Alexander Pope now seems, like John Donne, one of the more modern – that is to say, imprecisely: human – of 18th-century poets: his writings are inflected with the stuff of his life, his preoccupations and surroundings, physical and intellectual; his life as he lived and considered it is evident
Ireland. Ire. Irony. This euphonious trio of words explains the humor of Jonathan Swift; though he reportedly bore the most dour countenance in history, his wit could make readers laugh through his bile. Swift's "Modest Proposal for Preventing the Children of Poor People in Ireland from Being a Burde