The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift/Volume 7/Advice to the Grub Street Verse Writers

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The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 7
(1726)
by Jonathan Swift, edited by Thomas Sheridan, John Nichols, John Boyle, Patrick Delany, John Hawkesworth, Deane Swift, William Bowyer, John Birch, and George Faulkner

Advice to the Grub Street Verse Writers

Epistle to a Lady

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1560679The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 7
— Advice to the Grub Street Verse Writers1726Jonathan Swift

ADVICE

TO THE

GRUB STREET VERSE WRITERS. 1726.

YE poets ragged and forlorn,
⁠Down from your garrets haste;
Ye rhymers dead as soon as born,
⁠Not yet consigned to paste.

I know a trick to make you thrive;
⁠O, 'tis a quaint device:
Your stillborn poems shall revive,
⁠And scorn to wrap up spice.

Get all your verses printed fair,
⁠Then let them well be dried;
And Curll must have a special care
⁠To leave the margin wide.

Lend these to paper-sparing^[1] Pope;
⁠And when he sits to write,
No letter with an envelope
⁠Could give him more delight.

When Pope has fill'd the margins round,
⁠Why then recall your loan;
Sell them to Curll for fifty pound,
⁠And swear they are your own.

↑ The original copy of Mr. Pope's celebrated translation of Homer (preserved in the British Museum) is almost entirely written on the covers of letters, and sometimes between the lines of the letters themselves.

[1] The original copy of Mr. Pope's celebrated translation of Homer (preserved in the British Museum) is almost entirely written on the covers of letters, and sometimes between the lines of the letters themselves.

[1]

The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift/Volume 7/Advice to the Grub Street Verse Writers

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