Why Does Jonathan Swift Use Of Satire

Jonathan Swift’s gruesomely realistic satires visualizing life in London have disgusted and entertained readers since their publication in the 18th century. Poems such as “A Description of the Morning” and “A Description of a City Shower” are said to “present the reality of social disorder masquerading under the appearance of order [within] London” (p.1218). Realism has the ability to beautify or lament one’s culture, and Swift’s satirical poems presented themselves with the worst of society, laid bare for all to see. Swift employs pessimistic details that shocked the aristocracy privileged enough to read his works; illuminating the grimy urban alleys that many disregarded as societal issues. This particular type of satire that contributes …show more content…
These rather disgusting images are depicted in “structural and verbal elements,” such as the metaphor of the cloud “[swallowing] more liquor than it could contain,/ And like a drunkard gives it up again” (p.1220, Lines 15-16). Swift unites melodic metaphors with squeamish descriptions of “shooting corns, old throbbing aches, and a raging hollow tooth” (p.1220, Lines 9-10). He also creates a connection between this filthy shower caused by the drunkard cloud and the entire London population with various imagery- inexplicably including the aristocracy reading his work: “The Templer spruce/ Stays till ‘tis fair, yet seems to call a coach/ The tucked-up seamstress [walking] with hasty strides/ Here various kinds by various fortunes led” (p.1220, Lines 35-39). The final structural notion is the mess that washes through the streets as the rain falls, the “city shower,” as a triplet of the final three lines: “Sweepings from butchers’ stalls, dung, guts and blood/ Drowned puppies, stinking sprats, all drenched in mud/ Dead cats and turnip tops come tumbling down the flood” (p.221, Lines