Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-dsjbd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-22T08:31:18.629Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

B - Commendatory Verses

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 September 2021

David Womersley
Affiliation:
University of Oxford
Get access

Summary

On 17 February 1727 Alexander Pope wrote to Swift as follows: ‘You receiv’d, I hope, some commendatory verses from a Horse and a Lilliputian, to Gulliver; and an heroic Epistle of Mrs. Gulliver. The Bookseller would fain have printed ‘em before the second Edition of the Book, but I would not permit it without your approbation; nor do I much like them.’ This clearly refers to the fourth, first and fifth of the poems reprinted below, which were published inMotte's ‘Second Edition’ of Gulliver's Travels in May 1727, and virtually simultaneously in The Post Boy and The St James's Evening-Post. Some copies of Motte's ‘Second Edition’ contain four poems, others five: ‘The Words of the King of Brobdingnag’ is occasionally absent, and when present is tipped in.

The authorship of the poems has been reviewed by Norman Ault in his volume of Pope's minor poems in the Twickenham edition, where he concludes that they are all by Pope, with the possible and partial exception of ‘The Lamentation of Glumdalclitch’, where John Gay may have made a contribution.

The texts reprinted here are taken from Motte's ‘Second Edition’ of Gulliver's Travels (1727), as the earliest publication and the one possessing the closest link with Gulliver's Travels.

IN amaze

Lost, I gaze!

Can our Eyes

Reach thy Size?

May my Lays

Swell with Praise

Worthy thee!

Worthy me!

Muse inspire,

All thy Fire!

Bards of old

Of him told,

When they said

Atlas Head

Propt the Skies:

See! and believe your Eyes!

See him stride

Vallies wide:

Over Woods,

Over Floods.

When he treads,

Mountains Heads

Groan and shake;

Armies quake,

Lest his Spurn

Overturn

Man and Steed:

Troops take heed!

Left and Right,

Speed your Flight!

Lest an Host

Beneath his Foot be lost.

Turn’d aside

From his Hide,

Safe from Wound

Darts rebound.

From his Nose

Clouds he blows;

When he speaks,

Thunder breaks!

When he eats,

Famine threats;

When he drinks,

Neptune shrinks!

Nigh thy Ear,

In Mid Air,

On thy Hand

Let me stand,

So shall I,

Lofty Poet, touch the Sky.

Type
Chapter
Information
Gulliver's Travels , pp. 573 - 588
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2012

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×