Analysis of Peace And Dunkirk

Jonathan Swift 1667 (Dublin) – 1745 (Ireland)



Spite of Dutch friends and English foes,
Poor Britain shall have peace at last:
Holland got towns, and we got blows;
But Dunkirk's ours, we'll hold it fast.
We have got it in a string,
And the Whigs may all go swing,
For among good friends I love to be plain;
All their false deluded hopes
Will, or ought to end in ropes;
'But the Queen shall enjoy her own again.'

Sunderland's run out of his wits,
And Dismal double Dismal looks;
Wharton can only swear by fits,
And strutting Hal is off the hooks;
Old Godolphin, full of spleen,
Made false moves, and lost his Queen:
Harry look'd fierce, and shook his ragged mane:
But a Prince of high renown
Swore he'd rather lose a crown,
'Than the Queen should enjoy her own again.'

Our merchant-ships may cut the line,
And not be snapt by privateers.
And commoners who love good wine
Will drink it now as well as peers:
Landed men shall have their rent,
Yet our stocks rise cent, per cent.
The Dutch from hence shall no more millions drain:
We'll bring on us no more debts,
Nor with bankrupts fill gazettes;
'And the Queen shall enjoy her own again.'

The towns we took ne'er did us good:
What signified the French to beat?
We spent our money and our blood,
To make the Dutchmen proud and great:
But the Lord of Oxford swears,
Dunkirk never shall be theirs.
The Dutch-hearted Whigs may rail and complain;
But true Englishmen may fill
A good health to General Hill:
'For the Queen now enjoys her own again.'


Scheme ABABCCDEEF GHGHIIDJJF KAKXLLDXAF XXXXMMDNNF
Poetic Form Etheree  (38%)
Metre 11110101 11011111 10110111 11101111 1111001 0011111 1011111111 1110101 1111101 1011010101 111111 01010101 10110111 01011101 11111 1110111 1011011101 1011101 1110101 1011010101 101011101 011111 01001111 11111111 1011111 11011111 0111111101 1111111 11111 0011010101 01111111 1100111 1110100101 1101101 1011101 1010111 0110111001 111011 01111001 1011010101
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 1,413
Words 274
Sentences 10
Stanzas 4
Stanza Lengths 10, 10, 10, 10
Lines Amount 40
Letters per line (avg) 28
Words per line (avg) 7
Letters per stanza (avg) 279
Words per stanza (avg) 67
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

1:23 min read
60

Jonathan Swift

Jonathan Swift was an Anglo-Irish satirist, essayist, political pamphleteer, poet and cleric who became Dean of St Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin. more…

All Jonathan Swift poems | Jonathan Swift Books

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