The Ungrateful Muse: Jonathan Swift's 'A Panegyrick on the Dean' and Other Poems. (4th May 2017)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Cook, Daniel
• Is Part Of: Journal for eighteenth-century studies. Volume 40:Number 3(2017:Sep.)
• Page Start: 363
• Page End: 380
• Publication Date: 2017-05-04
• Subjects: Jonathan Swift -- poetry -- fame -- panegyric -- Jonathan Smedley -- Patrick Delany; Eighteenth century -- Periodicals; Europe -- Civilization -- 18th century -- Periodicals; Dix-huitième siècle -- Périodiques; Civilisation -- 18e siècle -- Périodiques; 940.25305
• DOI: 10.1111/1754-0208.12464
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1754-0194

Abstract

Abstract: An indiscriminately allusive, aggressively intertextual poem, 'A Panegyrick on the Dean, in the Person of a Lady in the North', is both an audacious celebration of Swift's public life in writing and a mock‐panegyric that quietly, condescendingly, queries his own continued relevance as a political commentator during his retreat from Dublin. In foolhardily attempting to prolong his career by indoctrinating his 'grateful' young disciple, a confessed hater of books, in building an unseemly outhouse to mark his diminished value in Ireland and in refusing to be bettered by rival satirists, Swift ironically commemorates himself as a mere writer of libels.