixty-seven thru seventy he wishes for good fortune to everyone but his friends that he is jealous of, In lines seventy-one thru seventy-four “ These much may serve by way of proem; Proceed we therefore to our poem. The time is not remote, When I, Must by the course of nature die;” In these lines he is telling us that when he dies to go back and read his poems and stories. In lines seventy-five thru eighty-four he speaks about how he thinks his friends are talking about him, because he’s getting slower as he gets closer to dying. In lines eighty-five thru ninety he talks more about how his memory is going and that he can’t even remember who his friends are or what stories he has told. In lines ninety thru ninety-four he talks about how he likes being around younger people because they find his stories funny. In lines ninety-nine thru 104 he talks about how the poetry is no longer good and that he should stop trying to write any more poems, but can’t seem to stop writing no matter how hard he tries to stop writing. In lines 105 thru 115 he talks about how he can hardly drink very much anymore and that his stomach is starting to have problems. He also hopes to live until the spring. In lines 120 thru 134 he talks about how it would make everyone praise God if he didn’t die but miracously was to get better. In the next few lines 135 thru 142 he talks about how his medicine gives him rest and not all the people setting around crying at his bedside waiting for him to die. In line 145 thru 148 “Though your prognostics run to fast, They must be verified at last. Behold the fatal day arrive! “How is the Dean?”- “He’s just alive.” In these lines it seems like he’s making a joke out of being dead and that he would be announced as being alive even though he’s dead. In lines 150 thru 154 he talks about everyone is worried about who is the heir to him instead of burying him first. In lines 155 thru 165 he talks about how he gave everything he had to the public and that he didn’t have any friends or family worth giving anything to. In lines 165 thru 168 he’s saying that the town has a lot of writers in it and that his death is announced in every paper in town and that people are either sad or happy about his death. In lines 169 thru 176 he talks about how he wouldn’t have died if he would of listenened to the doctor and could of lived for another twenty years. In lines 180 thru 186 he talks about how he thinks the Queen would just laugh at the news of his death because she never gave him the metals she had promised. In lines 200 thru 203 “Revised by Tibbalds, Moore and Cibber. He’ll treat me as he does my betters, Publish my will, my life, my letters;” These lines he is stating that he knows Colley Cibber will make sure that his will and poems and stories about his life will be put into books for everyone to read. In lines 205 thru 212 he talks about how everyone will act differently to his death. In lines 215 thru 218 he talks about how some people never seem to care and only pray when they have problems. In lines 225 thru 241 he talks about how his true lady friends will mourn his death and that his good friends won’t attend his funeral because of previous engagements. In lines 245 thru 248 “One year is past; A different scene; No further mention of the Dean, Who now, alas! No more is missed, Than if he never did exist.” In these lines he’s saying that a year has gone by and that nobody misses him or talks about him anymore. In lines 250 thru 269 he talks about how his poems died when he died and that they were thrown out and replaced by a new writer. In verses 270 thru 304, He talks about different writers and what they wrote about and how some of them were condemned by the court. In lines 307 and 311 he talks about how his poems were never rejected by the court and that a lot of people had bought them. In lines 315 thru 319 he tells how all the works he did was his own and that he never stole any ideas from any one. In lines 320 thru 346 he talks about how he never asked for anyone’s help or trusted anyone. In lines 347 thru 349 “ Fair Liberty was all his cry, For her he stood prepared to die; For he oft exposed his own.” Here he is explaining how he was prepared to die for his country. In lines 351 thru 354 he talks about how people had offered a lot of money to prove him a traitor but that no one ever gave him up or could prove it. In lines 365 thru 378 he talks about how he worked hard for everything he had and that by one event, which was death how everything was taken away and forgotten. In lines 380 thru 384 he talks about how people with a lot of hatred in them try to ruin religion and make a joke out of the government. In lines 385 thru 390, “Pervert the laws, disgrace the gown, Corrupt the senate, rob the crown; To sacrifice old England’s glory, and make her infamous in story: When such a tempest shook the land, How could unguarded virtue stand?” In these lines he talks about how people didn’t follow the laws and that they forgot about the old ways and disrupted the land. In lines 390 thru 398 he talks about how his friends ended up in prison and were treated the worst and that people say he taught fools how to take care of themselves. In lines 410 thru 415 he talks about how people sought out to ruin him and that he worked hard to save the land from evil people. In lines 416 thru 424 he talks about how the Chief Justice had hung Scroggs and wanted the same for Dean. In lines 425 thru 430 he tells how God saved him from the judges and that he wasn’t brought before the court and hung to please them. In lines 440 thru 469 he talks about how people worked for a little bit of money fixing the jails or town that was in ruins. He also talked about how he thought he had a perfect face without any bumps on it or a crooked nose. In lines 470 thru 474 “Unless it offered to be witty. Those who their ignorance confessed, He ne’er offended with a jest; But laughed to hear and idiot quote, A verse from Horace learned by rote.” In these lines he’s talking about how he would laugh about stupid quotes, but that he didn’t laugh at the person making a stupid quote. In lines 475 thru 478 he talks about how his friends would let him tell those stories that kept people happy until he died. In the the last few lines of 479 thru 484 he talked about how he left all of his money when he died to build a mental hospital for insane people that the nation didn’t want and that the insane people would hopefully have a better life.