Thursday, 14 April 2016

Jonathan Swift Poem Analysis


The following poem is written by Jonathan Swift, it shows how he uses language in a non-standard way.


On Stella's Birth-Day 1719 by Jonathan Swift
Stella this Day is thirty four,
(We shan't dispute a Year or more)
However Stella, be not troubled,
Although thy Size and Years are doubled,
Since first I saw Thee at Sixteen
The brightest Virgin on the Green,
So little is thy Form declin'd
Made up so largely in thy Mind.
Oh, woud it please the Gods to split
Thy Beauty, Size, and Years, and Wit,
No Age could furnish out a Pair
Of Nymphs so graceful, Wise and fair
With half the Lustre of your Eyes,
With half your Wit, your Years and Size:
And then before it grew too late,
How should I beg of gentle Fate,
(That either Nymph might have her Swain,)
To split my Worship too in twain.



The poem shows language used in a different way to modern standard English. One example would be when he says: "Stella this Day is thirty four". I'm assuming that he's saying that it is Stella's thirty fourth birthday. The structure of the line causes a difficulty in figuring out what it is meant to say. It's quite an old-fashioned way of writing it and it even has the sense of a love letter with the use of the words "beauty" and "brightest". This isn't uncommon as back in the Swift's day, a lot of writing was about love. There are other lines that have structures that are uncommon in modern day:"Since first I saw Thee at Sixteen".

The noun 'birthday' that is in the title is split in to two with the two words being split by a hyphen. This shows that language is always changing mainly due to what is easier. What was before two words is now one word (a compound word), this makes it easier to both say and write. It is also capitalised which is interesting as back when Swift write the poem, birthday's weren't a big celebration like they are today. It is now more common to capitalise it now than back then.

It's also interesting that 'Day' has been capitalised in "Birth-Day". The reason for this could be to show the significance of the particular day. It could also be because there wasn't a particular/ standard way of writing the word(s). It isn't just the title that use odd capitalisation, it also used in the text eg: "Size and Years". I find it odd as there isn't a special significance to the two words. It almost seems like they are randomly put there as there are more than one capitalized word in every line.

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